The Book of the Foundations
of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
CHAPTER 6
Explains:
- the harm it may do spiritual persons
not to know
when they are to resist the spirit.
- Of the desire for Communion, and
of delusions involved in it.
- Important Matters for those
who rule over these convents
1. False rapture. —
2. Effects thereof. —
3. Natural, not divine. —
4. Melancholy. —
5. Wherein this differs from a trance.
6. Advice to the prioresses. —
7. Evil effects of this dreaminess. — [1]
8. Bodily health. —
9. Loss resulting from this dreaminess. —
10. Advice to superiors. —
11. Story of two nuns. —
12. Delusive longings for communion. —
13. The Saint undertakes
to dispel this delusion. —
14. And succeeds. —
15. Another instance. —
16. Remedies by like means. —
17. Liberty of spirit. —
18. Dangers of this dreaminess.—
19. Effects of self-love. —
20. Story of a woman self-directed. —
21. Obedience better than sacrifice. —
22. The Saint's obedience
to her confessors. —
23. True devotion is calm. —
24. Obedience. —
25. None to judge themselves.
|
1. False rapture. —
1. I have been striving diligently
1. I have been striving diligently
to find out whence cometh
a certain great dreaminess '
which I have observed in some persons to
- whom our Lord gives
much sweetness in prayer, and
- who do all they can to prepare themselves
for the reception of His graces.
I am not speaking now
of those occasions
during which His Majesty
lifts up the soul
and
carries it away in rapture.
I have written much
of this in another place,
[ See "Life": Ch. 20 ]
and
of an act like this:
There is nothing to be said,
though we may do
all we can to resist,
because we are utterly powerless:
if it be a true rapture,
it is to be observed
that the force which forces us
to lose all control over ourselves
lasts but a moment.
But it often times happens
that it begins
in a kind of prayer of quiet,
which is like a spiritual sleep,
and
which throws the soul
into a dreamy state;
so that
we,
if we do not know
what conduct to observe herein,
- may lose much time,
and through our own fault
- waste our strength and
- merit little.
2. Effects thereof. —
2. I wish I knew
how to explain myself here,
and the matter is so difficult
that I know not if I shall succeed;
but I know well
that if those souls
who are in this delusion
would but believe me,
they would understand the matter.
I know some, and
they are souls of great virtue,
- who have been in this state
seven or eight hours at a time,
thinking it all to be a rapture, and
- whom every pious practice
laid hold of in such a way
that they went forthwith
out of themselves,
thinking it not right
to offer any resistance to our Lord:
in this way they might
come by their death, or
become foolish,
if no remedy be found for them.
[See Interior Castle:
Mansion 4: Ch. 3: #11 ]
3. Natural, not divine. —
3. What I understand of the matter is this:
the soul,
when our Lord begins
to caress it in this way
— and we are by nature so fond
of that which pleases us —
gives itself up
so much to that pleasure,
that it would
not stir, move,
nor on any account whatever
would it consent to lose it:
for in truth the pleasure is greater
than all the pleasures in the world;
and
when it happens
to a person of weak constitution,
or
to one
whose mind,
or, to speak more correctly,
whose imagination,
is not naturally given to change,
but one
that dwells upon a subject
without further distraction,
once it has laid hold of him
— as do many persons
who, when they have
fixed their thoughts on anything,
though in nowise relating to God,
become absent,
having their eyes directed
to an object before them,
but which they do not really see —
(once it has laid hold of him)
people naturally sluggish,
who, through negligence,
seem to forget
what they were going to say,
— so is it in this case,
according to our nature, disposition,
or weakness.
Oh, if a soul of this kind
be given to melancholy !
it will become the prey
of a thousand pleasing delusions.
4. Melancholy. —
4. Of this temper
I shall speak a little later on ;
[ See "Foundations": Ch. 7 ]
but even if there be none of it,
what I have spoken of
takes place,
and in those persons also
who are wasted by penance;
for, as I said before,
when love begins to supply them
with sensible sweetness,
they suffer themselves,
as I have just now said,
to be carried away too much by it;
and, in my opinion,
their love would be more perfect
if they did not give way
to this dreaminess,
for they could very well resist it
at this point in their prayer.
For, as in bodily weakness
we suffer from a faintness
which allows us
neither to speak
nor to move,
so is it here
if we make no resistance;
for if the body be weak,
the vehemence of the spirit
seizes upon it and
subdues it.
5. Wherein this differs from a trance.
5. I may be asked,
wherein does it differ from a trance ?
It is the same thing with it,
at least in appearance;
and they have reason to say so,
but it is not so in reality.
For a trance,
or
the union of all the powers of the soul,
as I have said,
- lasts but a moment, and
- leaves
-- great fruit behind, and
-- an inward light,
-- with many other blessings:
-- the understanding does not work at all,
-- only our Lord is working in the will.
[ See "Life": Ch. 18: # 14 ]
[ See "Life": Ch. 17: # 2 ]
But in this state (false raptures)
it is far otherwise;
for though the body
be a prisoner,
the will, memory, and understanding
are not;
yet their operations are disorderly,
and if by chance
they settle on a particular subject,
they will stay there.
6. Advice to the prioresses. —
6. I see no good in this bodily weakness
— for it is nothing else —
except in so far
as it has a good beginning;
it would be far better
to spend the time
in some good work
than to be thus dreaming so long.
There is much more merit
in a single act, and
in the frequent moving
of the will to love God,
than in leaving it at rest in this way.
My advice
therefore to the prioresses
is, that they apply themselves
with all diligence possible
to the banishing of these protracted fits
of dreaminess,
which do nothing else,
in my opinion,
but blunt the faculties and the senses
so that they shall not do
that which the soul requires of them,
and thereby rob them
of that blessing
which **carefulness to please our Lord
ordinarily brings them.
[ ** 'Obedience and '
was added by the corrector,
and afterwards scored through. ]
If they find
it proceeds from weakness,
then they must
forbid fasting and mortification
— that is, when not of obligation;
and the time may come
when with a safe conscience
they may
- forbid them altogether, and
- assign them duties in the house
for the purpose of taking their attention
away from themselves.
7. Evil effects of this dreaminess. — [1]
7. In the same way, also,
must they be treated,
(those) who,
though not subject to this faintness,
are too much carried away
by their imagination,
even though it be
on most deep matters of prayer;
for it happens at times
that they are not mistresses of themselves,
particularly if they have
- received any extraordinary grace
from our Lord, or
- seen a vision;
then their soul seems to be
always receiving or seeing:
and yet it is not so,
for that happened to them but once.
It is necessary for her
who may find herself liable
to these faintings away
to strive to change the subject
of her meditation;
and provided she applies herself
to the things of God in her meditation,
there is nothing unseemly
in changing the subject
so long as she is intent
on the things of God;
for meditation
on the creature,
and
on His power in creating them,
may be at times as pleasing unto Him
as meditation on Himself, the Creator.
8. Bodily health. —
8. Oh, wretched misery of man !
such is it, because of sin,
that even in what is good
we must be measured and restrained,
lest we should so ruin our health
as to lose the fruition of it.
And, in truth,
it behoves many persons,
whose heads or imaginations are weak,
to know themselves,
which is
a greater service to our Lord, and
most necessary.
And if anyone sees
that when her imagination
- dwells
on a mystery of the Passion, or
on the glory of heaven, or
on any other matter of that kind,
and
- remains for many days unable,
though desirous of doing so,
to think on any other, or
to rouse herself from dwelling on it,
she must know
that she should distract herself
as well as she can;
if not,
the time will come
when she will learn
the harm she has done to herself,
and
that it is the result
of what I am speaking of,
either of great bodily weakness,
or of the imagination,
which is very much worse.
For, as a person of disordered mind,
if he applies himself to anything,
is not master of himself
— can
neither withdraw his mind
nor think of anything else,
nor be influenced by reason,
because his reason is
not under control —
so is it in this state;
the madness, however, is pleasant.
9. Loss resulting from this dreaminess. —
9. Oh, what great evils may ensue
if such a person is subject to melancholy !
I see no good at all
in this dreaminess,
because the soul is endowed
with a capacity
for the fruition of God Himself.
If, then, it be not
for one of the causes
I have mentioned,
why should the soul,
seeing that God is infinite,
remain the captive of one
of His attributes or mysteries,
when there is so much to occupy us ?
And all the while,
the more of His works
we meditate upon,
the more we discern His greatness.
10. Advice to superiors. —
10. I am not saying
that in the course
of one hour, or even
of one day,
we should meditate
on many subjects,
for that perhaps would result
in fruit from none.
As these questions are so difficult,
I would not have you think
- that I am saying
what it has not entered
into my mind to say,
or
- that you should take
one thing for another.
Certainly the right understanding
of this chapter
is so important,
that though it is distressing to write it,
I am not sorry to do so;
and I wish everyone
who shall not understand it
the first time she reads it,
not to shrink from reading it often,
especially prioresses
and mistresses of novices
who have to direct the sisters
in the way of prayer;
for if they are not careful
in the beginning,
they will see
that they require much time afterwards
to redress weaknesses of this kind.
11. Story of two nuns. —
11. If I were to describe the great harm
I have seen to result from this,
you would see
that I have reasons
for insisting on it so much.
One fact only will I give,
and the rest can be gathered from it.
In one of our monasteries
were a choir nun and a lay sister, [2]
both of them raised
to a very high degree of prayer;
they were also
mortified, humble, and good,
receiving many consolations
from our Lord,
together with many manifestations
of His greatness.
They were, particularly,
so detached and
so engrossed by His love,
that there was no appearance of negligence
— though we watched them
very narrowly,
considering our natural meanness —
in answering to the graces
which our Lord gave them.
I have said so much of their goodness
in order that they
who have not so much
may be the more afraid.
12. Delusive longings for communion. —
12. They began
with great impetuous longings
after our Lord,
which they were not able to control;
they thought those longings
were satisfied at communion, and
so they obtained leave
from their confessor
to communicate frequently,
and thereby their suffering grew
so much upon them
that they thought they were going to die
if they could not communicate every day.
The confessors
— though one of them
was a very spiritual man —
seeing
such souls, and
such earnest desires,
judged this remedy to be necessary
for their disorder.
It did not stop here,
for the longings of one of them
became so vehement
as to make it necessary for her
to communicate early in the morning
to enable her, as she thought,
to live;
and they were not persons
who would feign, or tell a lie,
for anything in the world.
I was not then in that monastery, ans
the prioress told me
in a letter
[ Foot Note: "Sr. Agnes of Jesus"]
what was going on,
- that she could do nothing with them,
and
- that certain persons said
they might be relieved in that way,
seeing that there was no help for it.
I saw at once
what the matter was
— our Lord willed I should (see);
nevertheless, I kept silence
- till I arrived at the monastery,
for I feared I might be mistaken,
and
- until I could give my reasons:
Reason required
(that) I should make no opposition to those
who had approved the conduct of the nuns.
13. The Saint undertakes
to dispel this delusion. —
13. One was so humble
that, as soon as I arrived
and had spoken to him,
he believed me.
[ Footnote:
"Probably, Father Baltasar Alvarez"]
The other was
not so spiritual,
nor indeed spiritual at all, in comparison.
There was no possible way
of convincing him;
I did not care much for that,
because I was not so much
bound to consider him.
I began to speak to the two nuns,
gave them many reasons,
in my opinion
sufficient to make them see
- that it was a mere fancy:
their thinking,
(that) they should die
if they did not communicate.
They were so wedded to their notion
that nothing
- moved them,
or
- could move them,
in the way of reasoning with them.
I saw that was useless,
and
(I) told them
that I, too,
- had these desires
and
- yet would abstain from communion,
that they might believe
they were not to communicate
except when all did
— that we would all three die together ;
for I thought that better
than that a custom of this kind
should be brought into these houses
wherein lived those
who loved God
as much as they did, and
who might wish to do
what they were doing.
14. And succeeds. —
14.
The harm,
which this custom of theirs had done,
reached so far
— Satan must have had a hand in it —
that when they did not communicate,
they really seemed
as if they were going to die.
I showed great severity,
for
- the more I saw
(that) they were not submissive
under obedience,
because they thought
they could not keep it,
- the more clearly I saw it was a temptation.
They spent that day
in great distress,
the next
in somewhat less,
and thus it went on lessening,
so that,
though I went to communion myself,
because I was ordered
— for I would not have done so
when I saw them so weak —
they bore it all exceedingly well.
Shortly afterwards
both they and the whole community
saw it was a temptation,
and what a blessing it was
to have it remedied in time,
for soon after this
— but it was not the fault
of the two nuns —
there were troubles in that house
with the superiors,
— and I may say
something of them
further on —
who would
not have taken in good part
such customs,
nor suffered them.
[ Foot Note:
"There was some trouble in 1571
between the Superiors
of the Calced Carmelites
and the Nuns of Medina
on account of a novice. ]
15. Another instance. —
15. Oh, how many instances of this kind
could I give !
I will give one other only;
not in a monastery of our order,
but among the Cistercians.
[Footnote:
"Probably at Alcala de Henares"
See Interior Castle, Mansion 4: Ch. 3; #12.
where she also describes this ocurrence.]
There was a nun,
not less good
than those I have been speaking of,
brought to such a state of weakness
by discipline and fasting
that every time she communicated,
or whenever she had occasion
for quickening her devotion,
she fell down at once to the ground
and there remained eight or nine hours,
thinking it was a trance:
all the nuns thought the same.
This happened so often
that great harm, I believe,
must have come of it
if it had not been taken care of.
These trances were bruited abroad
(rumored abroad)
through the country;
I was very sorry
when I heard of them,
for it was our Lord's good pleasure
to let me know
what the matter was,
and
I feared the issue of it.
16. Remedies by like means. —
16. The confessor of that nun
- was a very great friend of mine,
and
- came to me with the story.
I told him
- what I thought of the matter, and
- how it was loss of time;
- that it could not possibly be a trance,
and
- that it was only weakness;
- he should
forbid the fast and the disciplines,
and
make her take some distraction.
She, being an obedient nun,
did so,
and soon afterwards
recovering her strength,
thought no more of her trance:
and if it had been a real trance
there would have been no help for it
until God wished it should cease;
because the vehemence of the spirit
is so great
that we have not strength enough
to withstand it,
and, as I said before,
[ See Foundations:Ch.6: #5 above ]
it leaves behind
- in the soul
a great work, and
- in the body
weariness;
the other (false raptures) is
as if it had never taken place.
17. Liberty of spirit. —
17. The lesson to be learnt from this is:
that whatever masters us
in such a way as to make us feel
that our reason is not free,
- should be looked on as
-- suspicious,
and
-- that we shall never
in that way
attain to liberty of spirit;
Liberty of Spirit;
one of the characteristics of which is
• the finding God in all things,
and
• the being able to think of Him
in the midst of them.
Everything but (liberty of spirit)
is subjection of spirit,
and, besides the harm
it does to the body,
it confines the soul and hinders its growth;
as when men travel and come
to a quagmire or a marsh
which they cannot pass,
so is it, in a measure, with the soul,
which, if it would make any progress,
must not walk only but fly.
18. Dangers of this dreaminess.—
18. Oh, if they say or think
they
are absorbed in God,
unable to exert themselves,
so rapt are they,
and unable to change
the current of their thoughts,
and that it often happens,
let them look to it;
I warn them again and again,
if it be so
for a day, or for four, or for eight,
there is no reason for fear,
because it is nothing wonderful
that a person of weak constitution
should remain so long
in a state of amazement;
if it continues longer,
measures must be taken.
The good side of this is,
that there is
no guilt of sin and
no loss of merit;
but it involves the inconveniences
I have mentioned, with many besides.
As to Communions,
there will be a very grave inconvenience
if a soul, because of its love,
is not obedient with it
to the Confessor and the Prioress;
Nevertheless it may regret the privation,
not in excess,
so as not to come to that.
It is necessary, also, herein,
as in other ways,
to mortify them, and
make them understand
that it is better for them
not to do their own will
than to have this consolation.
19. Effects of self-love. —
19. Our self-love
also may thrust itself in here.
It has been so with me;
for it has happened to me often
when I had first communicated,
the Host being still almost whole,
to wish I had not communicated myself !
when I saw others do so,
in order that I might communicate again.
As this happened so often, I
- reflected on it after a time,
for then there seemed no reason
for dwelling on it, and
- saw it came
more from my own satisfaction
than from any love of God;
for when we go to communion,
there is a sense,
for the most part,
of tenderness and joy,
and I was carried away thereby.
If I went to communion
- in order to have God in my soul,
-- I had Him already ;
and
- if out of obedience to those
who enjoined communion,
-- I had done so,
- if for the purpose of receiving
those graces which in the Most
Holy Sacrament are given us,
-- these also I had received.
In short,
I came clearly to understand
that it was nothing else
but a desire to obtain
that sensible sweetness over again.
20. Story of a woman self-directed. —
20. This reminds me
that in a place
where I was once staying, and
where there is a monastery of our order,
I knew a woman
who was a very great servant of God;
everybody said so,
and it must have been true.
She went every day to communion,
and had no confessor in particular,
but went to one church
for communion to-day,
and the next
to another.
I observed that,
and wished to see her
- obeying one confessor
- rather than going often to communion.
She lived by herself,
and, as it seemed to me,
doing what she liked;
but as she was good herself,
all was good.
I used to speak to her sometimes
of this,
but she did not heed me,
and justly so,
for she was far better than I was;
However, I did not think
(that) I was in the wrong.
The holy friar, Peter of Alcantara,
came thither, [3]
and I made him speak to her,
and was not pleased
with the account she gave him,
— as to that,
it may be nothing more
than our misery
in being never much pleased
with any persons
but those whose ways
are the same as ours,
for this woman, I believe,
served our Lord more, and
in one year did more penance,
than I in many.
She fell into a sickness
which was unto death —
this is what I am coming to —
and found means
to have mass said
every day in her house and
to receive the Most Holy Sacrament.
As her illness lasted some time,
a priest
who frequently said the mass,
and
a great servant of God,
thought it not right
to allow of this daily communion
in a house.
It must have been
a temptation of the devil,
for it happened on her last day,
that on which she died.
When she saw mass ended,
and herself without our Lord,
she was
so displeased and
so angry
with the priest,
who came, greatly scandalised,
to tell me of it.
I was very sorry,
for I do not know
whether she ever went to confession again.
I believe she died immediately afterwards.
21. Obedience better than sacrifice. —
21. From this I understood
the evil that comes
from doing our own will
in anything,
especially in a matter of this importance ;
for if a person draws near
to receive our Lord so often,
it is only reasonable
he should be so aware
- of his own unworthiness
as not to do so of his own will,
and
- that our shortcomings,
necessarily great,
which make us unfit
to approach our Lord,
who is so great,
can be supplied only by obedience,
which bids us receive Him.
This good woman had an opportunity
of greatly humbling herself
— and perhaps of meriting more thereby
than if she had communicated —
by considering
that it was no fault of the priest,
but that our Lord, seeing
her wretchedness,
and
how unworthy she was
to receive Him
in a lodging so mean,
had so ordained it.
22. The Saint's obedience
to her confessors. —
22. That was what one person thought, [4]
when her wise Confessors
from time to time
would not let her communicate
because she did so too often.
Though she felt it keenly,
yet, on the other hand, she
- preferred the honour of God
to her own, and
- did nothing but praise Him
for having moved her confessor
to watch over her, and
to see that His Majesty did not go
into so wretched a lodging.
By the help of such reflections
she obeyed in great peace of soul,
though with a tender and loving pain;
but for all the whole world
she never would have done
what she was forbidden to do.
23. True devotion is calm. —
23. Believe me
that love of God
— I do not say it is love,
but only that it seems so —
if it stirs our feelings
in such a way
as to end
in some offence against Him,
or
in so troubling the peace
of the loving soul
that it cannot listen to reason,
is plainly self-seeking only;
and
Satan will not sleep over his work
when he thinks he can do us the most harm,
as he did to this woman;
as he did to this woman;
for certainly what happened to her
alarmed me greatly,
not because I believe
that it was enough
to imperil her salvation,
for the goodness of God is great,
but the temptation came
at a very dangerous time.
24. Obedience. —
24. I have spoken of it in this place
- that the prioress
may be on her guard, and
- that the sisters may
fear and consider,
and
examine themselves
why they draw near
to receive so great a gift. (Communion)
If to please God,
they know already
that He is better pleased
by obedience
than
by sacrifice. [5]
If that be so,
and I merit more,
why am I troubled ?
I do not say
that they are not to feel a lowly sorrow,
because all have not attained
to the perfection of feeling none
(feeling no sorrow)
- merely by doing
that which they know to be
the more pleasing unto God ;
for if the will is perfectly detached
from all selfish considerations,
it is clear that
there will be no sense of pain ;
on the contrary,
there will be a great joy
because the opportunity has arrived
for giving pleasure to our Lord
by so costly a sacrifice;
the soul will humble itself,
and be satisfied
with communicating spiritually.
But as in the beginnings,
and in the end too,
it is of the goodness of our Lord
that we have these great desires
of drawing near unto Him,
souls may be allowed
to feel some uneasiness and pain
when they are refused communion,
yet they must
possess their souls in peace, and
make acts of humility
because of that refusal.
I say beginnings,
because much must be made thereof,
and
because the sisters are not so strong
in the other matters
pertaining to perfection
of which 1 have been speaking.
25. None to judge themselves.
25. But if there should be
any trouble, or anger,
or impatience
with the prioress or confessor,
believe me
the desire for communion
is a plain temptation.
(Or) if any one is bent
on communicating
when the confessor has forbidden her
to go to communion.
I would not have the merit
she may gain thereby,
because in such matters as this
we must not be judges for ourselves.
He is to be the judge
who has the power
of binding and loosing.
May it please our Lord
to give us light,
that we may be wise
in matters of so much importance;
and
may we never be without His help,
that we may not use His graces
so as to turn them into occasions
of displeasing Him.
Foot Notes:
[1]
See Arbiol, Desengahos Mistuos,
lib. ii. ch. v. p. 198.
Card. Bona, "De Discretione Spirituum"
ch. xiv. § 4, says:
'Interdum etiam raptus
creditur ab inexpertis,
quod est deliquium;
de qua re
diffuse tractat, et profert exempla
S. Theresa
in libro Fundationum.'
Blog Note: (Rough transalation)
Cardinal Joannes Bona
(O. Cist., cardinalis)
"The Discernment of Spirits"
Chapter 15: Paragraph #4:
"...At times also was caught up
it was believed by the inexperienced, that is a swoon /faint
of those events/things from
the general/expansive text
and examples
provided by St. Teresa
in the Book of Foundations."
____________________________
[2]
"According to the Reforma
(Bk V. vi. ch. xx.)
the two nuns were
Sister Alberta-Bautista,
of the convent of Medina del Campo,
who
- was professed 6th September 1569,
- filled the office of prioress from 1577
till 1580, and died 26th August 1583;
and the lay sister Agnes of the Conception,
- professed 13th Nov. 1570,
who died in 1592.
____________________________
[3]
"As S. Peter of Alcantara
died 18th Oct. 1562,
the facts related by the Saint
in the text
must have taken place
when she was yet
a nun in the monastery of the Incarnation.
________________________
[ 4]
"It may be safely gathered
from the praise of the confessors, and
from the contempt of self expressed
in this passage,
that the Saint is speaking of herself."
__________________________
[5]
"I Reg: XV: 22
' Melior est enim obedientia quam victimae.'
Blog Note:
Samuel: 1:15:22
For obedience is better than sacrifices:
and to hearken
rather than to offer the fat of rams.
Matthew 12:7
If you had known what these words mean,
'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,'
you would not have condemned the innocent.
Mark 12:33
To love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding and
with all your strength, and
to love your neighbor as yourself
is more important
than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
|
End of Chapter 6
of the
Book of the Foundations
of S. Teresa of Jesus
|
