Life of St Teresa of Jesus, Teresa of Avila [top ten books to read TXT] 📗

have

left, [15] and for which they cannot thank His Majesty enough.

Others He has advanced from well to better. To the young He

gives courage and knowledge, so that they may desire nothing

else, and also to understand that to live away from all things in

this life is to live in greater peace even here below. To those

who are no longer young, and whose health is weak, He gives—and

has given—the strength to undergo the same austerities and

penance with all the others.

14. O my Lord! how Thou dost show Thy power! There is no need to

seek reasons for Thy will; for with Thee, against all natural

reason, all things are possible: so that thou teachest clearly

there is no need of anything but of loving Thee [16] in earnest,

and really giving up everything for Thee, in order that Thou, O

my Lord, might make everything easy. It is well said that Thou

feignest to make Thy law difficult: [17] I do not see it, nor do

I feel that the way that leadeth unto Thee is narrow. I see it as

a royal road, and not a pathway; a road upon which whosoever

really enters, travels most securely. No mountain passes and no

cliffs are near it: these are the occasions of sin. I call that a

pass,—a dangerous pass,—and a narrow road, which has on one

side a deep hollow, into which one stumbles, and on the other a

precipice, over which they who are careless fall, and are dashed

to pieces. He who loves Thee, O my God, travels safely by the

open and royal road, far away from the precipice: he has scarcely

stumbled at all, when Thou stretchest forth Thy hand to save him.

One fall—yea, many falls—if he does but love Thee, and not the

things of the world, are not enough to make him perish; he

travels in the valley of humility. I cannot understand what it

is that makes men afraid of the way of perfection.

15. May our Lord of His mercy make us see what a poor security we

have in the midst of dangers so manifest, when we live like the

rest of the world; and that true security consists in striving to

advance in the way of God! Let us fix our eyes upon Him, and

have no fear that the Sun of justice will ever set, or suffer us

to travel to our ruin by night, unless we first look away from

Him. People are not afraid of living in the midst of lions,

every one of whom seems eager to tear them: I am speaking of

honours, pleasures, and the like joys, as the world calls them:

and herein the devil seems to make us afraid of ghosts. I am

astonished a thousand times, and ten thousand times would I

relieve myself by weeping, and proclaim aloud my own great

blindness and wickedness, if, perchance, it might help in some

measure to open their eyes. May He, who is almighty, of His

goodness open their eyes, and never suffer mine to be

blind again!

1. Doña Luisa de la Cerda.

2. Maria of Jesus was the daughter of a Reporter of Causes in the

Chancery of Granada; but his name and that of his wife are not

known. Maria married, but became a widow soon afterwards.

She then became a novice in the Carmelite monastery in Granada,

and during her noviciate had revelations, like those of

St. Teresa, about a reform of the Order. Her confessor made

light of her revelations, and she then referred them to F. Gaspar

de Salazar, a confessor of St. Teresa, who was then in Granada.

He approved of them, and Maria left the noviciate, and went to

Rome with two holy women of the Order of St. Francis. The three

made the journey on foot, and, moreover, barefooted. Pope Pius

IV. heard her prayer, and, looking at her torn and bleeding feet,

said to her, “Woman of strong courage, let it be as thou wilt.”

She returned to Granada, but both the Carmelites and the city

refused her permission to found her house there, and some went so

far as to threaten to have her publicly whipped. Doña Leonor de

Mascareñas gave her a house in Alcala de Henares, of which she

took possession Sept. 11, 1562; but the house was formally

constituted July 23, 1563, and subjected to the Bishop ten days

after (Reforma, i. c. 59; and Don Vicente, vol. i. p. 255).

The latter says that the Chronicler is in error when he asserts

that this monastery of Maria of Jesus was endowed.

3. The sixth chapter of the rule is: “Nullus fratrum sibi aliquid

proprium, esse dicat, sed sint vobis omnia communia.”

4. See ch. xxxii. § 13.

5. The Constitutions which the Saint read in the Monastery of the

Incarnation must have been the Constitutions grounded on the

Mitigated Rule which was sanctioned by Eugenius IV. (Romani

Pontificis, A.D. 1432).

6. See Relation, i. § 10.

7. F. Pedro Ibañez.

8. Ch. xi. § 3.

9. F. Pedro Ibañez.

10. The house of Doña Luisa, in Toledo.

11. The monastery of the Incarnation, Avila.

12. 2 Cor. xii. 9: “Virtus in infirmitate perficitur.”

13. See Way of Perfection, ch. xxii.; but ch. xiii. ed. Doblado.

14. See Foundations, ch. I, § 1.

15. St. Matt. xix. 29: “Et omnis qui reliquerit domum . . .

propter nomen Meum, centuplum accipiet, et vitam

æternam possidebit.”

16. When the workmen were busy with the building, a nephew of the

Saint, the child of her sister and Don Juan de Ovalle, was struck

by some falling stones and killed. The workmen took the child to

his mother: and the Saint, then in the house of Doña Guiomar de

Ulloa, was sent for. Doña Guiomar took the dead boy into her

arms, gave him to the Saint, saying that it was a grievous blow

to the father and mother, and that she must obtain his life from

God. The Saint took the body, and, laying it in her lap, ordered

those around her to cease their lamentations, of whom her sister

was naturally the loudest, and be silent. Then, covering her

face and her body with her veil, she prayed to God, and God gave

the child his life again. The little boy soon after ran up to

his aunt and thanked her for what she had done. In after years

the child used to say to the Saint that, as she had deprived him

of the bliss of heaven by bringing him back to life, she was

bound to see that he did not suffer loss. Don Gonzalo died three

years after St. Teresa, when he was twenty-eight years of age

(Reforma, i. c. 42, § 2).

17. Psalm xciii. 20: “Qui fingis laborem in præcepto.”

Chapter XXXVI.

The Foundation of the Monastery of St. Joseph.

Persecution and Temptations. Great Interior Trial of the Saint,

and Her Deliverance.

1. Having now left that city, [1] I travelled in great joy,

resolved to suffer most willingly whatever our Lord might be

pleased to lay upon me. On the night of my arrival here, [2]

came also from Rome the commission and the Brief for the erection

of the monastery. [3] I was astonished myself, and so were those

who knew how our Lord hastened my coming, when they saw how

necessary it was, and in what a moment our Lord had brought me

back. [4] I found here the Bishop and the holy friar, [5] Peter

of Alcantara, and that nobleman, [6] the great servant of God, in

whose house the holy man was staying; for he was a man who was in

the habit of receiving the servants of God in his house.

These two prevailed on the Bishop to accept the monastery, which

was no small thing, because it was founded in poverty; but he was

so great a lover of those whom he saw determined to serve our

Lord, that he was immediately drawn to give them His protection.

It was the approbation of the holy old man, [7] and the great

trouble he took to make now this one, now that one, help us, that

did the whole work. If I had not come at the moment, as I have

just said, I do not see how it could have been done; for the holy

man was here but a short time,—I think not quite eight

days,—during which he was also ill; and almost immediately

afterwards our Lord took him to Himself. [8] It seems as if His

Majesty reserved him till this affair was ended, because now for

some time—I think for more than two years—he had been very ill.

2. Everything was done in the utmost secrecy; and if it had not

been so, I do not see how anything could have been done at all;

for the people of the city were against us, as it appeared

afterwards. Our Lord ordained that one of my brothers-in-law [9]

should be ill, and his wife away, and himself in such straits

that my superiors gave me leave to remain with him.

Nothing, therefore, was found out, though some persons had their

suspicions;—still, they did not believe. It was very wonderful,

for his illness lasted only no longer than was necessary for our

affair; and when it was necessary he should recover his health,

that I might be disengaged, and he leave the house empty, our

Lord restored him; and he was astonished at it himself. [10]

3. I had much trouble in persuading this person and that to allow

the foundation; I had to nurse the sick man, and obtain from the

workmen the hasty preparation of the house, so that it might have

the form of a monastery; but much remained still to be done.

My friend was not here, [11] for we thought it best she should be

away, in order the better to hide our purpose. I saw that

everything depended on haste, for many, reasons, one of which was

that I was afraid I might be ordered back to my monastery at any

moment. I was troubled by so many things, that I suspected my

cross had been sent me, though it seemed but a light one in

comparison with that which I understood our Lord meant me

to carry.

4. When everything was settled, our Lord was pleased that some of

us should take the habit on St. Bartholomew’s Day. The most Holy

Sacrament began to dwell in the house at the same time. [12]

With full sanction and authority, then, our monastery of our most

glorious father St. Joseph was founded in the year 1562. [13]

I was there myself to give the habit, with two nuns [14] of the

house to which we belonged, who happened then to be absent from

it. As the house which thus became a monastery was that of my

brother-in-law—I said before [15] that he had bought it, for the

purpose of concealing our plan—I was there myself with the

permission of my superiors; and I did nothing without the advice

of learned men, in order that I might not break, in a single

point, my vow of obedience. As these persons considered what I

was doing to be most advantageous for the whole Order, on many

accounts, they told me—though I was acting secretly, and taking

care my superiors should know nothing—that I might go on.

If they had told me that there was the slightest imperfection in

the whole matter, I would have given up the founding of a

thousand monasteries,—how much more, then, this one! I am

certain of this; for