I am not going to attempt to try to add anything about this great Doctor of the
Church other then how can you not love a saint who said:
As I write this, the noises in my head are so loud that I
am beginning to wonder what is going on in it. As I said at the outset, they
have been making it almost impossible for me to obey those who command me to
write. My head sounds just as if it were full of brimming rivers, and then as if
all the water in those rivers came suddenly rushing downward; and a host of
little birds seem to be whistling, not the ears, but in the upper part of the
head, where the higher part of the soul is said to be; I have held this view for
a long time, for the spirit seems to move upward with great velocity. – Interior Castle, Fourth Mansion, Chapter 1
and
The mind of an adult is like an unbroken horse. It will
go in any direction except the one in which you want it to
go.
Reading this is greatly helpful for a beginner in prayer as I
am. One problem I use to have with her writings was when she described herself
as wicked. I thought if she considered herself wicked what in the world was I to
make of myself, or maybe that she was practicing some kind of false modesty –
which would be totally our or character for her. I had not yet learned the
lesson that the saints never compared themselves to other people but always saw
themselves in relationship to God. Well actually, I have to keep relearning that
lesson and bringing myself out of “I glad I’m not like that sinner”
mode.
Recent posts on St. Teresa and other links:
Letters
of St. Teresa of Avila
