St. Teresa of Avila had a high regard for vocal prayer. For her, the key point was that we need to pay attention to whom we are praying along with the message of the words of the prayer. The common practice of mental prayer in her day was called meditation. It involved using the mind and the imagination to stir the heart. It led her to one of her more famous sayings, “For mental prayer in my opinion, is nothing else than intimate sharing between friends. It means taking the time to be alone with Him whom we know loves us.” (L 8.5)
Teresa always saw prayer’s purpose as drawing us into a deeper loving relationship with Christ. Deep personal prayer whether vocal or mental was the pathway to this all-important relationship.
Effects of Prayer
When we pray regularly with deep personal commitment, things happen within us. Prominent among these changes is a new consciousness. We begin to trust with a renewed sense of spiritual security. Faith leads us to be open to God leading the way as a guide through the darkness. Our relationships are enriched with an innovative sense of compassion. Likewise, we become more accepting and gentler with ourselves and with others. Failures become less traumatic and even seem as an opening to let God take over. Our faults are accepted. We find that we do not need to be in endless pursuit of looking good.
As our prayer becomes more authentic, there is a movement to our true center where God is. This moves us beyond the superficial self, the self-engrossed and shaped by the advertising world and the narrow self-interest of family, community, church and nation. Here we have become engulfed in the never-ending new products guaranteed to fill the void in a misdirected heart and the many “isms” that expand the blindness of our prejudices. This is the self propped
With this new focus on God in prayer, there are even more deep-seated changes within us. We begin to see the need for greater honesty and authenticity in all our relationships to persons, things, ideas and especially to the gift of God’s creation. We find it easier to cast out the log in our eye and to be more accepting of others in all their faults. “Either/or” thinking begins to fade away. The “both/and” view of life blossoms as a real possibility for us. We are amazed how a rigid “either/or” situation develops into several realistic possibilities. Finally, we gradually begin to experience life as rooted in an overwhelming sense of God’s gracious and merciful presence. Prayer, indeed, opens the road for our return to Paradise.
Prayer opens the passage to the true self hidden deep within. While this journey inward in prayer offers innumerable blessings, unfortunately, it is always limited and deficient. We gradually come to see how distant we are from our real destiny: union with God. This is the paradox of an authentic spiritual life. The more progress we make, the more we become aware of our helplessness, our sinfulness and our total dependence on God. This leads us to contemplation. Here God takes over. Our role is to let go so this divine activity can finalize our personal purification and transformation.
II
Grace in the Struggle
The part of the Pilgrimage to God that is probably most difficult for all of us is this. God wants everything. Therefore, we have to let go of everything. At first, we grudgingly respond to the gentle but ever so persistent divine call. But God is rightly described as The Hound of Heaven. We reluctantly begin to let go a little bit more. This is why Teresa has explained the process in seven dwelling places. In each stage of growth, God raises the price. We need to repeatedly accept new demands for self-surrender. For our part, it seems like an endless struggle. For God’s part, it is a gentle, consistent and determined invitation into freedom and love. Helping us progress from our narrow view of constant struggle to the continuing invitation to love and freedom is the true goal of Teresa’s teachings. We are made for God and we will be restless until we are one with God. “Everything I have advised you about in this book is directed toward the complete gift of ourselves to the Creator, the surrender of our will to his and the detachment from creatures …Unless we give our wills entirely to the Lord so that in everything pertaining to us, he might do what conforms to his will, we will never be allowed to drink from this fount. Drinking from it is perfect contemplation.” (W.32.9)
