Course objectives: In this session, we review the biographies of St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross as well as the reform of the Carmelite Order.
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Carmelite
Spirituality
Adult
Faith Formation Series, October/November 2021
Session 2:
Historical Notes on the Carmelites
and
Introduction to the Three Ages of the Interior Life
Class Schedule, Tuesdays from 7
to 8pm
October 12th –
Introduction to Christian Prayer and Carmelite Spirituality
October 19th –
Historical Notes on the Carmelites; Introduction to the Three Ages of the
Interior Life
October 26th – St
Teresa’s Insights, The Seven Mansions of the Interior Castle
November 2nd – No
Class, Catholics For Life Meeting
November 9th – The
Dark Nights of St John of the Cross; Appreciating St John’s Poetry
November 16th – The
Little Way of St Therese of Lisieux
November 23rd –
Carmelite Saints and other Resources (Divine Intimacy)
November 30th –
Carmelite Devotions, especially those suited to Advent (The Infant of Prague)
I. Review:
We will
discuss especially mental prayer, meditation and contemplation. Looking most
particularly at the works of St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, and St
Therese of Lisieux.
Common
errors in prayer: prayer is not self-help, eastern meditation (e.g. zen or
centering prayer), merely external rituals, a job or mere obligation. Note the active and passive movements in the
spiritual life – we actively meditate on the mysteries of Jesus life (and other
truths of the faith), but it is God alone who can quiet the soul and give
infused contemplation.
Review
of how to make a holy hour – discussion encouraged!
II.
Historical notes on St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross and the Reform
A. St
Teresa of Avila: Born 1515, died Oct 4 (0r Oct 15), 1582. Fairly well off and pious/devout family,
mother died when she was only fourteen. Teresa read the Letters of St Jerome
(who would remain one of her favorite saints), and determined to enter
religious life – not so much because she felt a strong attraction to being a
nun, but simply because she saw it as the safest and highest vocation. At the
age of 20, became a Carmelite nun.
Suffered
illness shortly after profession, nearly died (partly due to poor medical
treatment) – was healed, in part, by intercession of St Joseph (and she would
become the great promoter of his devotion). Teresa’s health remained
compromised through the rest of her life.
Together with her poor health and physical suffering, Teresa was given a
taste of extraordinary graces in prayer: visions, locutions, intellectual visions,
etc. She suffered from critics and sceptics – finally St Francis Borgia and St
Peter of Alcantara comforted her. Was able to gain good spiritual directors and
confessors especially from the Dominicans – Fr Domingo Banez.
Around
the late 1550s and early 1560s (around age 45), St Teresa received most
exceptional graces: piercing/transverberation of her heart, spiritual
espousals, mystical marriage. Also, the vision of the place prepared for her in
hell (if she had fallen away), brought her to desire a more perfect life –
leading to the reform of the Order of Carmel. In 1562, she began the reform of
the Order under the dedication to St Joseph.
In
1568, she met St John of the Cross (she was 52 and he only 25) – took him as
her spiritual director and leader in the reform of the male branch of Carmel
(there were others as well, like Fr Jerome Gratian).
In late
1570s, there was an intense persecution of her reform effort (from members
within the Church and within the Order) – and nearly all was lost. Finally, in
1580, Teresa and John were vindicated and the reforms were accepted. St Teresa
of Avila dies in 1582, on the very night when the Julian Calendar was reformed
to the Gregorian Calendar – hence the days went from Oct 4 to Oct 15. Her body
is incorrupt, and her pierced heart is preserved in a separate reliquary
visible to the faithful.
B. St
John of the Cross: Born 1542, died December 14, 1591. Born to a poor family
(his father’s family was wealthy, but disinherited him because he married a
woman of lower rank, St John’s mother). His father died when he was still
young. The poverty of his family made it difficult for John to receive a solid
formal education. Still, his intelligence was quickly recognized, and he was
able to receive an education through a school run by the Jesuits. He entered the
Carmelites in 1563, taking the name John of St Matthias and was ordained a
priest in 1567 at the age of 25.
At this
same time, he met St Teresa of Avila and she encouraged him to join her in the
reform of the Order. St Teresa was
already famous and well known at this point – it was shocking to the rest of
the Order and to everyone that she has such confidence in this newly ordained
priest who was still just a young man!
Clearly, St John of the Cross was raised to mystical union from a very
early age.
In his
work reforming the Order, he took the new name of John of the Cross. There was
much success at first, but then he and Teresa met with much resistance and
persecution. Due to resistance to his reform efforts (and from members with
much power in the Church), John was forbidden from continuing to assist Teresa
– when he insisted on continuing, he was arrested and imprisoned in a terrible
dungeon for nine months (during this time, he wrote the poem “On a dark
night”). He escaped the prison with miraculous assistance.
Teresa
and her reform efforts were exonerated and the Discalced Carmelites continued
to spread. However, after the death of St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross
again suffered resistance and persecution because of a struggle for power within
the Order. Constantly calumniated and rejected by many in power, St John’s life
was one of continuous persecution and trial. His great desire was “to suffer
and be despised” – and he received this in full measure even to the time of his
death.
However,
immediately after his death, he was hailed as a true saint.
A
curious miracle noted straight away: When praying with his relics, one is said
occasionally to see Christ Crucified, or the Blessed Virgin, or Elijah the
Prophet, or St Francis Xavier, or other saints. His body is incorrupt.
C. A
note on their Mystical Theology (from the Catholic Encyclopedia):
“St.
Teresa's position among writers on mystical theology is unique. In all her
writings on this subject she deals with her personal experiences, which a deep
insight and analytical gifts enabled her to explain clearly. The Thomistic
substratum may be traced to the influence of her confessors and directors, many
of whom belonged to the Dominican Order. She herself had no pretension to found
a school in the accepted sense of the term, and there is no vestige in her
writings of any influence of the Areopagite, the Patristic, or the Scholastic
Mystical schools, as represented among others, by the German Dominican Mystics.
She is intensely personal, her system going exactly as far as her experiences,
but not a step further.”
“It has
been recorded that during his studies St. John particularly relished
psychology; this is amply borne out by his writings. He was not what one would
term a scholar, but he was intimately acquainted with the "Summa" of
St. Thomas Aquinas, as almost every page of his works proves. Holy Scripture he
seems to have known by heart, yet he evidently obtained his knowledge more by
meditation than in the lecture room. But there is no vestige of influence on
him of the mystical teaching of the Fathers, the Areopagite, Augustine,
Gregory, Bernard, Bonaventure, etc., Hugh of St. Victor, or the German
Dominican school. The few quotations from patristic works are easily traced to
the Breviary or the "Summa". In the absence of any conscious or
unconscious influence of earlier mystical schools, his own system, like that of
St. Teresa, whose influence is obvious throughout, might be termed empirical
mysticism. They both start from their own experience, St. Teresa avowedly so,
while St. John, who hardly ever speaks of himself, "invents nothing"
(to quote Cardinal Wiseman), "borrows nothing from others, but gives us
clearly the results of his own experience in himself and others. He presents
you with a portrait, not with a fancy picture. He represents the ideal of one
who has passed, as he had done, through the career of the spiritual life,
through its struggles and its victories".”
III.
The Three Ages of the Interior Life
A. Overview of the Three Ages
Active or Purgative way of
Beginners – active purification through penances and meditation. Note regarding
Catholic understanding of mediation and contemplation, and how these words are
often used differently in modern context.
Corresponds to Mansions 1-3
Illuminative way of Proficients –
a passive purification through the dark night of the senses. This age is
characterized by infused contemplation. St Teresa speaks at length of this
difference, comparing the aqueducts to a natural spring, how infused
contemplation is quiet and peaceful and the soul is put to rest and rendered
passive. Corresponds to Mansions 4-5.
Unitive Way of the Perfect – The
soul is ready to be united to God, but suddenly plunged into a Dark Night of
the Soul, which is purgatory on earth. Brought through this darkness, she is no
longer attached to any creature (not even to spiritual consolations) and clings
only to God whom she knows is present with her always. Thus, there is great
peace and no longer many ecstasies but a continual remembrance of the Divine
Presence. Corresponds to Mansions 6-7.
B. Comparisons of attitudes in
each age
-Desire for death: beginners,
afraid of death. Proficients, want to die asap. Perfect, happy to die but
willing to go on living.
-Fear of praise/blame: beginners,
afraid of blame. Proficients, afraid of praise lest they become prideful.
Perfect, indifferent to either praise or blame because men are so fickle and
only God’s judgment matters.
C.
Further Discussion of the Growth in Holiness and the Three Ages
1. Infused contemplation is the
normal way to sanctity, it is not an extraordinary grace but the ordinary
growth of the spiritual life. The virtues find their perfection in the Gifts of
the Holy Spirit, which themselves lead to contemplation. This is infused
contemplation, the working of the Gifts in the interior life of the soul.
2. What do we mean by the “three
ages” of the interior life? Even as there are “ages” or “stages” in our natural
life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood), so also in the spiritual life – we
grow. The three ages are the beginners, the proficients (intermediate), and the
perfect. St John of the Cross speaks of the purgative way (mortification,
penance), the illuminative way (contemplation), and the unitive way.
3. The “dark nights” through
which we pass. As there are periods of
“crisis” in the natural growth of a child to a man (coming to the age of
reason, puberty), so also in the spiritual life. The dark night of the senses
and the dark night of the soul – however, unlike the body, these are often not
passed through only once, but must be endured several times until the soul is
properly purified. Because so many people are unschooled in the ways God
generally directs souls, they reach a dark night and give up, not realizing
that God is inviting them to come to deeper union with him.
NOTE: This is why it is so
important to read the best books from the great saints on the spiritual life,
and not be satisfied with the popular writings of the day.
4. Lest this become too abstract,
we will consider how the Lord led the Apostles through these three ages – our
spiritual lives are modeled by the lives of the Apostles. Purgative way: From first being called to the
time of the Crucifixion. Illuminative way: From the Resurrection to the
Ascension. Unitive way: From Pentecost to their martyrdoms.
5. What is most important is to
emphasize that our “first conversion” is not a stopping point! Neither is it
enough simply to reach the way of proficients – we are called to perfection! The
first conversion to begin following the Lord already contains within itself the
intention to be fully united to him, even as the first profession of the
religious already contains the intention of permanence. (One of the main reasons so many end up in purgatory
rather than heaven is that they failed to reach the unitive way in this life –
and God always provides the grace to gain Christian Perfection).
6. Even as it is unnatural and
unhealthy if a boy were to reach adolescence and remain there, never growing
into adulthood – so also, it will not be enough for us to convert and follow
the Lord only in the first two ages; we must strive for the way of the perfect.
7. We will speak a great deal
about the interior life and prayer, but always remember that humility and the
practice of virtue is key. What good
would tears and soft sighing during prayer be, if we fail to make any real
changes in our life? But it is prayer which will give us the strength to follow
the Lord through the practice of virtue.
