The Book of the Foundations
of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
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Contents of Chapter 4
- OF CERTAIN GRACES
BESTOWED BY THE LORD
ON THE NUNS OF
THESE MONASTERIES
- ADVICE IS GIVEN
TO THE PRIORESSES
CONCERNING THEM
1. A digression. —
2. Great prayers of the nuns. —
3. Dangers on the road of perfection. —
4. Confidence in God. —
5. Graces bestowed on the new Carmel. —
6. The graces of founders. —
7. Each nun in her day to be perfect. —
8. Graces of the first Carmelites.
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Discussion of Chapter 4
St. Teresa seems to be looking back
from the vantage point of around 1571 - 1574
since she is referring to two events of 1571:
- the founding of the Monastery at
Alba de Tormes
(founded Jan 25, 1571
and
- the notification that she would be
sent as Prioress,
by order of her superiors,
to the Monastery of the Incarnation
in Avila"
(July 1571)
She refers to the Monastery at
Alba de Tormes as the eighth and the "last".
In 1571, she was recalled
from her foundation work,
in order to be prioress
of the Monastery of the Incarnation
which needed strong spiritual guidance
at that time.
But, according to the Introduction,
and the various Foot Notes,
we know she will resume
her founding of monasteries in 1574.
17 monasteries were founded.
(To the last 2 of these 17 monasteries,
she sent other nuns to establish them.)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
█ Summary
St. Teresa wants to give
"certain directions
whereby the prioresses may
- understand and
- guide their subjects
with greater advantage to their souls..."
"Considering, then,
what in the spiritual order
took place in these monasteries
during these years,...
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #1]
(she saw) the necessity of saying:'
▀ The importance of :
▪ "obedience
▪ a pure conscience"
to avoid deception and temptation
▀ She cautions:
▪ that even the devil "does not do us
so much evil as our own
imagination and perverse humours,
particularly if we yield to melancholy"
▪ of the "self-love that rules us
is very subtle"
▪ persons "very often deceive themselves,
but without meaning it"
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #2]
▪ "Prayer and perfection
because of our sins (have)
fallen so low in the eyes of the world"
▀ She recommends:
▪ to walk in fear,
▪ to pray to our Lord
to teach us
and
not to abandon us"
▪ frequently
- think of God
and
- labour to be perfect in their lives.
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #3]
▪ to "go onwards humbly"
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #4]
.
From:
The Way of Perfection
Chapter 40
"how, by striving always to walk
in the love and fear of God,
we shall travel safely
amid all these temptations.
The best way...
is to use the love and fear
given us by His Majesty.
For love will make us
quicken our steps,
While fear will make us
look where we are setting our feet
so that we shall not fall on a road
where there are so many obstacles."
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▀ She gives encouragement:
Since God "frequently deliver(s) us
from dangers
into which we rush,
even so as to offend Thee..."
she says
"He will surely deliver those
whose "only aim is
- to please Thee,
and in Thee
- to find our joy".
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #4]
The 4th paragraph
entitled "Confidence in God",
reminds us again of
- Faith in the Providence of God:
- that through trials,
God may be leading one to Himself
"God
in His secret judgment
may permit certain things
to have diverse issues,
but what is good
never ended in evil.
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #4]
"I never knew ...those...
through the goodness of our Lord,
to have been abandoned by Him.
It was His will,
perhaps, to try them by these fears,
that they might learn by experience.
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #2
▪ This, then...should be a means
- to make us strive
to travel on the road more diligently,
that we may
-- please the Bridegroom
the more
and
-- find Him
the sooner,
but not to give up the attempt"
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #4]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
▀ St. Teresa describes the growth of virtue
of the Carmelite nuns in these monasteries:
"His Divine Majesty began also
to show His munificence
in these poor women
- "their good desires
and...
- their detachment
from all created things,
for that must be
what most unites a soul
with its Maker,
- the conscience
meanwhile being pure".
"...if the detachment be real
it is impossible
for any one who has it
to offend our Lord"
"in all their words and actions
they never withdraw from Him,
so His Majesty seems to be unwilling
to withdraw from them.
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #5]
St. Teresa also describes
the nuns' advancement in prayer:
Many have been led by God to Contemplation.
But, she also suggests
that God leads each according
that God leads each according
according to His will and
according to what is best for them.
"the graces wrought by our Lord
in these houses
are so great
that, if there be...one sister
whom our Lord is leading
whom our Lord is leading
by the way of meditation,
all the rest are advancing
by the way of perfect contemplation"
"to others,
our Lord gives His grace
our Lord gives His grace
in a different way"
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #8]
But, she reminds
that spiritual consolations and favors are
neither necessary for salvation
nor a sign of holiness
nor a guarantee of security.
They are a gift from God
which can not be merited.
"I know well
that holiness does not lie herein"
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #8]
She wants to show
that in this way of life,
the life of the Primitive Rule
where reserved times
for solitude and prayer are observed,
as well as labors for God,
the nuns, with the grace of God,
were able to advance in prayer.
But she wants to clarify
that consolation in prayer
is not the aim
or something to be sought after.
.
Despite great consolations from God,
St. Teresa's writings always emphasized
- the dependence on the grace and will of God,
- knowledge of one's own weakness and faults,
and
- the fear of offending God.
From: The Interior Castle
Mansion 5: Ch. 4
"For you are enjoying the companionship,
as we might say, of angels,
since, by the goodness of the Lord,
you have none of you any other desires
than to serve and please Him in everything.
...
But when I read...
that Judas
- enjoyed the companionship of the Apostles,
- had continual intercourse with God Himself,
and
- could listen to His own words,
I realize that even this
does not guarantee our safety.
...if this soul invariably followed the will of God,
it is clear that it would not be lost.
But the devil comes with his artful wiles,
and,
under colour of doing good,
sets about
undermining it in trivial ways, and
involving it in practices which,
so he gives it to understand, are not wrong;
little by little he
darkens its understanding, and
weakens its will, and
causes its self-love to increase,
until in one way and another
he begins
to withdraw it from the love of God and
to persuade it to indulge its own wishes.
...there is
no enclosure so strictly guarded
that he cannot enter it, and
no desert so solitary
that he cannot visit it."
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She advises ( future Prioresses)
if they don't see these graces in their nuns,
"let them not lay the blame on the times,
for all times are times
in which God will give His graces
to those who serve Him in earnest,
and then let them try to find out
where the fault is and amend it".
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #5]
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
▀ St. Teresa spoke
of the founders of religious orders.
of the founders of religious orders.
She recognizes and appreciates
their Love of God and their virtue.
She prays that she and all the present
and the future nuns
will be faithful
to the charism, teaching, and example
of the founders.
"that upon them,
our holy fathers, gone before us,
our Lord poured down
more abundant grace
because they were
the foundation of the building"
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #6]
"for, as God chose them
for so high a work...
He gave them more abundant grace"
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #7]
...and
if we who are now living
fall not away
from the fervour of those
who have gone before us,
the building will stand
strong for ever".
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #6]
Of herself, St. Teresa said in this regard:
"but I know well
it is my fault
that Thou dost not give me the graces
which Thou gavest to those
who have gone before me"...
"I see
I have wasted the fruit
of their labours..."
"but if any one should see her order
falling away in anything,
let her labour to become herself
such a stone as that
the building may be raised up anew
thereon,
for our Lord will help her in that work."
[Foundation: Ch. 4: #7]
________________________
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Foot Note:
[1]
"She was
withdrawn from her own immediate work,
and
sent as prioress,
by order of her superiors,
to the Monastery of the Incarnation
in Avila"
This was "the house in which she had
made her profession"
which was under the mitigated rule.
She had left this convent
when she had founded
in the same city of Avila,
the Monastery of St Joseph
which was founded in poverty.
Its Constituiton and Rule was that
of the primitive rule.
"The Apostolic Visitor,
Fray Pedro Fernandez,
of the order of S. Dominic,
seeing the desolate state of that house,
(Monastery of the Incarnation )
knew of no means of relief
except that of sending the Saint back to it.
He consulted with the superiors
of the order, and
then,
with their full consent,
but on his own authority,
and in virtue of the power he had,
laid on S. Teresa,
without consulting the nuns (there),
the heavy burden of being their prioress,
( The monastery of the Incarnation
had not been founded in poverty,
yet it was more poor
than the poorest of those
which S. Teresa was founding. )
It was so poor
that it could not give the nuns
food enough to sustain them,
and
the result was
that they asked for leave to go
to their kindred from time to time
to escape from the inconvenience
of hunger..."
"Fray Pedro Fernandez,
the Apostolic Visitor,
- seeing the sad state
to which the monastery had been brought,
- determined to make an eftort to save it,
and succeeded,
for the Saint's administration of it,
both temporally and spiritually,
answered all his expectations,
and
made the monastery what, perhaps,
it had never been before,
though it had been the nursing-mother
of many holy souls, and
among them S. Teresa, herself."
"In 1567 there were
more than a hundred and fifty.
See "Life" p. xii;
Foundations, ch. ii. i."
"But
the poverty of the house and
the lax observance
were an evil,
nor could the Saint shut her eyes
to its disadvantage
when she was living in it,
though she made every excuse for it
in her power,
and had a strong affection for it.
In the beginning ot July 1571
the Saint
knew of her appointment,
but was most unwilling to accept
the charge laid upon her:
( 'Life' , ch. xxxii. 12. )
( 'Relation' 111. 11. )
our Lord upbraided her for holding back,
and then she yielded"
In October she went
from her own house in Avila,
having first renounced for herself,
13th July,
all the exemptions and mitigations
which were in force
in the monastery
to which she was going.
She had done so before,
and
now, for the greater security
of her conscience,
she repeats her resolution
to observe the primitive rule
in all its severity".
[Foundations: Introduction ]
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End of the Discussion
of Chapter 4
of the
Book of the Foundations
of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
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