Teresa of Avila

1515-1582 · Spanish (Castilian, Avila) · Mystical Theology, Carmelite Spirituality, Religious Autobiography

Mental prayer is nothing else, in my opinion, but being on terms of friendship with God, frequently conversing in secret with Him Who, we know, loves us.

Teresa of Avila (1515 – 1582) entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation at twenty, fell gravely ill, spent nearly twenty years in what she later called a war between God and the world, and then, past forty, began to receive the visions, raptures and locutions that made her the most closely examined woman in Spain. Her confessors demanded a written account, and she gave them one. The *Life* she wrote at their order is the first great autobiography in a modern language by a woman, and it is also a treatise on prayer disguised as a confession, built around the figure of the garden watered…

Topics Teresa of Avila addresses

• mental prayer as friendship with God
• the four waters
• the prayer of quiet
• the prayer of union
• the interior castle and the seven mansions
• the spiritual betrothal and the spiritual marriage
• locutions and their tests
• intellectual and imaginary visions
• raptures and the flight of the spirit
• the wound of love
• the discernment of spirits and the devil's counterfeits
• the humanity of Christ in prayer
• the silkworm and the butterfly
• the garden watered four ways
• detachment, humility and love of neighbour
• the Discalced reform and the primitive rule
• the unendowed convent of St Joseph's
• the Foundations and the travelling foundress
• obedience to confessors and the Inquisition
• the unlearned woman and the letrados
• the Lord's Prayer as a school of prayer
• Martha and Mary, contemplation and works
• melancholy and illness in the convent
• the Song of Songs and the Conceptions of the Love of God

Questions to put to Teresa of Avila

Mental Prayer and Friendship with God

• What do you mean when you call mental prayer a friendship with God?
• How is mental prayer different from simply reciting prayers aloud?
• What is 'determined determination,' and why does it matter so much at the start of the life of prayer?
• What is recollection, and how does a beginner practise it?
• How do you use the Lord's Prayer to teach someone the whole life of prayer?

The Four Waters and the Mansions

• Can you walk me through the image of the garden watered four ways — what does each way of watering represent?
• What is the prayer of quiet, and how does a soul know it has entered it?
• What happens in the prayer of union, and what does the silkworm becoming a butterfly show about it?
• How does the image of the interior castle work — what are the soul and the mansions meant to convey?
• What is the difference between consolations we work up ourselves and the spiritual delights God pours in?
• What changes when a soul moves from the sixth mansion's betrothal into the seventh mansion's spiritual marriage?

Visions, Locutions, and Discernment of Spirits

• What is the difference between an imaginary vision and an intellectual vision?
• How can a soul tell whether a locution comes from God, from its own imagination, or from the devil?
• What are the signs that a rapture or flight of the spirit is genuine rather than a deception?
• What is the wound of love, and how does it differ from ordinary longing for God?
• Why do you insist that the effects of an experience — peace, humility, love of neighbour — matter more than the sweetness of it?

Christ's Humanity and the Life of Prayer

• Why do you argue so strongly that even advanced souls must never set aside their devotion to Christ's human life and suffering?
• You tried following the advice to move beyond all images in prayer — what went wrong, and what did you learn from it?
• How does meditating on Christ's humanity lead into the highest forms of prayer rather than holding the soul back?
• What role does the Song of Songs play in how you understand the soul's relationship with God?

Contemplation, Works, and the Active Life

• How do you hold together the life of contemplation and the daily work of the house — don't they pull against each other?
• What do Martha and Mary represent for you, and why does the seventh mansion need both?
• Is a nun who never reaches the higher states of prayer living a lesser life than one who does?
• How do you handle melancholy in a community — when is it a spiritual problem and when is it something else?

The Reform, the Rule, and the Woman Writer

• What was wrong with the Carmelite houses as you found them, and what did returning to the primitive rule actually mean in practice?
• Why did you insist on poverty without any fixed income for the new convents, even when friends thought it impractical?
• You repeatedly call yourself ignorant and unlearned — do you mean it, and what are you doing when you say it?
• How do you argue that women should practise mental prayer when authorities of your time said women should keep to saying their beads?
• What is your answer to those who said your reform was disobedience to the Order rather than faithfulness to it?

Converse with Teresa of Avila on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Teresa of Avila's own writing, cited to the page.