Teresa’s Program and Addiction
Question #4: “Given the deep scientific basis for May’s insights on addictions. How can your favorite author, Teresa of Avila, have anything relevant to say about addictions?”
Teresa of Avila had none of the benefits of Gerald May’s gifted and exceptional scientific background. She had no awareness of the intricate connection of body, mind and psyche in today’s understanding of addiction. Yet, she had a profound experience of God in her life of prayer. In fact, it was brilliant enough that she was named the first woman Doctor of the Church.
In what has become known as Teresa’s Program, we have some truly helpful insights that supplement May’s teachings about addiction and the spiritual life. Teresa saw prayer as the central component of the individual’s purification and transformation on the journey to becoming one with God. She describes clearly the deep personal changes involved in a faithful prayer life. These changes are similar to eliminating the consequences of addiction in our day.
Teresa understood that the source of true prayer was the heart. The Bible mentions this more than a thousand times. Her genius let her see the chaos in the heart as the product of what we call today addictions. The heart was a battlefield where good and evil struggled mightily to gain control. One of Teresa’s gifts to Christian spirituality was to identify the interaction of prayer and the three virtues of humility, detachment and charity as a source of peace and order producing purity of heart. All of this takes place in a gradual journey demanding constant faithfulness to the struggle. The internal order and peace resulting from purity of heart, is the great treasure of the gospel parable.
The necessary interaction of the virtues and prayer helps the prayer grow in intensity and the virtues increase in their integrity and influence. This shared support gradually increases the peace and order flowing from purity of heart. This is the beginning of liberation from the chaos of the unchallenged addictions.
May describes the elimination of addictions as the outcome of freedom that opens to love. Teresa envisions energizing prayer by bringing an internal order that joins the virtues and prayer in shared growth. This, in turn, leads to a deeper, clearer and more free movement to be one with God.
The language, and even some points of emphasis, offered by Teresa and May are different. The reality of internal transformation, however, is truly the same.
For Teresa, humility is not about a loss of self-esteem. This is a dishonest and damaging misuse of humility. Such a state is disturbing and conflicted. Teresa, on the contrary, says, “Humility does not disturb or disquiet however great it may be; it comes with peace, delight, and calm…this humility expands the soul and enables it to serve God more.” (Way of Perfection 10.2)
To know and embrace the humble truth about ourselves is a source of our freedom. This is the same freedom that comes with withdrawal from addiction. We slowly begin to see more clearly who God is. This realization is the essential source of our humility. We also see the truth about ourselves with the gift of this virtue. Humility opens us up to the necessary personal conversion that leads to constant growth in self-understanding. It lets us grasp the wonder of God calling us into the Mystery of Love even in our broken and sinful state with all of our addictions.
Detachment: By detachment Teresa implies that we must put all things in their proper perspective. We need to relate to everything so they bring us closer to God. This particular relationship, that hobby, our cell phone, our favorite entertainments and all of our other possessions and relationships will either bring us closer to God or be a barrier in this search. The effects of original sin, often displayed in our addictions, drive us to make certain creatures our idols. In our culture, one of the great forces pulling us away from God is in the hunger for security. The three false gods in this deceit are possessions, power and relationships. Detachment attacks this perversion of reality so entrenched in our deceiving hearts.
True detachment unleashes our fundamental longing for God and sets our heart free. Jesus’ gospel teachings about detachment are about learning to love. Only when things are seen in the right light, with a detached heart, do they open the way to God. Otherwise, things are used only to prop up our selfish agenda, contrary to our goal, to seek God.
Charity: Charity is the proper acceptance of others. Love expressed in charity for our sisters and brothers is the index of our spiritual growth. For Teresa, the authenticity of our spiritual journey is measured by the quality of our interpersonal relations. This neighborly love moves us towards the center where God awaits.
This call to communal love is an exceptionally difficult barrier and challenge on our spiritual journey. Our selfishness most often is an expression of our addictions. Our addictions deepen our self-centeredness. We easily fall into a pattern of self-righteousness. Teresa understood this, saying, “Beg our Lord to give you this perfect love of neighbor. Let his Majesty have a free hand, for He will give you more than you know how to desire because you are striving and making every effort to do what you can about this love.” (Interior Castle.5.3.12)
Teresa has a simple example of how profound this practice is in ordinary life. She says if there is a person that we find difficult, we should go out of our way to support and help that person. If that individual receives praise, we ought to rejoice as if the praise is for us.
Teresa saw our freedom from all creatures as decisive to the spiritual journey to God. This freedom happens by reducing the dominance of self-interest and by diminishing possessiveness and worldly honor. May describes the same process as breaking loose from the dominion of addictions.
The pursuit of God is a slow, steady development with little leapfrogging ahead. A necessary, incessant determination is at the heart of Teresa’s program, integrating prayer and a lifestyle guided by the three virtues. This is walking with Jesus in the way of freedom and love.
Question #4: “Given the deep scientific basis for May’s insights on addictions. How can your favorite author, Teresa of Avila, have anything relevant to say about addictions?”
Teresa of Avila had none of the benefits of Gerald May’s gifted and exceptional scientific background. She had no awareness of the intricate connection of body, mind and psyche in today’s understanding of addiction. Yet, she had a profound experience of God in her life of prayer. In fact, it was brilliant enough that she was named the first woman Doctor of the Church.
In what has become known as Teresa’s Program, we have some truly helpful insights that supplement May’s teachings about addiction and the spiritual life. Teresa saw prayer as the central component of the individual’s purification and transformation on the journey to becoming one with God. She describes clearly the deep personal changes involved in a faithful prayer life. These changes are similar to eliminating the consequences of addiction in our day.
Teresa understood that the source of true prayer was the heart. The Bible mentions this more than a thousand times. Her genius let her see the chaos in the heart as the product of what we call today addictions. The heart was a battlefield where good and evil struggled mightily to gain control. One of Teresa’s gifts to Christian spirituality was to identify the interaction of prayer and the three virtues of humility, detachment and charity as a source of peace and order producing purity of heart. All of this takes place in a gradual journey demanding constant faithfulness to the struggle. The internal order and peace resulting from purity of heart, is the great treasure of the gospel parable.
The necessary interaction of the virtues and prayer helps the prayer grow in intensity and the virtues increase in their integrity and influence. This shared support gradually increases the peace and order flowing from purity of heart. This is the beginning of liberation from the chaos of the unchallenged addictions.
May describes the elimination of addictions as the outcome of freedom that opens to love. Teresa envisions energizing prayer by bringing an internal order that joins the virtues and prayer in shared growth. This, in turn, leads to a deeper, clearer and more free movement to be one with God.
The language, and even some points of emphasis, offered by Teresa and May are different. The reality of internal transformation, however, is truly the same.
The Three Virtues
Humility: Teresa repeats regularly that humility is the truth. The bottom line of our reality is that God is the Creator and we are the creature. Humility lets us embrace this certain truth.For Teresa, humility is not about a loss of self-esteem. This is a dishonest and damaging misuse of humility. Such a state is disturbing and conflicted. Teresa, on the contrary, says, “Humility does not disturb or disquiet however great it may be; it comes with peace, delight, and calm…this humility expands the soul and enables it to serve God more.” (Way of Perfection 10.2)
To know and embrace the humble truth about ourselves is a source of our freedom. This is the same freedom that comes with withdrawal from addiction. We slowly begin to see more clearly who God is. This realization is the essential source of our humility. We also see the truth about ourselves with the gift of this virtue. Humility opens us up to the necessary personal conversion that leads to constant growth in self-understanding. It lets us grasp the wonder of God calling us into the Mystery of Love even in our broken and sinful state with all of our addictions.
Detachment: By detachment Teresa implies that we must put all things in their proper perspective. We need to relate to everything so they bring us closer to God. This particular relationship, that hobby, our cell phone, our favorite entertainments and all of our other possessions and relationships will either bring us closer to God or be a barrier in this search. The effects of original sin, often displayed in our addictions, drive us to make certain creatures our idols. In our culture, one of the great forces pulling us away from God is in the hunger for security. The three false gods in this deceit are possessions, power and relationships. Detachment attacks this perversion of reality so entrenched in our deceiving hearts.
True detachment unleashes our fundamental longing for God and sets our heart free. Jesus’ gospel teachings about detachment are about learning to love. Only when things are seen in the right light, with a detached heart, do they open the way to God. Otherwise, things are used only to prop up our selfish agenda, contrary to our goal, to seek God.
Charity: Charity is the proper acceptance of others. Love expressed in charity for our sisters and brothers is the index of our spiritual growth. For Teresa, the authenticity of our spiritual journey is measured by the quality of our interpersonal relations. This neighborly love moves us towards the center where God awaits.
This call to communal love is an exceptionally difficult barrier and challenge on our spiritual journey. Our selfishness most often is an expression of our addictions. Our addictions deepen our self-centeredness. We easily fall into a pattern of self-righteousness. Teresa understood this, saying, “Beg our Lord to give you this perfect love of neighbor. Let his Majesty have a free hand, for He will give you more than you know how to desire because you are striving and making every effort to do what you can about this love.” (Interior Castle.5.3.12)
Teresa has a simple example of how profound this practice is in ordinary life. She says if there is a person that we find difficult, we should go out of our way to support and help that person. If that individual receives praise, we ought to rejoice as if the praise is for us.
The Ultimate Goal
The journey to God is an interaction between these three virtues and prayer. We need to pray to be humble, detached, and loving. They open us to grace, the only way to escape of our addictions. This process will continue throughout our life.Teresa saw our freedom from all creatures as decisive to the spiritual journey to God. This freedom happens by reducing the dominance of self-interest and by diminishing possessiveness and worldly honor. May describes the same process as breaking loose from the dominion of addictions.
The pursuit of God is a slow, steady development with little leapfrogging ahead. A necessary, incessant determination is at the heart of Teresa’s program, integrating prayer and a lifestyle guided by the three virtues. This is walking with Jesus in the way of freedom and love.
Question #4: “Given the deep scientific basis for May’s insights on addictions. How can your favorite author, Teresa of Avila, have anything relevant to say about addictions?”
