What does St. Teresa mean by “pesky reptiles”?

Q: Dear Sister Carmen, In the Interior Castles St. Teresa talks about “pesky reptiles” and other creatures. What exactly does she mean when she is saying these things?”

A: Those “pesky reptiles!” When you come across a snake unexpectedly, what is your immediate reaction? Well, unless you are a herpetologist it is probably fear, dread or surprise. Let me share with you the reaction of a group of Sisters with one such encounter several years ago.

We had attended Mass at an abbey and were looking for a place to have our lunch on the grounds. We began walking down the path of the Stations of the Cross looking for some benches. At that particular time of the year the grasses and wild flowers had grown to waist level on both sides of the path. Thus, the path had become very narrow, so much so that we had to walk single file. I was in the lead and looking up at some birds flying overhead and not paying attention to the path I was on. The Sister behind me in a sweet gentle voice said, “Oh, look at that snake.” Thinking it was well ahead on the path, I replied, “Where?” She answered, “Right there.” I looked down and about a foot in front of me was the largest diamondback rattler I had ever seen. Its head was well out on the path but most of its body was concealed in the grasses. I froze! Everyone stopped and I said, “That’s a rattlesnake; back up slowly!” Everyone began taking steps backwards.

When we were out of danger, I turned and the Sister who was last in line was nowhere to be seen. She is normally a very slow mover but we found her later by the van, a good distance away. We were very happy that she did not have the van keys or she might have left us behind. We doubled over laughing not only because of her but because of the gentle sweet message we had received about the danger in our path.

Knowing our human nature, Teresa uses an image that is repulsive for most of us: snakes and poisonous creatures – not because they are bad in themselves – but because they can become a danger to us if we do not understand what we are dealing with and do not take the necessary precautions.  Teresa tells us that these creatures live outside the castle in their normal habitats, but they can manage to squeeze into the castle when we enter, just as creatures which live in our yards manage to find their way into our homes.

The creatures to which St. Teresa refers here are “worldly things” – whatever can be an occasion of sin or a danger for us. In the first mansion, we are less aware of the danger before us since we are just beginning a serious life of prayer and not as spiritually attuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit. This room is also cold and dim and our spiritual eyes do not recognize the perils around us. Progress is slow but if we stay with it, allowing God to do His work in us, we gradually enter the second Mansion.  But a number of these “pesky reptiles” manage to come in with us.

Both the first and the second mansions are “rooms of humility.” If Adam and Eve could so easily be convinced by the reasoning of Satan then our wounded nature can undoubtedly be misled. Although the second mansion is not as dark and cold as the first, the hard work required here, the discouragement and impatience with ourselves, and our self-condemnation can cause us to look back and try to return to the previous room. We are still too close to the “world” and its allurements and comfort levels can entice us back. If Satan can induce us to return to the First Mansion, then it will not be too long before he convinces us to leave the castle altogether.

These two rooms of humility are also the rooms of self-knowledge. Unless we know ourselves well we are not in a position to recognize the menaces that can endanger us and draw us off the right path. The difficulty in recognizing what becomes for us an occasion of sin is the proficiency with which we rationalize our choices and behavior.

The second mansion requires great determination and determination is the resolve to move. But to move, we must take a step in some direction. A holy card I have shows a newly hatched fluffy chick standing and looking forward. The verse beneath it states, “Trust is at the beginning of everything: it precedes every step and at every step lights up the way.”

Will we trust God sufficiently to keep our gaze looking ahead, to step forward courageously, and to tune out all voices which are not in conformity with His?

PS: To learn more about the Carmelite Sisters visit our web site: www.carmelitesistersocd.com and for more information please contact the sisters at contact@carmelitesistersocd.com, or 626-289-1353 Ext. 246, 920 East Alhambra Road, Alhambra, California 91801.

Sometimes prayer is so frustrating I just give up… what can I do?

Q: Dear Sister Carmen, in the Second Mansion of the Interior Castle, St. Teresa strongly emphasizes the need for perseverance. Can you help me understand how this works in a practical way? I really struggle to keep a consistent prayer time and to stay focused when I pray. Sometimes it is so frustrating that I just give up. I know this doesn’t help but what can I do?

A: Many doors have a sign over their entrance. If the door leading to the Second Mansion or Dwelling Place were to have a sign, I would imagine it would read, “Where is your treasure?”

Teresa teaches us in her description of the Second Dwelling Place that if we are to reach the Center, the final Dwelling Place, we will have to wage war with Satan. In this Second Mansion we are still caught between the attractions of the world and our final destination. Self-centeredness makes us fearful of trials and penances. The tug-of-war is between falsehood and truth, between sin and virtue, between self-gratification and generosity. We must be determined to bring our wills into conformity with God’s will. To do this we need to avoid occasions of sin: persons, places or things that pull us into the arena of falsehood. To enter into truth we have to be willing to embrace the Cross of Jesus and conform ourselves to Him through the solid practice of virtue, accepting times of dryness in prayer, not becoming discouraged at our human failings, but persevering in our desires to draw closer to God.

A dictionary would define perseverance in these or similar words: a steady persistence in activity, purpose, or a state in spite of difficulties. Isn’t it then reassuring to know that a great saint and mystic, such as St. Teresa of Avila herself, struggled in prayer until she was 41 years of age? Because she also suffered with health problems which weakened her bodily, she gave up on prayer rationalizing her health as an excuse.

Distractions were no stranger to Teresa. Her very temperament shows in her writings as she jumps around from one topic to another leaving the thread of her original thought hanging while she moves on to another lengthy discourse before she eventually returns to what she was saying previously.

The time we spend in prayer is not about our success at it; it is rather about our relationship with Him who loves us. Teresa cautions us not to use “force” to obtain a spirit of recollection but instead to “be gentle” with ourselves. Listening is essential during this stage of our spiritual development. Many voices will vie for our attention: our own inner voice, the voice of the world, the voice of the Tempter, and the voice of God. To sift out God’s voice in this cacophony of voices we need to be determined in our resolutions for good.

Some practical ways of doing this is to set a reasonable length of time for prayer, one we can better achieve. It may be less than what we had hoped to do but as time goes on and we find ourselves looking forward to those moments, we can always increase the length of time that we spend in prayer. We do not want to set an unreasonable goal that will turn us into clock watchers or cause us to grit our teeth until the time we allotted to prayer is over. It is in this Mansion that we come to know more about God and deepen our friendship with Him. This is the Room for a hard work-out; it is not the Mansion for consolations.

In our persevering prayer we gradually become more conscious of God’s Presence. We are with the One we love and we experience many of our Advent dispositions: longing, yearning, expecting, thirsting, and waiting. We are filled with gratitude for the infinite mercy God showers on us. It is in this second mansion that one really learns to pray, but we cannot learn unless we are willing to labor and not return to a former state simply because it required less toil or because we become disheartened. What will make the difference? It depends on what we want most: the things the world holds out to us or intimate union with God. Where does our treasure lie? How much do we desire God? How much are we willing to sacrifice?

Will your mind still wander? Undoubtedly! Do not become anxious. Gently and ceaselessly return your focus to Him and if needed, read some brief passage from Scripture or a devotional prayer and continue to soak in His Presence. But above all, do not use excuses to abandon or omit your prayer time or shorten it (after you have made the reasonable adjustments). With perseverance God will give you blessings beyond your expectations.

Let us remember Teresa’s prayer:

Let nothing trouble you,

Let nothing make you afraid.

All things pass away.

God never changes.

Patience obtains everything.

God alone is enough.

In Him – Sister Carmen Laudis

PS: To learn more about the Carmelite Sisters visit our web site: www.carmelitesistersocd.com and for more information please contact the sisters at contact@carmelitesistersocd.com, or 626-289-1353 Ext. 246, 920 East Alhambra Road, Alhambra, California 91801.

What is so special about the Interior Castle?

Q: Dear Sister Carmen, would you share why St. Teresa wrote the “Interior Castle” and why spiritual directors refer to it so often? What makes it so special?

A: Dear Friend, your question is very timely as the memorial of St. Teresa is celebrated this Saturday. St. Teresa of Jesus (also known as St. Teresa of Avila) was led by the Holy Spirit into a very special friendship with God. Because she cooperated so completely with God’s grace, this friendship grew and St. Teresa entered very deeply into contemplative prayer. Her spiritual director became aware, obviously, of what was taking place within her soul and asked her to write about it. She did write and gave her writings the title, The Interior Castle. A spiritual classic, The Interior Castle, is often used by spiritual directors today because it is describes things that are, well, indescribable. How so? St. Teresa describes with analogies.

Here is the story of how The Interior Castle came to be written.  She wrote it in 1557 when she was 62 years old. It was finished in a sixth-month time period, but since she was interrupted in her writing for three months, St. Teresa wrote this masterpiece in only three months.

After St. Teresa was commanded to write about her personal prayer, she commented,

“While I was beseeching Our Lord today that He would speak through me, since I had nothing to say and no idea how to begin to carry out the obligation (to write) laid upon me by obedience, a thought occurred to me which I will now set down, to have some foundation on which to build. I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of a very clear crystal, in which there are many room, just as in heaven there are many mansions.” – I Mansions, i; Peers, II, 201)

This discreet statement of St. Teresa, however, was not the entire story.

Father Diego de Yepes, afterwards Bishop of Tarazona, a former friend and confessor of St. Teresa, recorded his personal recollections of his own conversations with St. Teresa. She told him that God Himself, in a vision, gave her the idea of the human soul as an interior castle:

“This holy Mother desired to see the beauty of a soul in the state of grace, a thing greatly to be coveted both for the sake of seeing and of possessing it. While this desire lasted, she was commanded to write a treatise on prayer, of which she had much personal experience.

On the eve of the Blessed Trinity, while considering what subject to choose for this treatise, God, Who disposes everything in due season, fulfilled her wish and furnished a suitable subject. He showed her a most beautiful globe of crystal, in the shape of a castle, with seven rooms, the seventh, situated in the center, being occupied by the King of glory, resplendent with the most exquisite brilliancy, which shone through and adorned the remaining rooms. The nearer these lay to the centre, the more did they partake of that wondrous light. It did not, however, penetrate beyond the crystal, for everything round about was a mass of darkness and impurity, full of toads and vipers and other venomous animals.

She was still admiring this beauty which, by the grace of God dwells in the soul, when the light suddenly disappeared, and the crystal, wherein the King of glory was still residing, became opaque and as dark as coal, emitting an intolerable odor; the venomous animals, formerly held in check outside, obtained admittance into the castle. The holy Mother wished that everyone should behold this vision, for she thought that no one having seen the beauty and splendor of grace, which is forfeited by sin and replaced by such repulsive misery, would ever dare to offend God.            Fray Diego de Yepes

Now, to more fully answer your question, in The Interior Castle St. Teresa relives each stage of her own prayer journey. She speaks often in the third person, but she is speaking of herself. In the book, she delves into and explains the delicate workings of grace within the soul, including the virtues and vices of each room as well as the temptations of each.

I would dare say that every person can discover himself or herself in one of these seven mansions. Why? Because St. Teresa describes, narrates, penetrates, using images, analogies, even precise terms at times from the state of total darkness of a soul entrenched sin to the state of what she calls the mystical marriage, which is to say, the deepest possible union with God while on earth.

So, there you have it. St. Teresa, who has gone ahead of us on the prayer journey, made a roadmap for us, one that shows roads that most people don’t even know are there –roads  lead us exactly where we want to go – straight to God Himself. That roadmap is her book.

Did I tell you about the moat?

Yes, the moat. Because we will have to get out of it, and clean ourselves up before we can even think about entering the Castle.

Until next time,

Sister Carmen Laudis OCD

Next Post: “Those Pesky Reptiles”

In Him – Sister Carmen Laudis

PS: To learn more about the Carmelite Sisters visit our web site: www.carmelitesistersocd.com and for more information please contact the sisters at contact@carmelitesistersocd.com, or 626-289-1353 Ext. 246, 920 East Alhambra Road, Alhambra, California 91801.

I need peace, I need your prayers…

Dear Mother Luisita, I am deeply troubled by things that seem so trivial and I can’t seem to shake a sense of impending doom. My anxiety is constant. I need peace, I need your prayers.

My beloved child,

Accept my loving greeting and my prayer for you to be what God wants you to be. What about your soul? Is it taking little steps toward heaven or is it flying there?

Be very united with Our Lord so that your prayer may be continual, and at the same time, full of confidence in God. Fix your gaze on heaven, not on earthly things that all pass away like a breath leaving behind nothing but remorse and sadness like smoke that disappears with nothing but reality remaining.

Be entirely at peace. What we have to do, myself included, is to become saints, to perfect the ordinary deeds of daily life and to live only for God.

Let us bless God always and for everything, that we may remain happy and at peace even in the midst of thorns. Let us bless God our Lord in all and for all! Whenever sorrow enters your life, lift up your soul to God, offering it up to Him. Never separate yourself from Our Lord. He is always giving you proofs of His love for you. He loves you very much and, in return, you should love Him with all of your soul. We have to become very detached from everything else, so that He may be the One to fill our hearts. I remind you that He is very jealous, and that inordinate love for any creature will take His place in our souls.

The troubles you are now experiencing are found everywhere. They are the flowers in this valley of tears that perhaps are part of the plan of God and a means of practicing virtues. Try to see the difficulties and contradictions in this life with serenity. God our Lord will help you if you place everything in His hands and pray much. When you place everything in His hands, He will do everything, and very well! Look to God, your soul, and eternity. All the rest is merely a puff of smoke!

Peace, it seems to me, is an indispensable factor if we are to have life in our souls. Lack of peace is harmful to you. Try to allow peace to come back to your soul, praying to Our Lord for that grace. Every day you should be spending half an hour if you can, or even less, with the Blessed Sacrament asking Him for His help and presenting Him all your difficulties. As God, He knows everything; talk to Him as you would talk to a Father. Try not to lose God’s peace or His presence. May you receive the consolation that comes from Him alone.

Try to become a little better each day. Make all of your devotions with increasing fervor and have a great purity of intention at the root of all of your actions. May God help you to be happy in your work, doing everything for the love of Him. When Our Lord sends you occasions to practice virtue in any manner whatsoever don’t oppose Him or resist Him. Accept with good will all of the difficulties and contradictions of life. I would like very much for you to become a great soul, strong and vigorous, never looking toward your own gain and self-love, but toward God’s glory.

Keep well, my child, and be what you are supposed to be – a saint! Take care of yourself. Write me when you can. Pray for me and may God bless you.

- Mother Luisita

 Click here to find out more about Mother Luisita

Our Lady of Mount Carmel and my conversion to Catholicism

In July of 2005 I was enrolled as a candidate in the RCIA program. As I was sitting in church for mass one Sunday I became frustrated and walked out. I couldn’t bear to sit there, watching everything, and not participate again. I desperately wanted to partake in the Body and Blood of Christ.

The next day I got on the phone and called Shirley, a secular Discalced Carmelite who ran the Faith Formation program at Our Lady of Loreto in Foxfield Colorado. I don’t remember exactly what I said but it was something like, “I can’t sit through another mass without receiving communion. I don’t fully understand the Catholic view of justification, I don’t get the Mary thing, but I do understand the magisterium and I will submit and figure these things out later. I would like to be received into the Church” I told her. Anticipating an argument I said, “I have been teaching against the Catholic church for years, I know what I am submitting to.” “Is there any possible way?” I was just about writhing in my hunger for the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and God gave me brief consolation as she responded in her normal peaceful tone, “Let me call you back.”

Shortly after that call my cell phone rang and it was Shirley.  Although I was bursting with the need to hear good news, I realized that I had only been in RCIA a short time and I was prepared for a letdown. Shirley said, “We have permission to receive you into the Church.” I was astounded and overjoyed! – Even typing this now has brought an unexpected rush of emotion. – She continued, “Come to the Church this Saturday and you will be confirmed and received.” After I picked myself up off the floor I arranged my schedule for Saturday and other important matters Shirley scheduled for me that week.

Another divine twist in this experience is that even prior to entering the RCIA program I had begun to explore Catholic mysticism in order to find answers about my own prayer life. The author that had the greatest impact on me was St. Teresa of Avila, the founder of the Discalced Carmelites. Since then, and even now, there is nothing I read (beyond scripture) that brings me peace like St. Teresa. Though her writings run very contrary to my preferred method of thinking (anyone who knows her knows what I am talking about), she always brings the light and love of Christ to me in profound ways. .

On Saturday July 16th, 2005 I was received into full communion with Christ’s Church. You can imagine that I was delighted to find out later that it was the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. To this day, Discalced Carmelite spirituality has been the most influential spiritual sustinence in my life and has led me to know and love Christ in ways that I could have never imagined.

To those who have faithfully kept the works and spirit of Carmel alive in the Church – thank you, and have a happy feast day tomorrow (or today depending on where you are around the globe)!

Dan

PS: Thank you Mary. And thanks again Shirley!