When is prayer not prayer at all?

Q: Dear Dan, I read your post about praying at the speed of light. I agree, however, one of the commentators seems to be attempting to dull the point that we must be attentive when we pray for it to be real prayer? They said that it is only our intent that matters. If our intent is all that matters, then what if we regularly intend to pray and be attentive to God but never or rarely are, in fact, attentive to God. Is this really prayer? I understand that God is a God of mercy and that he does take these things into account (our intent) and helps us but it seems to me that we should work hard to be attentive and to love him in practice, not just in our intent. If our intent doesn’t result in a change in our practice, then our intent is suspect – at least in my mind. What do you think?

A: Great question! Why don’t we let St. Teresa of Avila answer this for us? She was designated as a Doctor of the Church because of her profound life of holiness and her teachings on prayer and the interior life. What she has to say about this is very simple and straightforward:

Since vocal prayer is prayer, it must be accompanied by reflection. A prayer in which a person is not aware of whom he is speaking to, what he is asking, who it is who is asking and of whom, I do not call prayer; however much the lips move. Sometimes it will be so without this reflection provided that the soul has these reflections at other times. Nonetheless, anyone who has the habit of speaking before God’s majesty as though he were speaking to a slave, without being careful to see how he is speaking, but saying whatever comes to his head and whatever he has learned from saying at others times, in my opinion is not praying. Please God, may no Christian pray in this way. (Interior Castle 1:1)

Jesus also made a distinction between prayer that is not really prayer and worship that is not really worship, etc. We need to be careful not to seek to transform the “narrow path to life,” into a wide path to destruction.

Questions about contemplation

Q: The encounter of contemplation is such an unexpected and memorable experience, shouldn’t one be content with leaving it to God if it would ever be repeated?  I see people trying centering prayer, Taize prayer, etc. to try to achieve it.  It somehow seems wrong to try to ‘get’ something that’s purely a gift.

Is acquired contemplation the same experience as infused contemplation?

Books like The Interior Castle confuse and intimidate me.  How do you know when you’re ready to read such things?

A: You have asked a few questions and made a few observations that are very important. The answer to your first question is “yes” you should leave it to God. The encounter in contemplation does not come from our will but his. It would be like having a much beloved relative give us a hug and then not letting go as if we could contain or prolong that initial surge of warmth and tenderness. Love is not something to be grasped or contained but simply to be known and lived when it is made alive to us by the mercy of God. The desire to hold on is a natural one but not one that we should entertain. When we feel these touches of grace we simply should yield to God, express our gratitude, and continue to pursue Christ.

You are also correct that “contemplation” cannot be achieved with a method or approach to prayer. We can sew the seeds of contemplation by living lives of grace and expressed love for God and neighbor and by regularly participating in prayer and the sacraments. However, regardless of how well we prepare the soil and plant the seeds, God determines the harvest. You are right – true contemplation is purely a gift, not something we can “do” or “achieve.”

Regarding acquired versus infused contemplation, this is an academic distinction that is confusing to most. Suffice it to say that digging in to this topic won’t yield much benefit. The key is that we should pursue Christ in prayer and in the way we live. As we progress in the cultivation of silence, meditation, and virtue, he will, in his wisdom and his time, draw us more deeply into prayer. It is living the life of love that we should be concerned with and then we will discover what the distinctions really mean as we experience them.

With respect to the Interior Castle, the way you know if you are ready is simply to take up and read. The best version is The Interior Castle Study Edition. This edition will provide a brief introduction to each chapter and then a brief summary at the end of each chapter. These treatments provide context for unfamiliar terms or ideas that can otherwise be confusing. Still, I would first recommend Father Thomas Dubay’s Prayer Primer: Igniting the Fire Within. Once you read this, you will be better prepared to deal with more advanced ideas of prayer. Then, as you are reading St. Teresa again, you could also pick up Father Dubay’s book on the topic of contemplation entitled The Fire Within. In this book he does a masterful job of synthesizing the teachings of St. Teresa and St. John on the topic of prayer and contemplation. It can be a heavy read for some but well worth the effort.

Be encouraged. You are asking the right questions. I have no doubt that God is calling you into a deeper relationship with him.

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 am confused about the definition of contemplation, can you help me understand?

Q: Dear Sister Carmen, after reading some modern writers and Saint Teresa of Avila I am confused about contemplation. It seems like there is some confusion or lack of concern about definitions. When I read one writer it sounds like contemplation is something I can get to by following a series of steps (breath, sit, repeat) and then when I read St. Teresa she seems to be talking about something completely different. Can you help me understand what true contemplation is and maybe why this conflict exists?

A: Contemplation is an intriguing word, isn’t it?  It draws you in, leaving you wondering.  Trying to explain contemplation is somewhat of a dilemma. Why? Well, on the one hand, we are cautioned not to worry about our current level of prayer. It’s somewhat like the expression “Are We Having Fun Yet?” We can start saying “Have I Reached Contemplative Prayer Yet?” Something doesn’t ring true if we need to ask that question, it seems to me. Then, on the other hand, as we begin to take our prayer life seriously and grow to love prayer, it might just happen that we will discover new dimensions to prayer and they can leave us wondering what is going on. Sometimes, contemplation is what is going on!  We really want and need to ask a spiritual director to help us understand.

Here is a short answer about contemplation.  First of all, I’m of the opinion that contemplation is described NOT defined. There are some prayer “techniques” that can help us relax. They are not contemplation. There are some “exercises” that are suggested to help us pray but they are not, nor do the cause, contemplation. When a mother gazes silently at her child or we gaze silently at a beautiful sunset, that is a type of contemplation, though not infused or what we are speaking about here (these are examples of natural contemplation).  Infused contemplation is a pure gift from God and this is the contemplation St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross write about.  How can something so simple as infused contemplation, be so hard to describe?

When St. Teresa was asked to describe prayer, especially infused contemplative prayer, she ended up by using analogies as Our Lord did in the parables. What human word or human definition could possibly capture the infinite, the “super” natural? And she didn’t just dive right in and write about contemplation. Rather, she wrote about sin and its hold on us and how we must break free. She spoke of drawing water from a well, or a water wheel, or an irrigation system, or from gently falling rain.  Then she says that prayer is like that and oh, which one is contemplation? – of course, contemplation is very much like the analogy of gently falling rain.

Again, St. Teresa illustrates prayer by telling the story of an interior castle (the human soul) and says prayer is like that. There is a moat filled with creepy-crawlies and a bridge you need to cross over and a door you need to knock on, and once past that door there are seven mansions within the castle.  The castle itself is brilliant and clear like a diamond and the extraordinary light illuminating comes from the King who dwells in the inmost, seventh mansion.

St. John of the Cross also uses analogies.  What is contemplation? Well, it is like climbing a mountain – the mountain of Mt. Carmel – and he writes many books to explain what happens during that climb – the dark night of the senses, the dark night of the soul and many others. Each experience gets a whole book. Finally, he writes of the living flame of love (in poetry form) and then proceeds with a commentary on this poem to explain the highest contemplation.

To answer your question more directly, then, understand that in speaking of contemplation, it is necessary to understand the definitions of all the words connected with contemplation. For example, what is the human soul?  What are its faculties? How and where does God reside within it?  This is important because the human soul is purely spiritual, and is the center of our imagination, memory, understanding, and will. 

Why does it take St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila so many words to describe (noticed I don’t say define) infused contemplation?  It is because contemplation greatly affects each of the faculties of the soul.

So, to answer your question, I would like to share with you, if you would like, the path of prayer from conversion to contemplation, using examples from St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, who have made the journey and provided for us a kind of roadmap.  Until next time, Sister Carmen Laudis, OCD

To learn more about Sister Carmen you can read this post or to learn about her community go to www.carmelitesistersocd.com

A prayer of preparation for Advent…

O my God, Word of the Father, Word made flesh. For the love of us, You assumed a mortal body in order to suffer and be immolated for us. I wish to prepare for Your coming with the burning desires of the prophets and the just who in the Old Testament sighed after You, the one Savior and Redeemer… O Lord, send Him whom You are going to send… As you have promised, come and deliver us! I want to keep Advent in my soul, that is, a continual longing and waiting for this great Mystery wherein You, O Word, become flesh to show me the abyss of Your redeeming, sanctifying mercy.

O sweetest Jesus, You come to me with Your infinite love and the abundance of Your grace; You desire to engulf my soul in torrents of mercy and charity in order to draw it to You. Come, O Lord, come! I, too, wish to run to You with love, but alas! my love is so limited, weak, and imperfect! Make it strong and generous; enable me to overcome myself, so that I can give myself entirely to You.

St. Teresa of Avila

Divine Intimacy – First Sunday of Advent