Teresa of Avila, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
No, and I will tell you how I came to know it, because I learned it by doing the very thing and being stripped. I held that opinion myself for a time. I thought that when a soul had advanced it should withdraw from every bodily object, the Humanity of Christ among them, and rest in a bare sense of God's presence. The prayer was sweet, and so no one could have brought me back to the Sacred Humanity; it seemed to me a real hindrance.1
I never think of that opinion without pain. I believe it was an act of high treason, though done in ignorance, and I cried out to the Lord whether I could have thought, even for an hour, that He could be a hindrance to my greatest good.2 Now see what I learned from it. Everything that pleases God and every great grace must pass through the hands of His most Sacred Humanity, in whom His Majesty said He is well pleased.
I know this by repeated experience, for our Lord told it me. This is the door by which we enter if we would have Him reveal His great secrets.3 I would have you seek no other way, even if you were arrived at the highest contemplation. Look at St. Paul, who seems never to have had Jesus absent from his lips; St. Francis with the stigmata; St. Bernard, who rejoiced in the Humanity; St.
Catherine of Siena. They walked no other way.4 I grant that withdrawing from bodily things is good, and that it is recommended by spiritual persons. But it belongs only to a soul far advanced, since until then the Creator must be sought through His creatures. What I insist on is that the Humanity of Christ is not to be counted among the objects from which we have to withdraw.
Let this be clearly understood.5 I must be fair about what God Himself does. When He suspends all the powers of the soul, the presence of the Humanity is withdrawn whether we wish it or not, and the loss is a blessed one, because the whole soul is then occupied in loving Him whom the understanding toiled to know. What I cannot allow is that we should carefully and laboriously train ourselves not to keep the Humanity before us.
That is to make the soul walk in the air, with nothing to rest on, however full of God it may think itself.6 There is also a little want of humility hidden in it, for the soul desires to rise before our Lord raises it, and wants to be Mary before it has laboured with Martha.7 I wrote the same in the Castle, and was told I was wrong, that after progress it is best to exercise oneself in the Godhead and avoid what is corporeal.
Nothing will make me admit that this is a good way. I found the devil trying to lead me astray by it.8 We cannot withdraw our thoughts from corporeal things like the angels, who are always inflamed with love, while we are in this mortal flesh. How much less should we wilfully abstain from our only good and remedy! Those who do it will never enter the last two mansions.
If they lose their Guide, our good Jesus, they cannot find the way.9 And Fray John says the same in the Ascent: all visible and bodily things are to be forgotten, but He who became man for our salvation is not among them, for He is the truth, the door, the way, and our guide to all good.10 I will add this. I believe it is why so many souls, after reaching the prayer of union, go no further and never attain great liberty of spirit.11
She was taught by books and by learned men that the soul advanced in prayer should rise above all created things, the humanity of Christ included, and consider only the Divinity.12 She tried it, and it was the greatest error of her life, a treason she begs God to forgive; she could make no progress and thought she was flying when she was stripped.
We are not angels; we have bodies; the humanity of Christ is the door, the way, the light and the companion, and the greatest contemplatives, Paul and Francis, never left it. A soul that is lifted by God above all images for a time is one thing; a soul that chooses to leave Christ out is another, and it will not reach the seventh mansion.13141516
because I was conscious of the profit and delight which this way furnished me, no one could have brought me back to the contemplation of the Sacred Humanity; for that seemed to me to be a real hindrance to prayer.The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
I never think of this opinion, which I then held, without pain; I believe it was an act of high treason, though done in ignorance.The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
everything must pass through the hands of His most Sacred Humanity, in whom His Majesty said that He is well pleased.The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
Let us consider the glorious St. Paul, who seems as if Jesus was never absent from his lips, as if he had Him deep down in his heart.The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
the most Sacred Humanity of Christ is not to be counted among the objects from which we have to withdraw. Let this be clearly understood.The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
it is making the soul, as they say, to walk in the air; for it has nothing to rest on, how full soever of God it may think itself to be.The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
seeking to be Mary before it has laboured with Martha.The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
nothing will make me admit that this latter is a good way. I may be mistaken; we may all really mean the same thing, but I found the devil was trying to lead me astray in this manner.The Interior Castle, or The Mansions
If they lose their Guide, our good Jesus, they cannot find the way, and it will be much if they have stayed safely in the former mansions.The Interior Castle, or The Mansions
while all visible and bodily things ought to be forgotten, for they are a hindrance in our way. He, Who for our salvation became man, is not to be accounted among them, for He is the truth, the door, and the way, and our guide to all good.The Interior Castle, or The Mansions
I believe myself that this is the reason why so many souls, after advancing to the prayer of union, make no further progress, and do not attain to very great liberty of spirit.The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
If our Lord will have a soul to be Mary, even on the first day, there is nothing to be afraid of; but we must not be self-invited guests, as I think I said on another occasion. This little mote of want of humility, though in appearance a mere nothing, does a great deal of harm to those who wish to advance in contemplation. 14. I now come back to the second consideration.The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
I thought, however, that I had a sense of the presence of God: this was true, and I contrived to be in a state of recollection before Him. This method of prayer is full of sweetness, if God helps us in it, and the joy of it is great.The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
They say that the contemplative should regard himself as being within a definite space, God everywhere around, and himself absorbed in Him. This is what we should aim at. 2. This seems to me right enough now and then; but to withdraw altogether from Christ, and to compare His divine Body with our miseries or with any created thing whatever, is what I cannot endure.The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
It is evident at once that, while all visible and bodily things ought to be forgotten, for they are a hindrance in our way. He, Who for our salvation became man, is not to be accounted among them, for He is the truth, the door, and the way, and our guide to all good" (St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, bk. iii. ch. i. 12-14).The Interior Castle, or The Mansions
I think St. Paul and the Magdalen must thus have suffered a cruel martyrdom; * their love was intense, they had received many mercies and realised the greatness and the majesty of God: they must have found it, therefore, very hard to bear the remembrance of their sins, which they must have regretted with a most tender sorrow. 6.The Interior Castle, or The Mansions
Her sharpest doctrinal quarrel, with the spiritual teaching of her own time and, as some read it, with the way of her own disciple John of the Cross.