by

ST. TERESA OF AVILA

Translated & Edited by

E. ALLISON PEERS

from the Critical Editon of

P. SILVERIO DE SANTA TERESA, C.D.

Scanned by Harry Plantinga, 1995

From the Image Books edition, 1964, ISBN 0-385-06539-6

This etext is in the public domain

Only a few of the nearly 1200 footnotes of the image book edition have been
reproduced. Most of those that were not reproduced concern differences
between the manuscripts. The reader is referred to the print edition.
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The Way of Perfection
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Although St. Teresa of Avila lived and wrote almost four centuries ago, her
superbly inspiring classic on the practice of prayer is as fresh and
meaningful today as it was when she first wrote it. The Way of Perfection is
a practical guide to prayer setting forth the Saints counsels and
directives for the attainment of spiritual perfection.

Through the entire work there runs the authors desire to teach a deep and
lasting love of prayer beginning with a treatment of the three essentials of
the prayer-filled life”fraternal love, detachment from created things, and
true humility. St. Teresas counsels on these are not only the fruit of
lofty mental speculation, but of mature practical experience. The next
section develops these ideas and brings the reader directly to the subjects
of prayer and contemplation. St. Teresa then gives various maxims for the
practice of prayer and leads up to the topic which occupies the balance of
the book”a detailed and inspiring commentary on the Lords Prayer.

Of all St. Teresas writings, The Way of Perfection is the most easily
understood. Although it is a work of sublime mystical beauty, its
outstanding hallmark is its simplicity which instructs, exhorts, and
inspires all those who are seeking a more perfect way of life.

I shall speak of nothing of which I have no experience, either in my own
life or in observation of others, or which the Lord has not taught me in
prayer.” Prologue

Almost four centuries have passed since St. Teresa of Avila, the great
Spanish mystic and reformer, committed to writing the experiences which
brought her to the highest degree of sanctity. Her search for, and eventual
union with, God have been recorded in her own world-renowned writings”the
autobiographical Life, the celebrated masterpiece Interior Castle and The
Way of Perfection” as well as in the other numerous works which flowed from
her pen while she lived.

The Way of Perfection was written during the height of controversy which
raged over the reforms St. Teresa enacted within the Carmelite Order. Its
specific purpose was to serve as a guide in the practice of prayer and it
sets forth her counsels and directives for the attainment of spiritual
perfection through prayer. It was composed by St. Teresa at the express
command of her superiors, and was written during the late hours in order not
to interfere with the days already crowded schedule.

Without doubt it fulfills the tribute given all St. Teresas works by E.
Allison Peers, the outstanding authority on her writings:Work of a sublime
beauty bearing the ineffaceable hallmark of genius.
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CONTENTS

Introduction

Translators Note:

General Argument

Protestation

Prologue

Chapter 1”Of the reason which moved me to found this convent in such strict
observance

Chapter 2”Treats of how the necessities of the body should be disregarded
and of the good that comes from poverty

Chapter 3”Continues the subject begun in the first chapter and persuades the
sisters to busy themselves constantly in beseeching God to help those who
work for the Church. Ends with an exclamatory prayer

Chapter 4”Exhorts the nuns to keep their Rule and names three things which
are important for the spiritual life. Describes the first of these three
things, which is love of ones neighbour, and speaks of the harm which can
be done by individual friendships

Appendix To Chapter 4

Chapter 5”Continues speaking of confessors. Explains why it is important
that they should be learned men

Chapter 6”Returns to the subject of perfect love, already begun

Chapter 7”Treats of the same subject of spiritual love and gives certain
counsels for gaining it

Chapter 8”Treats of the great benefit of self-detachment, both interior and
exterior, from all things created

Chapter 9”Treats of the great blessing that shunning their relatives brings
to those who have left the world and shows how by doing so they will find
truer friends

Chapter 10”Teaches that detachment from the things aforementioned is
insufficient if we are not detached from our own selves and that this virtue
and humility go together

Chapter 11”Continues to treat of mortification and describes how it may be
attained in times of sickness

Chapter 12”Teaches that the true lover of God must care little for life and
honour

Chapter 13”Continues to treat of mortification and explains how one must
renounce the worlds standards of wisdom in order to attain to true wisdom

Chapter 14”Treats of the great importance of not professing anyone whose
spirit is contrary to the things aforementioned

Chapter 15”Treats of the great advantage which comes from our not excusing
ourselves, even though we find we are unjustly condemned

Chapter 16”Describes the difference between perfection in the lives of
contemplatives and in the lives of those who are content with mental prayer.
Explains how it is sometimes possible for God to raise a distracted soul to
perfect contemplation and the reason for this. This chapter and that which
comes next are to be noted carefully

Chapter 17”How not all souls are fitted for contemplation and how some take
long to attain it. True humility will walk happily along the road by which
the Lord leads it

Chapter 18”Continues the same subject and shows how much greater are the
trials of contemplatives than those of actives. This chapter offers great
consolation to actives

Chapter 19”Begins to treat of prayer. Addresses souls who cannot reason with
the understanding

Chapter 20”Describes how, in one way or another, we never lack consolation
on the road of prayer. Counsels the sisters to include this subject
continually in their conversation

Chapter 21”Describes the great importance of setting out upon the practice
of prayer with firm resolution and of heeding no difficulties put in the way
by the devil

Chapter 22”Explains the meaning of mental prayer

Chapter 23”Describes the importance of not turning back when one has set out
upon the way of prayer. Repeats how necessary it is to be resolute

Chapter 24”Describes how vocal prayer may be practised with perfection and
how closely allied it is to mental prayer

Chapter 25”Describes the great gain which comes to a soul when it practises
vocal prayer perfectly. Shows how God may raise it thence to things
supernatural

Chapter 26”Continues the description of a method for recollecting the
thoughts. Describes means of doing this. This chapter is very profitable for
those who are beginning prayer

Chapter 27”Describes the great love shown us by the Lord in the first words
of the Paternoster and the great importance of our making no account of good
birth if we truly desire to be the daughters of God

Chapter 28”Describes the nature of the Prayer of Recollection and sets down
some of the means by which we can make it a habit

Chapter 29 - Continues to describe methods for achieving this Prayer of
Recollection. Says what little account we should make of being favoured by
our superiors

Chapter 30”Describes the importance of understanding what we ask for in
prayer. Treats of these words in the Paternoster:Sanctificetur nomen tuum,
adveniat regnum tuum. Applies them to the Prayer of Quiet, and begins the
explanation of them

Chapter 31”Continues the same subject. Explains what is meant by the Prayer
of Quiet. Gives several counsels to those who experience it. This chapter is
very noteworthy

Chapter 32”Expounds these words of the Paternoster:Fiat voluntas tua sicut
in coelo et in terra. Describes how much is accomplished by those who
repeat these words with full resolution and how well the Lord rewards them
for it

Chapter 33”Treats of our great need that the Lord should give us what we ask
in these words of the Paternoster:Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis
hodie.

Chapter 34”Continues the same subject. This is very suitable for reading
after the reception of the Most Holy Sacrament

Chapter 35”Describes the recollection which should be practised after
Communion. Concludes this subject with an exclamatory prayer to the Eternal
Father

Chapter 36”Treats of these words in the Paternoster:Dimitte nobis debita
nostra

Chapter 37”Describes the excellence of this prayer called the Paternoster,
and the many ways in which we shall find consolation in it

Chapter 38”Treats of the great need which we have to beseech the Eternal
Father to grant us what we ask in these words:Et ne nos inducas in
tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Explains certain temptations. This
chapter is noteworthy

Chapter 39”Continues the same subject and gives counsels concerning
different kinds of temptation. Suggests two remedies by which we may be
freed from temptations

Chapter 40”Describes how, by striving always to walk in the love and fear of
God, we shall travel safely amid all these temptations

Chapter 41”Speaks of the fear of God and of how we must keep ourselves from
venial sins

Chapter 42”Treats of these last words of the Paternoster:Sed libera nos a
malo. Amen.But deliver us from evil. Amen.
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PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS

A.V.”Authorized Version of the Bible (1611).

D.V.”Douai Version of the Bible (1609) .

Letters”Letters of St. Teresa. Unless otherwise stated, the numbering of the
Letters follows Vols. VII-IX of P. Silverio. Letters (St.) indicates the
translation of the Benedictines of Stanbrook (London, 1919-24, 4 vols.).

Lewis”The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, etc., translated by David Lewis, 5th
ed., with notes and introductions by the Very Rev. Benedict Zimmerman,
O.C.D., London, 1916.

P. Silverio”Obras de Santa Teresa de Jesºs, editadas y anotadas por el P.
Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D., Durgos, 1915-24, 9 vols.

Ribera”Francisco de Ribera, Vida de Santa Teresa de Jesºs, Nueva ed.
aumentada, con introduction, etc., por el P. Jaime Pons, Barcelona, 1908.

S.S.M.”E. Allison Peers, Studies of the Spanish Mystics, London, 1927-30, 2
vols.

St. John of the Cross”The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Doctor
of the Church, translated from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa
Teresa, C.D., and edited by E. Allison Peers, London, 1934-35, 3 vols.

Yepes”Diego de Yepes, Vida de Santa Teresa, Madrid, 1615.
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TO THE GRACIOUS MEMORY OF

P. EDMUND GURDON

SOMETIME PRIOR OF THE CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY

OF MIRAFLORES

A MAN OF GOD

INTRODUCTION

We owe this book, first and foremost, to the affectionate importunities of
the Carmelite nuns of the Primitive Observance atvila, and, in the second
place, to that outstanding Dominican who was also St. Teresas confessor,
Fray Domingo Baez. The nuns of St. Josephs knew something of their Mother
Foundress autobiography, and, though in all probability none of them had
actually read it, they would have been aware that it contained valuable
counsels to aspirants after religious perfection, of which, had the book
been accessible to them, they would have been glad to avail themselves. Such
intimate details did it contain, however, about St. Teresas spiritual life
that her superiors thought it should not be put into their hands; so the
only way in which she could grant their persistent requests was to write
another book dealing expressly with the life of prayer. This P. Baez was
very anxious that she should do.

Through the entire Way of Perfection there runs the authors desire to teach
her daughters to love prayer, the most effective means of attaining virtue.
This principle is responsible for the books construction. St. Teresa begins
by describing the reason which led her to found the first Reformed Carmelite
convent”viz., the desire to minimize the ravages being wrought, in France
and elsewhere, by Protestantism, and, within the limits of her capacity, to
check the passion for a so-calledfreedom, which at that time was
exceeding all measure. Knowing how effectively such inordinate desires can
be restrained by a life of humility and poverty, St. Teresa extols the
virtues of poverty and exhorts her daughters to practise it in their own
lives. Even the buildings in which they live should be poor: on the Day of
Judgment both majestic palaces and humble cottages will fall and she has no
desire that the convents of her nuns should do so with a resounding clamour.

In this preamble to her book, which comprises Chapters 1-3, the author also
charges her daughters very earnestly to commend to God those who have to
defend the Church of Christ”particularly theologians and preachers.

The next part of the book (Chaps. 4-15) stresses the importance of a strict
observance of the Rule and Constitutions, and before going on to its main
subject” prayer”treats of three essentials of the prayer-filled life”mutual
love, detachment from created things and true humility, the last of these
being the most important and including all the rest. With the mutual love
which nuns should have for one another she deals most minutely, giving what
might be termed homely prescriptions for the domestic disorders of convents
with the skill which we should expect of a writer with so perfect a
knowledge of the psychology of the cloister. Her counsels are the fruit, not
of lofty mental speculation, but of mature practical expedience. No less
aptly does she speak of the relations between nuns and their confessors, so
frequently a source of danger.

Since excess is possible even in mutual love, she next turns to detachment.
Her nuns must be detached from relatives and friends, from the world, from
worldly honour, and”the last and hardest achievement”from themselves. To a
large extent their efforts in this direction will involve humility, for, so
long as we have an exaggerated opinion of our own merits, detachment is
impossible. Humility, to St. Teresa, is nothing more nor less than truth,
which will give us the precise estimate of our own worth that we need.
Fraternal love, detachment and humility: these three virtues, if they are
sought in the way these chapters direct, will make the soul mistress and
sovereign over all created things”aroyal soul, in the Saints happy
phrase, the slave of none save of Him Who bought it with His blood.

The next section (Chaps. 16-26) develops these ideas, and leads the reader
directly to the themes of prayer and contemplation. It begins with St.
Teresas famous extended simile of the game of chess, in which the soul
gives check and mate to the King of love, Jesus. Many people are greatly
attracted by the life of contemplation because they have acquired imperfect
and misleading notions of the ineffable mystical joys which they believe
almost synonymous with contemplation. The Saint protests against such ideas
as these and lays it down clearly that, as a general rule, there is no way
of attaining to union with the Beloved save by the practice of thegreat
virtues, which can be acquired only at the cost of continual self-sacrifice
and self-conquest. The favours which God grants to contemplatives are only
exceptional and of a transitory kind and they are intended to incline them
more closely to virtue and to inspire their lives with greater fervour.

And here the Saint propounds a difficult question which has occasioned no
little debate among writers on mystical theology. Can a soul in grave sin
enjoy supernatural contemplation? At first sight, and judging from what the
author says in Chapter 16, the answer would seem to be that, though but
rarely and for brief periods, it can. In the original (or Escorial)
autograph, however, she expressly denies this, and states that contemplation
is not possible for souls in mortal sin, though it may be experienced by
those who are so lukewarm, or lacking in fervour, that they fall into venial
sins with ease. It would seem that in this respect the Escorial manuscript
reflects the Saints ideas, as we know them, more clearly than the later one
of Valladolid; if this be so, her opinions in no way differ from those of
mystical theologians as a whole, who refuse to allow that souls in mortal
sin can experience contemplation at all.

St. Teresa then examines a number of other questions, on which opinion has
also been divided and even now is by no means unanimous. Can all souls
attain to contemplation? Is it possible, without experiencing contemplation,
to reach the summit of Christian perfection? Have all the servants of God
who have been canonized by the Church necessarily been contemplatives? Does
the Church ever grant non-contemplatives beatification? On these questions
and others often discussed by the mystics much light is shed in the
seventeenth and eighteenth chapters.

Then the author crosses swords once more with those who suppose that
contemplatives know nothing of suffering and that their lives are one
continuous series of favours. On the contrary, she asserts, they suffer more
than actives: to imagine that God admits to this closest friendship people
whose lives are all favours and no trials is ridiculous. Recalling the
doctrine expounded in the nineteenth chapter of her Life she gives various
counsels for the practice of prayer, using once more the figures of water
which she had employed in her first description of the Mystic Way. She
consoles those who cannot reason with the understanding, shows how vocal
prayer may be combined with mental, and ends by advising those who suffer
from aridity in prayer to picture Jesus as within their hearts and thus
always beside them” one of her favourite themes.

This leads up to the subject which occupies her for the rest of the book
(Chaps. 27-42)”the Lords Prayer. These chapters, in fact, comprise a
commentary on the Paternoster, taken petition by petition, touching
incidentally upon the themes of Recollection, Quiet and Union. Though
nowhere expounding them as fully as in the Life or the Interior Castle, she
treats them with equal sublimity, profundity and fervour and in language of
no less beauty. Consider, for example, the apt and striking simile of the
mother and the child (Chap. 31), used to describe the state of the soul in
the Prayer of Quiet, which forms one of the most beautiful and expressive
expositions of this degree of contemplation to be found in any book on the
interior life whatsoever.

In Chapter 38, towards the end of the commentary on the Paternoster, St.
Teresa gives a striking synthetic description of the excellences of that
Prayer and of its spiritual value. She enters at some length into the
temptations to which spiritual people are exposed when they lack humility
and discretion. Some of these are due to presumption: they believe they
possess virtues which in fact they do not”or, at least, not in sufficient
degree to enable them to resist the snares of the enemy. Others come from a
mistaken scrupulousness and timidity inspired by a sense of the heinousness
of their sins, and may lead them into doubt and despair. There are souls,
too, which make overmuch account of spiritual favours: these she counsels to
see to it that, however sublime their contemplation may be, they begin and
end every period of prayer with self-examination. While others whose
mistrust of themselves makes them restless, are exhorted to trust in the
Divine mercy, which never forsakes those who possess true humility.

Finally, St. Teresa writes of the love and fear of God”two mighty castles
which the fiercest of the souls enemies will storm in vain”and begs Him, in
the last words of the Prayer to preserve her daughters, and all other souls
who practise the interior life, from the ills and perils which will ever
surround them, until they reach the next world, where all will be peace and
joy in Jesus Christ.

Such, in briefest outline, is the argument of this book. Of all St.
Teresas writings it is the most easily comprehensible and it can be read
with profit by a greater number of people than any of the rest. It is also
(if we use the word in its strictest and truest sense) the most ascetic of
her treatises; only a few chapters and passages in it, here and there, can
be called definitely mystical. It takes up numerous ideas already adumbrated
in the Life and treats them in a practical and familiar way”objectively,
too, with an eye not so much to herself as to her daughters of the Discalced
Reform. This last fact necessitates her descending to details which may seem
to us trivial but were not in the least so to the religious to whom they
were addressed and with whose virtues and failing she was so familiar.
Skilfully, then, and in a way profitable to all, she intermingles her
teaching on the most rudimentary principles of the religious life, which has
all the clarity of any classical treatise, with instruction on the most
sublime and elusive tenets of mystical theology.

ESCORIAL AUTOGRAPH”The Way of perfection”or Paternoster, as its author calls
it, from the latter part of its content”was written twice. Both autographs
have been preserved in excellent condition, the older of them in the
monastery of San Lorenzo el Real, El Escorial, and the other in the convent
of the Discalced Carmelite nuns at Valladolid. We have already seen how
Philip II acquired a number of Teresan autographs for his new Escorial
library, among them that of the Way of perfection. The Escorial manuscript
bears the titleTreatise of the Way of Perfection, but this is not in St.
Teresas hand. It plunges straight into the prologue: both the title and the
brief account of the contents, which are found in most of the editions, are
taken from the autograph of Valladolid, and the humble protestation of faith
and submission to the Holy Roman Church was dictated by the Saint for the
edition of the book made in‰vora by Don Teutonio de Braganza - it is found
in the Toledo codex, which will be referred to again shortly.

The text, divided into seventy-three short chapters, has no
chapter-divisions in the ordinary sense of the phrase, though the author has
left interlinear indications showing where each chapter should begin. The
chapter-headings form a table of contents at the end of the manuscript and
only two of them (55 and 56) are in St. Teresas own writing. As the
remainder, however, are in a feminine hand of the sixteenth century, they
may have been dictated by her to one of her nuns: they are almost identical
with those which she herself wrote at a later date in the autograph of
Valladolid.

There are a considerable number of emendations in this text, most of them
made by the Saint herself, whose practice was to obliterate any unwanted
word so completely as to make it almost illegible. None of such words or
phrases was restored in the autograph of Valladolid”a sure indication that
it was she who erased them, or at least that she approved of their having
been erased. There are fewer annotations and additions in other hands than
in the autographs of any of her remaining works, and those few are of little
importance. This may be due to the fact that a later redaction of the work
was made for the use of her convents and for publication: the Escorial
manuscript would have circulated very little and would never have been
subjected to a minute critical examination. Most of what annotations and
corrections of this kind there are were made by the Saints confessor, P.
Garc­a de Toledo, whom, among others, she asked to examine the manuscript.

There is no direct indication in the manuscript of the date of its
composition. We know that it was written at St. Josephs,vila, for the
edification and instruction of the first nuns of the Reform, and the
prologue tells us that onlya few days had elapsed between the completion
of the Life and the beginning of the Way of perfection. If, therefore, the
Life was finished at the end of 1565 [or in the early weeks of 1566] [1] we
can date the commencement of the Way of perfection with some precision. [But
even then there is no indication as to how long the composition took and
when it was completed.]

A complication occurs in the existence, at the end of a copy of the Way of
perfection which belongs to the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Salamanca, and
contains corrections in St. Teresas hand, of a note, in the writing of the
copyist, which says: This book was written in the year sixty-two”I mean
fifteen hundred and sixty-two. There follow some lines in the writing of
St. Teresa, which make no allusion to this date; her silence might be taken
as confirming it (though she displays no great interest in chronological
exactness) were it not absolutely impossible to reconcile such a date with
the early chapters of the book, which make it quite clear that the community
of thirteen nuns was fully established when they were written (Chap. 4,
below). There could not possibly have been so many nuns at St. Josephs
before late in the year 1563, in which Mar de San Jernimo and Isabel de
Santo Domingo took the habit, and it is doubtful if St. Teresa could
conceivably have begun the book before the end of that year. Even,
therefore, if the reference in the preface to the Way of perfection were to
the first draft of the Life (1562), and not to that book as we know it,
there would still be the insuperable difficulty raised by this piece of
internal evidence. [2] We are forced, then, to assume an error in the
Salamanca copy and to assign to the beginning of the Way of perfection the
date 1565-6.

VALLADOLID AUTOGRAPH. In writing for hervila nuns, St. Teresa used
language much more simple, familiar and homely than in any of her other
works. But when she began to establish more foundations and her circle of
readers widened, this language must have seemed to her too affectionately
intimate, and some of her figures and images may have struck her as too
domestic and trivial, for a more general and scattered public. So she
conceived the idea of rewriting the book in a more formal style; it is the
autograph of this redaction which is in the possession of the Discalced
Carmelite nuns of Valladolid.

The additions, omissions and modifications in this new autograph are more
considerable than is generally realized. From the preface onwards, there is
no chapter without its emendations and in many there are additions of whole
paragraphs. The Valladolid autograph, therefore, is in no sense a copy, or
even a recast, of the first draft, but a free and bold treatment of it. As a
general rule, a second draft, though often more correctly written and
logically arranged than its original, is less flexible, fluent and
spontaneous. It is hard to say how far this is the case here. Undoubtedly
some of the charm of the authors natural simplicity vanishes, but the
corresponding gain in clarity and precision is generally considered greater
than the loss. Nearly every change she makes is an improvement; and this not
only in stylistic matters, for one of the greatest of her improvements is
the lengthening of the chapters and their reduction in number from 73 to 42,
to the great advantage of the books symmetry and unity.

It is clear that St. Teresa intended the Valladolid redaction to be the
definitive form of her book since she had so large a number of copies of it
made for her friends and spiritual daughters: among these were the copy
which she sent for publication to Don Teutonio de Braganza and that used for
the first collected edition of her works by Fray Luis de Len. For the same
reason this redaction has always been given preference over its predecessor
by the Discalced Carmelites.
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[1] Cf. Vol. I, pp. 2-5, above

[2] See also the reference, in theGeneral Argument of the Valladolid
redaction, to her being Prioress of St. Josephs when the book was written.
Presumably the original draft is meant.
_________________________________________________________________

TRANSLATORS NOTE

In the text of each of the chapters, of the Valladolid autograph there are
omissions”some merely verbal, often illustrating the authors aim in making
the new redaction, others more fundamental. If the Valladolid manuscript
represents the Way of perfection as St. Teresa wrote it in the period of her
fullest powers, the greater freshness and individuality of the Escorial
manuscript are engaging qualities, and there are many passages in it,
omitted from the later version, which one would be sorry to sacrifice.

In what form, then, should the book be presented to English readers? It is
not surprising if this question is difficult to answer, since varying
procedures have been adopted for the presentation of it in Spain. Most of
them amount briefly to a re-editing of the Valladolid manuscript. The first
edition of the book, published at‰vora in the year 1583, follows this
manuscript, apparently using a copy (the so-calledToledo copy) made by
Ana de San Pedro and corrected by St. Teresa; it contains a considerable
number of errors, however, and omits one entire chapter”the thirty-first,
which deals with the Prayer of Quiet, a subject that was arousing some
controversy at the time when the edition was being prepared. In 1585, a
second edition, edited by Fray Jernimo Graci¡n, was published at Salamanca:
the text of this follows that of the‰vora edition very closely, as
apparently does the text of a rare edition published at Valencia in 1586.
When Fray Luis de Leon used the Valladolid manuscript as the foundation of
his text (1588) he inserted for the first time paragraphs and phrases from
that of El Escorial, as well as admitting variants from the copies corrected
by the author: he is not careful however, to indicate how and where his
edition differs from the manuscript.

Since 1588, most of the Spanish editions have followed Fray Luis de Len
with greater or less exactness. The principal exception is the well-known
Biblioteca de Autores Espaoles edition, in which La Fuente followed a
copy of the then almost forgotten Escorial manuscript, indicating in
footnotes some of the variant readings in the codex of Valladolid. In the
edition of 1883, the work of a Canon of Valladolid Cathedral, Francisco
Herrero Bayona, the texts of the two manuscripts are reproduced in parallel
columns. P. Silverio de Santa Teresa gives the place of honour to the
Valladolid codex, on which he bases his text, showing only the principal
variants of the Escorial manuscript but printing the Escorial text in full
in an appendix as well as the text of the Toledo copy referred to above.

The first translations of this book into English, by Woodhead (1675:
reprinted 1901) and Dalton (1852), were based, very naturally, on the text
of Luis de Len, which in less critical ages than our own enjoyed great
prestige and was considered quite authoritative. The edition published in
1911 by the Benedictines of Stanbrook, described on its title-page as
including all the variants from both the Escorial and the Valladolid
manuscript, uses Herrero Bayona and gives an eclectic text based on the two
originals but with no indications as to which is which. The editors
original idea of using one text only, and showing variants in footnotes, was
rejected in the belief thatsuch an arrangement would prove bewildering for
the generality of readers and that anyone who could claim the title of
student would be able to read the original Spanish and would have access
to the Herrero Bayona edition. Father Zimmerman, in his introduction,
claimed that while the divergences between the manuscripts are sometimesso
great that the [Stanbrook] translation resembles a mosaic composed of a
large number of small bits, skilfully combined,the work has been done
most conscientiously, and while nothing has been added to the text of the
Saint, nothing has been omitted, except, of course, what would have been
mere repetition.

This first edition of the Benedictines translation furnished the general
reader with an attractive version of what many consider St. Teresas most
attractive book, but soon after it was published a much more intelligent and
scholarly interest began to be taken in the Spanish mystics and that not
only by students with ready access to the Spanish original and ability to
read it. So, when a new edition of the Stanbrook translation was called for,
the editors decided to indicate the passages from the Escorial edition which
had been embodied in the text by enclosing these in square brackets. In
1911, Father Zimmerman, suspecting that the procedure then adopted by the
translators would notmeet with the approval of scholars, had justified it
by their desireto benefit the souls of the faithful rather than the
intellect of the student; but now, apparently, he thought it practicable to
achieve both these aims at once. This resolution would certainly have had
the support of St. Teresa, who in this very book describes intelligence as a
useful staff to carry on the way of perfection. The careful comparison of
two separate versions of such a work of genius may benefit the soul of an
intelligent reader even more than the careful reading of a version
compounded of both by someone else.

When I began to consider the preparation of the present translation it
seemed to me that an attempt might be made to do a little more for the
reader who combined intelligence with devoutness than had been done already.
I had no hesitation about basing my version on the Valladolid MS., which is
far the better of the two, whether we consider the aptness of its
illustrations, the clarity of its expression, the logical development of its
argument or its greater suitability for general reading. At the same time,
no Teresan who has studied the Escorial text can fail to have an affection
for it: its greater intimacy and spontaneity and its appeal to personal
experience make it one of the most characteristic of all the Saints
writings”indeed, excepting the Letters and a few chapters of the
Foundations, it reveals her better than any. Passages from the Escorial MS.
must therefore be given: thus far I followed the reasoning of the Stanbrook
nuns.

Where this translation diverges from theirs is in the method of
presentation. On the one hand I desired, as St. Teresa must have desired,
that it should be essentially her mature revision of the book that should be
read. For this reason I have been extremely conservative as to the
interpolations admitted into the text itself: I have rejected, for example,
the innumerable phrases which St. Teresa seems to have cut out in making her
new redaction because they were trivial or repetitive, because they weaken
rather than reinforce her argument, because they say what is better said
elsewhere, because they summarize needlessly [3] or because they are mere
personal observations which interrupt the authors flow of thought, and
sometimes, indeed, are irrelevant to it. I hope it is not impertinent to add
that, in the close study which the adoption of this procedure has involved,
I have acquired a respect and admiration for St. Teresa as a reviser, to
whom, as far as I know, no one who has written upon her has done full
justice. Her shrewdness, realism and complete lack of vanity make her an
admirable editor of her own work, and, in debating whether or no to
incorporate some phrase or passage in my text I have often asked myself:
Would St. Teresa have included or omitted this if she had been making a
fresh revision for a world-wide public over a period of centuries?

At the same time, though admitting only a minimum of interpolations into my
text, I have given the reader all the other important variants in footnotes.
I cannot think, as Father Zimmerman apparently thought, that anyone can find
the presence of a few notes at the foot of each pagebewildering. Those
for whom they have no interest may ignore them; others, in studying them,
may rest assured that the only variants not included (and this applies to
the variants from the Toledo copy as well as from the Escorial MS.) are such
as have no significance in a translation. I have been rather less meticulous
here than in my edition of St. John of the Cross, where textual problems
assumed greater importance. Thus, except where there has been some special
reason for doing so, I have not recorded alterations in the order of clauses
or words; the almost regular use by E. of the second person of the plural
where V. has the first; the frequent and often apparently purposeless
changes of tense; such substitutions, in the Valladolid redaction, as those
ofDios orSeior m­o forSeior; or merely verbal paraphrases as (to
take an example at random)Todo esto que he dicho es para . . . forEn
todo esto que he dicho no trato . . . Where I have given variants which may
seem trivial (such ashermanas forhijas, or the insertion of an
explanatory word, likedigo) the reason is generally that there seems to
me a possibility that some difference in tone is intended, or that the
alternative phrase gives some slight turn to the thought which the phrase in
the text does not.

The passages from the Escorial version which I have allowed into my text are
printed in italics. Thus, without their being given undue prominence (and
readers of the Authorized Version of the Bible will know how seldom they can
recall what words are italicized even in the passages they know best) it is
clear at a glance how much of the book was intended by its author to be read
by a wider public than the nuns of St. Josephs. The interpolations may be
as brief as a single expressive word, or as long as a paragraph, or even a
chapter: the original Chapter 17 of the Valladolid MS., for example, which
contains the famous similitude of the Game of Chess, was torn out of the
codex by its author (presumably with the idea that so secular an
illustration was out of place) and has been restored from the Escorial MS.
as part of Chapter 16 of this translation. No doubt the striking bullfight
metaphor at the end of Chapter 39 was suppressed in the Valladolid codex for
the same reason. With these omissions may be classed a number of minor
ones”of words or phrases which to the author may have seemed too intimate or
colloquial but do not seem so to us. Other words and phrases have apparently
been suppressed because St. Teresa thought them redundant, whereas a later
reader finds that they make a definite contribution to the sense or give
explicitness and detail to what would otherwise be vague, or even obscure.
[4] A few suppressions seem to have been due to pure oversight. For the
omission of other passages it is difficult to find any reason, so good are
they: the conclusion of Chapter 38 and the opening of Chapter 41 are cases
in point.

The numbering of the chapters, it should be noted, follows neither of the
two texts, but is that traditionally employed in the printed editions. The
chapter headings are also drawn up on an eclectic basis, though here the
Valladolid text is generally followed.

The system I have adopted not only assures the reader that he will be
reading everything that St. Teresa wrote and nothing that she did not write,
but that he can discern almost at a glance, what she meant to be read by her
little group of nuns at St. Josephs and also how she intended her work to
appear in its more definitive form. Thus we can see her both as the
companion and Mother and as the writer and Foundress. In both roles she is
equally the Saint.

But it should be made clear that, while incorporating in my text all
important passages from the Escorial draft omitted in that of Valladolid, I
have thought it no part of my task to provide a complete translation of the
Escorial draft alone, and that, therefore, in order to avoid the
multiplication of footnotes, I have indicated only the principal places
where some expression in the later draft is not to be found in the earlier.
In other words, although, by omitting the italicized portions of my text,
one will be able to have as exact a translation of the Valladolid version as
it is possible to get, the translation of the Escorial draft will be only
approximate. This is the sole concession I have made to the ordinary reader
as opposed to the student, and it is hardly conceivable, I think, that any
student to whom this could matter would be unable to read the original
Spanish.

One final note is necessary on the important Toledo copy, the text of which
P. Silverio also prints in full. This text I have collated with that of the
Valladolid autograph, from which it derives. In it both St. Teresa herself
and others have made corrections and additions”more, in fact, than in any of
the other copies extant. No attempt has been made here either to show what
the Toledo copy omits or to include those of its corrections and
additions”by far the largest number of them”which are merely verbal and
unimportant, and many of which, indeed, could not be embodied in a
translation at all. But the few additions which are really worth noting have
been incorporated in the text (in square brackets so as to distinguish them
from the Escorial additions) and all corrections which have seemed to me of
any significance will be found in footnotes.
_________________________________________________________________

[3] E.g., at places where a chapter ends in E. but not in V.

[4] One special case of this class is the suppression in V. of one out of
two or three almost but not quite synonymous adjectives referring to the
same noun.
_________________________________________________________________

BOOK CALLED WAY OF PERFECTION. [5]

Composed by TERESA OF JESUS, Nun of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel,
addressed to the Discalced Nuns of Or Lady of Carmel of the First Rule. [6]

General Argument of this Book

J. H. S.

This book treats of maxims and counsels which Teresa of Jesus gives to her
daughters and sisters in religion, belonging to the Convents which, with the
favour of Our Lord and of the glorious Virgin, Mother of God, Our Lady, she
has founded according to the First Rule of Our Lady of Carmel. In particular
she addresses it to the sisters of the Convent of Saint Joseph ofvila,
which was the first Convent, and of which she was Prioress when she wrote
it. [7]
_________________________________________________________________

PROTESTATIONS [8]

In all that I shall say in this Book, I submit to what is taught by Our
Mother, the Holy Roman Church; if there is anything in it contrary to this,
it will be without my knowledge. Therefore, for the love of Our Lord, I beg
the learned men who are to revise it to look at it very carefully and to
amend any faults of this nature which there may be in it and the many others
which it will have of other kinds. If there is anything good in it, let this
be to the glory and honour of God and in the service of His most sacred
Mother, our Patroness and Lady, whose habit, though all unworthily, I wear.
_________________________________________________________________

[8] This Protestation, taken from T., was dictated by St. Teresa for the
edition of the Way of perfection published at‰vora in 1583 by D. Teutonio
de Braganza.
_________________________________________________________________

PROLOGUE

J. H. S.

The sisters of this Convent of Saint Joseph, knowing that I had had leave
from Father Presentado Fray Domingo Baes, [9] of the Order of the glorious
Saint Dominic, who at present is my confessor, to write certain things about
prayer, which it seems I may be able to succeed in doing since I have had to
do with many holy and spiritual persons, have, out of their great love for
me, so earnestly begged me to say something to them about this that I have
resolved to obey them. I realize that the great love which they have for me
may render the imperfection and the poverty of my style in what I shall say
to them more acceptable than other books which are very ably written by
those who [10] have known what they are writing about. I rely upon their
prayers, by means of which the Lord may be pleased to enable me to say
something concerning the way and method of life which it is fitting should
be practised in this house. If I do not succeed in doing this, Father
Presentado, who will first read what I have written, will either put it
right or burn it, so that I shall have lost nothing by obeying these
servants of God, and they will see how useless I am when His Majesty does
not help me.

My intent is to suggest a few remedies for a number of small temptations
which come from the devil, and which, because they are so slight, are apt to
pass unnoticed. I shall also write of other things, according as the Lord
reveals them to me and as they come to my mind; since I do not know what I
am going to say I cannot set it down in suitable order; and I think it is
better for me not to do so, for it is quite unsuitable that I should be
writing in this way at all. May the Lord lay His hand on all that I do so
that it may be in accordance with His holy will; this is always my desire,
although my actions may be as imperfect as I myself am.

I know that I am lacking neither in love nor in desire to do all I can to
help the souls of my sisters to make great progress in the service of the
Lord. It may be that this love, together with my years and the experience
which I have of a number of convents, will make me more successful in
writing about small matters than learned men can be. For these, being
themselves strong and handing other and more important occupations, do not
always pay such heed to things which in themselves seem of no importance but
which may do great harm to persons as weak as we women are. For the snares
laid by the devil for strictly cloistered nuns are numerous and he finds
that he needs new weapons if he is to do them harm. I, being a wicked woman,
have defended myself but ill, and so I should like my sisters to take
warning by me. I shall speak of nothing of which I have no experience,
either in my own life or in the observation of others, or which the Lord has
not taught me in prayer.

A few days ago I was commanded to write an account of my life in which I
also dealt with certain matters concerning prayer. It may be that my
confessor will not wish you to see this, for which reason I shall set down
here some of the things which I said in that book and others which may also
seem to me necessary. May the Lord direct this, as I have begged Him to do,
and order it for His greater glory. Amen.
_________________________________________________________________

[9] The wordsFray Domingo Baes are crossed out, probably by P. Baez
himself. T. has:from the Father Master Fray Domingo Baez, Professor at
Salamanca. Baez was appointed to a Chair at Salamanca University in 1577.

[10] The pronoun (quien) in the Spanish is singular, but in the sixteenth
century it could have plural force and the context would favour this. A
manuscript note in V., however (not by P. Baez, as the Paris Carmelites”
Oeuvres, V, 30”suggest), evidently takes the reference to be to St. Gregory,
for it says:And he wrote something on Job, and the Morals, importuned by
servants of God, and trusting in their prayers, as he himself says.
_________________________________________________________________

[5] With few exceptions, the footnotes to the Way of perfection are the
translators. Square brackets are therefore not used to distinguish them from
those of P. Silverio, as elsewhere. Ordinary brackets, in the footnote
translations, are placed round words inserted to complete the sense.

[6] This title, in St. Teresas hand, appears on the first page of the
Valladolid autograph (V.) which, as we have said in the Introduction, is the
basis of the text here used. The Escorial autograph (E.) has the words
Treatise of the Way of Perfection in an unknown hand, followed by the
Prologue, in St. Teresas. The Toledo copy (T.) begins with the
Protestation.

[7] These lines, also in St. Teresas hand, follow the title in the
Valladolid autograph. P. Baez added, in his own writing, the words:I have
seen this book and my opinion of it is written at the end and signed with my
name. Cf. ch. 42, below.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 1
Of the reason which moved me to found this convent in such strict observance.

When this convent was originally founded, for the reasons set down in the
book which, as I say, I have already written, and also because of certain
wonderful revelations by which the Lord showed me how well He would be
served in this house, it was not my intention that there should be so much
austerity in external matters, nor that it should have no regular income: on
the contrary, I should have liked there to be no possibility of want. I
acted, in short, like the weak and wretched woman that I am, although I did
so with good intentions and not out of consideration for my own comfort.

At about this time there came to my notice the harm and havoc that were
being wrought in France by these Lutherans and the way in which their
unhappy sect was increasing. [11] This troubled me very much, and, as though
I could do anything, or be of any help in the matter, I wept before the Lord
and entreated Him to remedy this great evil. I felt that I would have laid
down a thousand lives to save a single one of all the souls that were being
lost there. And, seeing that I was a woman, and a sinner, [12] and incapable
of doing all I should like in the Lords service, and as my whole yearning
was, and still is, that, as He has so many enemies and so few friends, these
last should be trusty ones, I determined to do the little that was in
me”namely, to follow the evangelical counsels as perfectly as I could, and
to see that these few nuns who are here should do the same, confiding in the
great goodness of God, Who never fails to help those who resolve to forsake
everything for His sake. As they are all that I have ever painted them as
being in my desires, I hoped that their virtues would more than counteract
my defects, and I should thus be able to give the Lord some pleasure, and
all of us, by busying ourselves in prayer for those who are defenders of the
Church, and for the preachers and learned men who defend her, should do
everything we could to aid this Lord of mine Who is so much oppressed by
those to whom He has shown so much good that it seems as though these
traitors would send Him to the Cross again and that He would have nowhere to
lay His head.

Oh, my Redeemer, my heart cannot conceive this without being sorely
distressed! What has become of Christians now? Must those who owe Thee most
always be those who distress Thee? Those to whom Thou doest the greatest
kindnesses, whom Thou dost choose for Thy friends, among whom Thou dost
move, communicating Thyself to them through the Sacraments? Do they not
think, Lord of my soul, that they have made Thee endure more than sufficient
torments?

It is certain, my Lord, that in these days withdrawal from the world means
no sacrifice at all. Since worldly people have so little respect for Thee,
what can we expect them to have for us? Can it be that we deserve that they
should treat us any better than they have treated Thee? Have we done more
for them than Thou hast done that they should be friendly to us? What then?
What can we expect”we who, through the goodness of the Lord, are free from
that pestilential infection, and do not, like those others, belong to the
devil? They have won severe punishment at his hands and their pleasures have
richly earned them eternal fire. So to eternal fire they will have to go,
[13] though none the less it breaks my heart to see so many souls travelling
to perdition. I would the evil were not so great and I did not see more
being lost every day.

Oh, my sisters in Christ! Help me to entreat this of the Lord, Who has
brought you together here for that very purpose. This is your vocation; this
must be your business; these must be your desires; these your tears; these
your petitions. Let us not pray for worldly things, my sisters. It makes me
laugh, and yet it makes me sad, when I hear of the things which people come
here to beg us to pray to God for; we are to ask His Majesty to give them
money and to provide them with incomes”I wish that some of these people
would entreat God to enable them to trample all such things beneath their
feet. Their intentions are quite good, and I do as they ask because I see
that they are really devout people, though I do not myself believe that God
ever hears me when I pray for such things. The world is on fire. Men try to
condemn Christ once again, as it were, for they bring a thousand false
witnesses against Him. They would raze His Church to the ground”and are we
to waste our time upon things which, if God were to grant them, would
perhaps bring one soul less to Heaven? No, my sisters, this is no time to
treat with God for things of little importance.

Were it not necessary to consider human frailty, which finds satisfaction in
every kind of help”and it is always a good thing if we can be of any help to
people”I should like it to be understood that it is not for things like
these that God should be importuned with such anxiety.
_________________________________________________________________

[11] French Protestantism which had been repressed during the reigns of
Francis I and Henry II, increased after the latters death in 1559, and was
still doing so at the time of the foundation of St. Josephs.

[12] Lit.:and bad.

[13] All¡ se lo hayan.And serve them right! would, in most contexts, be a
more exact rendering of this colloquial phrase, but there is no suspicion of
Schadenfreude here.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 2
Treats of how the necessities of the body should be disregarded and of the good
that comes from poverty.

Do not think, my sisters, that because you do not go about trying to please
people in the world you will lack food. You will not, I assure you: never
try to sustain yourselves by human artifices, or you will die of hunger, and
rightly so. Keep your eyes fixed upon your Spouse: it is for Him to sustain
you; and, if He is pleased with you, even those who like you least will give
you food, if unwillingly, as you have found by experience. If you should do
as I say and yet die of hunger, then happy are the nuns of Saint Josephs!
For the love of the Lord, let us not forget this: you have forgone a regular
income; forgo worry about food as well, or thou will lose everything. Let
those whom the Lord wishes to live on an income do so: if that is their
vocation, they are perfectly justified; but for us to do so, sisters, would
be inconsistent.

Worrying about getting money from other people seems to me like thinking
about what other people enjoy. However much you worry, you will not make
them change their minds nor will they become desirous of giving you alms.
Leave these anxieties to Him Who can move everyone, Who is the Lord of all
money and of all who possess money. It is by His command that we have come
here and His words are true”they cannot fail: Heaven and earth will fail
first. [14] Let us not fail Him, and let us have no fear that He will fail
us; if He should ever do so it will be for our greater good, just as the
saints failed to keep their lives when they were slain for the Lords sake,
and their bliss was increased through their martyrdom. We should be making a
good exchange if we could have done with this life quickly and enjoy
everlasting satiety.

Remember, sisters, that this will be important when I am dead; and that is
why I am leaving it to you in writing. For, with Gods help, as long as I
live, I will remind you of it myself, as I know by experience what a great
help it will be to you. It is when I possess least that I have the fewest
worries and the Lord knows that, as far as I can tell, I am more afflicted
when there is excess of anything than when there is lack of it; I am not
sure if that is the Lords doing, but I have noticed that He provides for us
immediately. To act otherwise would be to deceive the world by pretending to
be poor when we are not poor in spirit but only outwardly. My conscience
would give me a bad time. It seems to me it would be like stealing what was
being given us, as one might say; for I should feel as if we were rich
people asking alms: please God this may never be so. Those who worry too
much about the alms that they are likely to be given will find that sooner
or later this bad habit will lead them to go and ask for something which
they do not need, and perhaps from someone who needs it more than they do.
Such a person would gain rather than lose by giving it us but we should
certainly be the worse off for having it. God forbid this should ever
happen, my daughters; if it were likely to do so, I should prefer you to
have a regular income.

I beg you, for the love of God, just as if I were begging alms for you,
never to allow this to occupy your thoughts. If the very least of you ever
hears of such a thing happening in this house, cry out about it to His
Majesty and speak to your Superior. Tell her humbly that she is doing wrong;
this is so serious a matter that it may cause true poverty gradually to
disappear. I hope in the Lord that this will not be so and that He will not
forsake His servants; and for that reason, if for no other, what you have
told me to write may be useful to you as a reminder.

My daughters must believe that it is for their own good that the Lord has
enabled me to realize in some small degree what blessings are to be found in
holy poverty. Those of them who practise it will also realize this, though
perhaps not as clearly as I do; for, although I had professed poverty, I was
not only without poverty of spirit, but my spirit was devoid of all
restraint. Poverty is good and contains within itself all the good things in
the world. It is a great domain” I mean that he who cares nothing for the
good things of the world has dominion over them all. What do kings and lords
matter to me if I have no desire to possess their money, or to please them,
if by so doing I should cause the least displeasure to God? And what do
their honours mean to me if I have realized that the chief honour of a poor
man consists in his being truly poor?

For my own part, I believe that honour and money nearly always go together,
and that he who desires honour never hates money, while he who hates money
cares little for honour. Understand this clearly, for I think this concern
about honour always implies some slight regard for endowments or money:
seldom or never is a poor man honoured by the world; however worthy of
honour he may be, he is apt rather to be despised by it. With true poverty
there goes a different kind of honour to which nobody can take objection. I
mean that, if poverty is embraced for Gods sake alone, no one has to be
pleased save God. It is certain that a man who has no need of anyone has
many friends: in my own experience I have found this to be very true.

A great deal has been written about this virtue which I cannot understand,
still less express, and I should only be making things worse if I were to
eulogize it, so I will say no more about it now. I have only spoken of what
I have myself experienced and I confess that I have been so much absorbed
that until now I have hardly realized what I have been writing. However, it
has been said now. Our arms are holy poverty, which was so greatly esteemed
and so strictly observed by our holy Fathers at the beginning of the
foundation of our Order. (Someone who knows about this tells me that they
never kept anything from one day to the next.) For the love of the Lord,
then, [I beg you] now that the rule of poverty is less perfectly observed as
regards outward things, let us strive to observe it inwardly. Our life lasts
only for a couple of hours; our reward is boundless; and, if there were no
reward but to follow the counsels given us by the Lord, to imitate His
Majesty in any degree would bring us a great recompense.

These arms must appear on our banners and at all costs we must keep this
rule”as regards our house, our clothes, our speech, and (which is much more
important) our thoughts. So long as this is done, there need be no fear,
with the help of God, that religious observances in this house will decline,
for, as Saint Clare said, the walls of poverty are very strong. It was with
these walls, she said, and with those of humility, that she wished to
surround her convents; and assuredly, if the rule of poverty is truly kept,
both chastity and all the other virtues are fortified much better than by
the most sumptuous edifices. Have a care to this, for the love of God; and
this I beg of you by His blood. If I may say what my conscience bids me, I
should wish that, on the day when you build such edifices, they [15] may
fall down and kill you all.

It seems very wrong, my daughters, that great houses should be built with
the money of the poor; may God forbid that this should be done; let our
houses be small and poor in every way. Let us to some extent resemble our
King, Who had no house save the porch in Bethlehem where He was born and the
Cross on which He died. These were houses where little comfort could be
found. Those who erect large houses will no doubt have good reasons for
doing so. I do not utterly condemn them: they are moved by various holy
intentions. But any corner is sufficient for thirteen poor women. If grounds
should be thought necessary on account of the strictness of the enclosure,
and also as an aid to prayer and devotion, and because our miserable nature
needs such things, well and good; and let there be a few hermitages [16] in
them in which the sisters may go to pray. But as for a large ornate convent,
with a lot of buildings”God preserve us from that! Always remember that
these things will all fall down on the Day of Judgment, and who knows how
soon that will be?

It would hardly look well if the house of thirteen poor women made a great
noise when it fell, for those who are really poor must make no noise: unless
they live a noiseless life people will never take pity on them. And how
happy my sisters will be if they see someone freed from hell by means of the
alms which he has given them; and this is quite possible, since they are
strictly bound to offer continual prayer for persons who give them food. It
is also Gods will that, although the food comes from Him, we should thank
the persons by whose means He gives it to us: let there be no neglect of
this.

I do not remember what I had begun to say, for I have strayed from my
subject. But I think this must have been the Lords will, for I never
intended to write what I have said here. May His Majesty always keep us in
His hand so that we may never fall. Amen.
_________________________________________________________________

[14] An apparent reference to St. Mark xiii, 31.

[15] In the Spanish the subject is in the singular: P. Baez insertedthe
house, but crossed this out later.

[16] St. Teresa liked to have hermitages in the grounds of her convents to
give the nuns opportunity for solitude.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 3
Continues the subject begun in the first chapter and persuades the sisters to
busy themselves constantly in beseeching God to help those who work for the
Church. Ends with an exclamatory prayer.

Let us now return to the principal reason for which the Lord has brought us
together in this house, for which reason I am most desirous that we may be
able to please His Majesty. Seeing how great are the evils of the present
day and how no human strength will suffice to quench the fire kindled by
these heretics (though attempts have been made to organize opposition to
them, as though such a great and rapidly spreading evil could be remedied by
force of arms), it seems to me that it is like a war in which the enemy has
overrun the whole country, and the Lord of the country, hard pressed,
retires into a city, which he causes to be well fortified, and whence from
time to time he is able to attack. Those who are in the city are picked men
who can do more by themselves than they could do with the aid of many
soldiers if they were cowards. Often this method gains the victory; or, if
the garrison does not conquer, it is at least not conquered; for, as it
contains no traitors, but picked men, it can be reduced only by hunger. In
our own conflict, however, we cannot be forced to surrender by hunger; we
can die but we cannot be conquered.

Now why have I said this? So that you may understand, my sisters, that what
we have to ask of God is that, in this little castle of ours, inhabited as
it is by good Christians, none of us may go over to the enemy. We must ask
God, too, to make the captains in this castle or city”that is, the preachers
and theologians”highly proficient in the way of the Lord. And as most of
these are religious, we must pray that they may advance in perfection, and
in the fulfilment of their vocation, for this is very needful. For, as I
have already said, it is the ecclesiastical and not the secular arm which
must defend us. And as we can do nothing by either of these means to help
our King, let us strive to live in such a way that our prayers may be of
avail to help these servants of God, who, at the cost of so much toil, have
fortified themselves with learning and virtuous living and have laboured to
help the Lord.

You may ask why I emphasize this so much and why I say we must help people
who are better than ourselves. I will tell you, for I am not sure if you
properly understand as yet how much we owe to the Lord for bringing us to a
place where we are so free from business matters, occasions of sin and the
society of worldly people. This is a very great favour and one which is not
granted to the persons of whom I have been speaking, nor is it fitting that
it should be granted to them; it would be less so now, indeed, than at any
other time, for it is they who must strengthen the weak and give courage to
Gods little ones. A fine thing it would be for soldiers if they lost their
captains! These preachers and theologians have to live among men and
associate with men and stay in palaces and sometimes even behave as people
in palaces do in outward matters. Do you think, my daughters, that it is an
easy matter to have to do business with the world, to live in the world, to
engage in the affairs of the world, and, as I have said, to live as worldly
men do, and yet inwardly to be strangers to the world, and enemies of the
world, like persons who are in exile”to be, in short, not men but angels?
Yet unless these persons act thus, they neither deserve to bear the title of
captain nor to be allowed by the Lord to leave their cells, for they would
do more harm than good. This is no time for imperfections in those whose
duty it is to teach.

And if these teachers are not inwardly fortified by realizing the great
importance of spurning everything beneath their feet and by being detached
from things which come to an end on earth, and attached to things eternal,
they will betray this defect in themselves, however much they may try to
hide it. For with whom are they dealing but with the world? They need not
fear: the world will not pardon them or fail to observe their imperfections.
Of the good things they do many will pass unnoticed, or will even not be
considered good at all; but they need not fear that any evil or imperfect
thing they do will be overlooked. I am amazed when I wonder from whom they
learned about perfection, when, instead of practising it themselves (for
they think they have no obligation to do that and have done quite enough by
a reasonable observance of the Commandments), they condemn others, and at
times mistake virtue for indulgence. Do not think, then, that they need but
little Divine favour in this great battle upon which they have entered; on
the contrary, they need a great deal.

I beg you to try to live in such a way as to be worthy to obtain two things
from God. First, that there may be many of these very learned and religious
men who have the qualifications for their task which I have described, and
that the Lord may prepare those who are not completely prepared already and
who lack anything, for a single one who is perfect will do more than many
who are not. Secondly, that after they have entered upon this struggle,
which, as I say, is not light, but a very heavy one, the Lord may have them
in His hand so that they may be delivered from all the dangers that are in
the world, and, while sailing on this perilous sea, may shut their ears to
the song of the sirens. If we can prevail with God in the smallest degree
about this, we shall be fighting His battle even while living a cloistered
life and I shall consider as well spent all the trouble to which I have gone
in founding this retreat, [17] where I have also tried to ensure that this
Rule of Our Lady and Empress shall be kept in its original perfection.

Do not think that offering this petition continually is useless. Some people
think it a hardship not to be praying all the time for their own souls. Yet
what better prayer could there be than this? You may be worried because you
think it will do nothing to lessen your pains in Purgatory, but actually
praying in this way will relieve you of some of them and anything else that
is left”well, let it remain. After all, what does it matter if I am in
Purgatory until the Day of Judgment provided a single soul should be saved
through my prayer? And how much less does it matter if many souls profit by
it and the Lord is honoured! Make no account of any pain which has an end if
by means of it any greater service can be rendered to Him Who bore such
pains for us. Always try to find out wherein lies the greatest perfection.
And for the love of the Lord I beg you to beseech His Majesty to hear us in
this; I, miserable creature though I am, beseech this of His Majesty, since
it is for His glory and the good of His Church, which are my only wishes.

It seems over-bold of me to think that I can do anything towards obtaining
this. But I have confidence, my Lord, in these servants of Thine who are
here, knowing that they neither desire nor strive after anything but to
please Thee. For Thy sake they have left the little they possessed, wishing
they had more so that they might serve Thee with it. Since Thou, my Creator,
art not ungrateful, I do not think Thou wilt fail to do what they beseech of
Thee, for when Thou wert in the world, Lord, Thou didst not despise women,
but didst always help them and show them great compassion. [18] Thou didst
find more faith and no less love in them than in men, and one of them was
Thy most sacred Mother, from whose merits we derive merit, and whose habit
we wear, though our sins make us unworthy to do so. [19] We can do nothing
in public that is of any use to Thee, nor dare we speak of some of the
truths over which we weep in secret lest Thou shouldst not hear this our
just petition. Yet, Lord I cannot believe this of Thy goodness and
righteousness, for Thou art a righteous Judge, not like judges in the world,
who, being, after all, men and sons of Adam, refuse to consider any womans
virtue as above suspicion. Yes, my King, but the day will come when all will
be known. I am not speaking on my own account, for the whole world is
already aware of my wickedness, and I am glad that it should become known;
but, when I see what the times are like, I feel it is not right to repel
spirits which are virtuous and brave, even though they be the spirits of
women.

Hear us not when we ask Thee for honours, endowments, money, or anything
that has to do with the world; but why shouldst Thou not hear us, Eternal
Father, when we ask only for the honour of Thy Son, when we would forfeit a
thousand honours and a thousand lives for Thy sake? Not for ourselves, Lord,
for we do not deserve to be heard, but for the blood of Thy Son and for His
merits.

Oh, Eternal Father! Surely all these scourgings and insults and grievous
tortures will not be forgotten. How, then, my Creator, can a heart so
[merciful and] loving as Thine endure that an act which was performed by Thy
Son in order to please Thee the more (for He loved Thee most deeply and Thou
didst command Him to love us) should be treated as lightly as those heretics
treat the Most Holy Sacrament today, in taking it from its resting-place
when they destroy the churches? Could it be that [Thy Son and our Redeemer]
had failed to do something to please Thee? No: He fulfilled everything. Was
it not enough, Eternal Father, that while He lived He had no place to lay
His head and had always to endure so many trials? Must they now deprive Him
of the places [20] to which He can invite His friends, seeing how weak we
are and knowing that those who have to labour need such food to sustain
them? Had He not already more than sufficiently paid for the sin of Adam?
Has this most loving Lamb to pay once more whenever we relapse into sin?
Permit it not, my Emperor; let Thy Majesty be appeased; look not upon our
sins but upon our redemption by Thy Most Sacred Son, upon His merits and
upon those of His glorious Mother and of all the saints and martyrs who have
died for Thee.

Alas, Lord, who is it that has dared to make this petition in the name of
all? What a poor mediator am I, my daughters, to gain a hearing for you and
to present your petition! When this Sovereign Judge sees how bold I am it
may well move Him to anger, as would be both right and just. But behold,
Lord, Thou art a God of mercy; have mercy upon this poor sinner, this
miserable worm who is so bold with Thee. Behold my desires, my God, and the
tears with which I beg this of Thee; forget my deeds, for Thy names sake,
and have pity upon all these souls who are being lost, and help Thy Church.
Do not permit more harm to be wrought to Christendom, Lord; give light to
this darkness.

For the love of the Lord, my sisters, I beg you to commend this poor sinner
[21] to His Majesty and to beseech Him to give her humility, as you are
bound to do. I do not charge you to pray particularly for kings and prelates
of the Church, especially for our Bishop, for I know that those of you now
here are very careful about this and so I think it is needless for me to say
more. Let those who are to come remember that, if they have a prelate who is
holy, those under him will be holy too, and let them realize how important
it is to bring him continually before the Lord. If your prayers and desires
and disciplines and fasts are not performed for the intentions of which I
have spoken, reflect [and believe] that you are not carrying out the work or
fulfilling the object for which the Lord has brought you here.
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[17] Lit.:making this corner. The reference is to St. Josephs,vila.

[18] The italicized lines which follow, and are in the nature of a
digression, do not appear in V., and in E. they have been crossed out.

[19] Here follow two erased lines which are illegible but for the words
Thou didst honour the world. The exact sense of the following words (We
can . . . in secret) is affected by these illegible lines and must be
considered uncertain.

[20] Lit.:of those. P. Baez wrote in the marginof the mansions using
the word which is thus translated in the titles of the seven main divisions
of the Interior Castle. T. has:of the houses.

[21] Lit.,poor little one.
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CHAPTER 4
Exhorts the nuns to keep their Rule and names three things which are important
for the spiritual life. Describes the first of these three things, which is
love of ones neighbour, and speaks of the harm which can be done by individual
friendships.

Now, daughters, you have looked at the great enterprise which we are trying
to carry out. What kind of persons shall we have to be if we are not to be
considered over-bold in the eyes of God and of the world? It is clear that
we need to labour hard and it will be a great help to us if we have sublime
thoughts so that we may strive to make our actions sublime also. If we
endeavour to observe our Rule and Constitutions in the fullest sense, and
with great care, I hope in the Lord that He will grant our requests. I am
not asking anything new of you, my daughters”only that we should hold to our
profession, which, as it is our vocation, we are bound to do, although there
are many ways of holding to it.

Our Primitive Rules tells us to pray without ceasing. Provided we do this
with all possible care (and it is the most important thing of all) we shall
not fail to observe the fasts, disciplines and periods of silence which the
Order commands; for, as you know, if prayer is to be genuine it must be
reinforced with these things”prayer cannot be accompanied by
self-indulgence.

It is about prayer that you have asked me to say something to you. As an
acknowledgment of what I shall say, I beg you to read frequently and with a
good will what I have said about it thus far, and to put this into practice.
Before speaking of the interior life”that is, of prayer”I shall speak of
certain things which those who attempt to walk along the way of prayer must
of necessity practise. So necessary are these that, even though not greatly
given to contemplation, people who have them can advance a long way in the
Lords service, while, unless they have them, they cannot possibly be great
contemplatives, and, if they think they are, they are much mistaken. May the
Lord help me in this task and teach me what I must say, so that it may be to
His glory. Amen.

Do not suppose, my friends and sisters, that I am going to charge you to do
a great many things; may it please the Lord that we do the things which our
holy Fathers ordained and practised and by doing which they merited that
name. It would be wrong of us to look for any other way or to learn from
anyone else. There are only three things which I will explain at some length
and which are taken from our Constitution itself. It is essential that we
should understand how very important they are to us in helping us to
preserve that peace, both inward and outward, which the Lord so earnestly
recommended to us. One of these is love for each other; the second,
detachment from all created things; the third, true humility, which,
although I put it last, is the most important of the three and embraces all
the rest.

With regard to the first”namely, love for each other” this is of very great
importance; for there is nothing, however annoying, that cannot easily be
borne by those who love each other, and anything which causes annoyance must
be quite exceptional. If this commandment were kept in the world, as it
should be, I believe it would take us a long way towards the keeping of the
rest; but, what with having too much love for each other or too little, we
never manage to keep it perfectly. It may seem that for us to have too much
love for each other cannot be wrong, but I do not think anyone who had not
been an eye-witness of it would believe how much evil and how many
imperfections can result from this. The devil sets many snares here which
the consciences of those who aim only in a rough-and-ready way at pleasing
God seldom observe” indeed, they think they are acting virtuously”but those
who are aiming at perfection understand what they are very well: little by
little they deprive the will of the strength which it needs if it is to
employ itself wholly in the love of God.

This is even more applicable to women than to men and the harm which it does
to community life is very serious. One result of it is that all the nuns do
not love each other equally: some injury done to a friend is resented; a nun
desires to have something to give to her friend or tries to make time for
talking to her, and often her object in doing this is to tell her how fond
she is of her, and other irrelevant things, rather than how much she loves
God. These intimate friendships are seldom calculated [22] to make for the
love of God; I am more inclined to believe that the devil initiates them so
as to create factions within religious Orders. When a friendship has for its
object the service of His Majesty, it at once becomes clear that the will is
devoid of passion and indeed is helping to conquer other passions.

Where a convent is large I should like to see many friendships of that type;
but in this house, where there are not, and can never be, more than thirteen
nuns, all must be friends with each other, love each other, be fond of each
other and help each other. For the love of the Lord, refrain from making
individual friendships, however holy, for even among brothers and sisters
such things are apt to be poisonous and I can see no advantage in them; when
they are between other relatives, [23] they are much more dangerous and
become a pest. Believe me, sisters, though I may seem to you extreme in
this, great perfection and great peace come of doing what I say and many
occasions of sin may be avoided by those who are not very strong. If our
will becomes inclined more to one person than to another (this cannot be
helped, because it is natural”it often leads us to love the person who has
the most faults if she is the most richly endowed by nature), we must
exercise a firm restraint on ourselves and not allow ourselves to be
conquered by our affection. Let us love the virtues and inward goodness, and
let us always apply ourselves and take care to avoid attaching importance to
externals.

Let us not allow our will to be the slave of any, sisters, save of Him Who
bought it with His blood. Otherwise, before we know where we are, we shall
find ourselves trapped, and unable to move. God help me! The puerilities
which result from this are innumerable. And, because they are so trivial
that only those who see how bad they are will realize and believe it, there
is no point in speaking of them here except to say that they are wrong in
anyone, and, in a prioress, pestilential.

In checking these preferences we must be strictly on the alert from the
moment that such a friendship begins and we must proceed diligently and
lovingly rather than severely. One effective precaution against this is that
the sisters should not be together except at the prescribed hours, and that
they should follow our present custom in not talking with one another, or
being alone together, as is laid down in the Rule: each one should be alone
in her cell. There must be no workroom at Saint Josephs; for, although it
is a praiseworthy custom to have one, it is easier to keep silence if one is
alone, and getting used to solitude is a great help to prayer. Since prayer
must be the foundation on which this house is built, it is necessary for us
to learn to like whatever gives us the greatest help in it.

Returning to the question of our love for one another, it seems quite
unnecessary to commend this to you, for where are there people so brutish as
not to love one another when they live together, are continually in one
anothers company, indulge in no conversation, association or recreation
with any outside their house and believe that God loves us and that they
themselves love God since they are leaving everything for His Majesty? More
especially is this so as virtue always attracts love, and I hope in God
that, with the help of His Majesty, there will always be love in the sisters
of this house. It seems to me, therefore, that there is no reason for me to
commend this to you any further.

With regard to the nature of this mutual love and what is meant by the
virtuous love which I wish you to have here, and how we shall know when we
have this virtue, which is a very great one, since Our Lord has so strongly
commended it to us and so straitly enjoined it upon His Apostles”about all
this I should like to say a little now as well as my lack of skill will
allow me; if you find this explained in great detail in other books, take no
notice of what I am saying here, for it may be that I do not understand what
I am talking about.

There are two kinds of love which I am describing. The one is purely
spiritual, and apparently has nothing to do with sensuality or the
tenderness of our nature, either of which might stain its purity. The other
is also spiritual, but mingled with it are our sensuality and weakness; [24]
yet it is a worthy love, which, as between relatives and friends, seems
lawful. Of this I have already said sufficient.

It is of the first kind of spiritual love that I would now speak. It is
untainted by any sort of passion, for such a thing would completely spoil
its harmony. If it leads us to treat virtuous people, especially confessors,
with moderation and discretion, it is profitable; but, if the confessor is
seen to be tending in any way towards vanity, he should be regarded with
grave suspicion, and, in such a case, conversation with him, however
edifying, should be avoided, and the sister should make her confession
briefly and say nothing more. It would be best for her, indeed, to tell the
superior that she does not get on with him and go elsewhere; this is the
safest way, providing it can be done without injuring his reputation. [25]

In such cases, and in other difficulties with which the devil might ensnare
us, so that we have no idea where to turn, the safest thing will be for the
sister to try to speak with some learned person; if necessary, permission to
do this can be given her, and she can make her confession to him and act in
the matter as he directs her. For he cannot fail to give her some good
advice about it, without which she might go very far astray. How often
people stray through not taking advice, especially when there is a risk of
doing someone harm! The course that must on no account be followed is to do
nothing at all; for, when the devil begins to make trouble in this way, he
will do a great deal of harm if he is not stopped quickly; the plan I have
suggested, then, of trying to consult another confessor is the safest one if
it is practicable, and I hope in the Lord that it will be so.

Reflect upon the great importance of this, for it is a dangerous matter, and
can be a veritable hell, and a source of harm to everyone. I advise you not
to wait until a great deal of harm has been done but to take every possible
step that you can think of and stop the trouble at the outset; this you may
do with a good conscience. But I hope in the Lord that He will not allow
persons who are to spend their lives in prayer to have any attachment save
to one who is a great servant of God; and I am quite certain He will not,
unless they have no love for prayer and for striving after perfection in the
way we try to do here. For, unless they see that he understands their
language and likes to speak to them of God, they cannot possibly love him,
as he is not like them. If he is such a person, he will have very few
opportunities of doing any harm, and, unless he is very simple, he will not
seek to disturb his own peace of mind and that of the servants of God.

As I have begun to speak about this, I will repeat that the devil can do a
great deal of harm here, which will long remain undiscovered, and thus the
soul that is striving after perfection can be gradually ruined without
knowing how. For, if a confessor gives occasion for vanity through being
vain himself, he will be very tolerant with it in [the consciences of]
others. May God, for His Majestys own sake, deliver us from things of this
kind. It would be enough to unsettle all the nuns if their consciences and
their confessor should give them exactly opposite advice, and, if it is
insisted that they must have one confessor only, they will not know what to
do, nor how to pacify their minds, since the very person who should be
calming them and helping them is the source of the harm. In some places
there must be a great deal of trouble of this kind: I always feel very sorry
about it and so you must not be surprised if I attach great importance to
your understanding this danger.
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Appendix To Chapter 4

The following variant reading of the Escorial Manuscript seems too important
to be relegated to a footnote. It occurs the twelfth paragraph of ch. 4 (cf.
n. 24) , and deals, as will be seen, with the qualifications and character
of the confessor. Many editors substitute it in their text for the
corresponding passage in V. As will be seen, however, it is not a pure
addition; we therefore reproduce it separately.

The important thing is that these two kinds of mutual love should be
untainted by any sort of passion, for such a thing would completely spoil
this harmony. If we exercise this love, of which I have spoken, with
moderation and discretion, it is wholly meritorious, because what seems to
us sensuality is turned into virtue. But the two may be so closely
intertwined with one another that it is sometimes impossible to distinguish
them, especially where a confessor is concerned. For if persons who are
practising prayer find that their confessor is a holy man and understands
the way they behave, they become greatly attached to him. And then forthwith
the devil lets loose upon them a whole battery of scruples which produce a
terrible disturbance within the soul, this being what he is aiming at. In
particular, if the confessor is guiding such persons to greater perfection,
they become so depressed that they will go so far as to leave him for
another and yet another, only to be tormented by the same temptation every
time.

What you can do here is not to let your minds dwell upon whether you like
your confessor or not, but just to like him if you feel so inclined. For, if
we grow fond of people who are kind to our bodies, why should we not love
those who are always striving and toiling to help our souls? Actually, if my
confessor is a holy and spiritual man and I see that he is taking great
pains for the benefit of my soul, I think it will be a real help to my
progress for me to like him. For so weak are we that such affection
sometimes helps us a great deal to undertake very great things in Gods
service.

But, if your confessor is not such a person as I have described, there is a
possibility of danger, and for him to know that you like him may do the
greatest harm, most of all in houses where the nuns are very strictly
enclosed. And as it is a difficult thing to get to know which confessors are
good, great care and caution are necessary. The best advice to give would be
that you should see he has no idea of your affection for him and is not told
about it. But the devil is so active that this is not practicable: you feel
as if this is the only thing you have to confess and imagine you are obliged
to confess it. For this reason I should like you to think that your
affection for him is of no importance and to take no more notice of it.

Follow this advice if you find that everything your confessor says to you
profits your soul; if you neither see nor hear him indulge in any vanity
(and such things are always noticed except by one who is wilfully dull) and
if you know him to be a God-fearing man, do not be distressed over any
temptation about being too fond of him, and the devil will then grow tired
and stop tempting you. But if you notice that the confessor is tending in
any way towards vanity in what he says to you, you should regard him with
grave suspicion; in such a case conversation with him, even about prayer and
about God, should be avoided”the sister should make her confession briefly
and say nothing more. It would be best for her to tell the Mother (Superior)
that she does not get on with him and go elsewhere. This is the safest way
if it is practicable, and I hope in God that it will be, and that you will
do all you possibly can to have no relations with him, though this may be
very painful for you.

Reflect upon the great importance of this, etc. (pp. 58-9).
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[22] Lit.:are seldom ordered in such a way as.

[23]Other is not in the Spanish.When they are only between, is the
reading of T., which also omits:and become a pest.

[24] Here begins the passage reproduced in the Appendix to Chapter 4, below.

[25] Honra.
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CHAPTER 5
Continues speaking of confessors. Explains why it is important that they should
be learned men.

May the Lord grant, for His Majestys own sake, that no one in this house
shall experience the trials that have been described, or find herself
oppressed in this way in soul and body. I hope the superior will never be so
intimate with the confessor that no one will dare to say anything about him
to her or about her to him. For this will tempt unfortunate penitents to
leave very grave sins unconfessed because they will feel uncomfortable about
confessing them. God help me! What trouble the devil can make here and how
dearly people have to pay for their miserable worries and concern about
honour! If they consult only one confessor, they think they are acting in
the interests of their Order and for the greater honour of their convent:
and that is the way the devil lays his snares for souls when he can find no
other. If the poor sisters ask for another confessor, they are told that
this would mean the complete end of all discipline in the convent; and, if
he is not a priest of their Order, even though he be a saint, they are led
to believe that they would be disgracing their entire Order by consulting
him.

Give great praise to God, Daughters, for this liberty that you have, for,
though there are not a great many priests whom you can consult, there are a
few, other than your ordinary confessors, who can give you light upon
everything. I beg every superior, [26] for the love of the Lord, to allow a
holy liberty here: let the Bishop or Provincial be approached for leave for
the sisters to go from time to time beyond their ordinary confessors and
talk about their souls with persons of learning, especially if the
confessors, though good men, have no learning; for learning is a great help
in giving light upon everything. It should be possible to find a number of
people who combine both learning and spirituality, and the more favours the
Lord grants you in prayer, the more needful is it that your good works and
your prayers should have a sure foundation.

You already know that the first stone of this foundation must be a good
conscience and that you must make every effort to free yourselves from even
venial sins and follow the greatest possible perfection. You might suppose
that any confessor would know this, but you would be wrong: it happened that
I had to go about matters of consciences to a man who had taken a complete
course in theology; and he did me a great deal of mischief by telling me
that certain things were of no importance. I know that he had no intention
of deceiving me, or any reason for doing so: it was simply that he knew no
better. And in addition to this instance I have met with two or three
similar ones.

Everything depends on our having true light to keep the law of God
perfectly. This is a firm basis for prayer; but without this strong
foundation the whole building will go awry. In making their confessions,
then, the nuns must be free to discuss spiritual matters with such persons
as I have described. I will even go farther and say that they should
sometimes do as I have said even if their confessor has all these good
qualities, for he may quite easily make mistakes and it is a pity that he
should be the cause of their going astray. They must try, however, never to
act in any way against obedience, for they will find ways of getting all the
help they need: it is of great importance to them that they should, and so
they must make every possible effort to do so.

All this that I have said has to do with the superior. Since there are no
consolations but spiritual ones to be had here, I would beg her once again
to see that the sisters get these consolations, for God leads [His
handmaidens] by different ways and it is impossible that one confessor
should be acquainted with them all. I assure you that, if your souls are as
they ought to be, there is no lack of holy persons who will be glad to
advise and console you, even though you are poor. For He Who sustains our
bodies will awaken and encourage someone to give light to our souls, and
thus this evil of which I am so much afraid will be remedied. For if the
devil should tempt the confessor, with the result that he leads you astray
on any point of doctrine he will go slowly and be more careful about all he
is doing when he knows that the penitent is also consulting others.

If the devil is prevented from entering convents in this way, I hope in God
that he will never get into this house at all; so, for love of the Lord, I
beg whoever is Bishop to allow the sisters this liberty and not to withdraw
it so long as the confessors are persons both of learning and of good lives,
a fact which will soon come to be known in a little place like this.

In what I have said here, I am speaking from experience of things that I
have seen and heard in many convents and gathered from conversation with
learned and holy people who have considered what is most fitting for this
house, so that it may advance in perfection. Among the perils which exist
everywhere, for as long as life lasts, we shall find that this is the least.
No vicar should be free to go in and out of the convent, and no confessor
should have this freedom either. They are there to watch over the
recollectedness and good living of the house and its progress in both
interior and exterior matters, so that they may report to the superior
whenever needful, but they are never to be superiors themselves. As I say,
excellent reasons have been found why, everything considered, this is the
best course, and why, if any priest hears confessions frequently, it should
be the chaplain; but, if the nuns think it necessary, they can make their
confessions to such persons as have been described, provided the superior is
informed of it, and the prioress is such that the Bishop can trust her
discretion. As there are very few nuns here, this will not take up much
time.

This is our present practice; and it is not followed merely on my advice.
Our present Bishop, Donlvaro de Mendoza, under whose obedience we live
(since for many reasons we have not been placed under the jurisdiction of
the Order), is greatly attached to holiness and the religious life, and,
besides being of most noble extraction, is a great servant of God. He is
always very glad to help this house in every way, and to this very end he
brought together persons of learning, spirituality and experience, and this
decision was then come to. It will be only right that future superiors
should conform to his opinion, since it has been decided on by such good
men, and after so many prayers to the Lord that He would enlighten them in
every possible way, which, so far as we can at present see, He has certainly
done. May the Lord be pleased to promote the advancement of this to His
greater glory. Amen.
_________________________________________________________________

[26] Lit.:I beg her who is in the position of a senior (mayor). Mayor was
the title given to the superior at the Incarnation,vila, and many other
convents in Spain, at that time.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 6
Returns to the subject of perfect love, already begun.

I have digressed a great deal but no one will blame me who understands the
importance of what has been said. Let us now return to the love which it is
good [and lawful] for us to feel. This I have described as purely spiritual;
I am not sure if I know what I am talking about, but it seems to me that
there is no need to speak much of it, since so few, I fear, possess it; let
any one of you to whom the Lord has given it praise Him fervently, for she
must be a person of the greatest perfection. It is about this that I now
wish to write. Perhaps what I say may be of some profit, for if you look at
a virtue you desire it and try to gain it, and so become attached to it.

God grant that I may be able to understand this, and even more that I may be
able to describe it, for I am not sure that I know when love is spiritual
and when there is sensuality mingled with it, or how to begin speaking about
it. I am like one who hears a person speaking in the distance and, though he
can hear that he is speaking, cannot distinguish what he is saying. It is
just like that with me: sometimes I cannot understand what I am saying, yet
the Lord is pleased to enable me to say it well. If at other times what I
say is [ridiculous and] nonsensical, it is only natural for me to go
completely astray.

Now it seems to me that, when God has brought someone to a clear knowledge
of the world, and of its nature, and of the fact that another world (or, let
us say, another kingdom) exists, and that there is a great difference
between the one and the other, the one being eternal and the other only a
dream; and of what it is to love the Creator and what to love the creature
(this must be discovered by experience, for it is a very different matter
from merely thinking about it and believing it); when one understands by
sight and experience what can be gained by the one practice and lost by the
other, and what the Creator is and what the creature, and many other things
which the Lord teaches to those who are willing to devote themselves to
being taught by Him in prayer, or whom His Majesty wishes to teach”then one
loves very differently from those of us who have not advanced thus far.

It may be, sisters, that you think it irrelevant for me to treat of this,
and you may say that you already know everything that I have said. God grant
that this may be so, and that you may indeed know it in the only way which
has any meaning, and that it may be graven upon your inmost being, and that
you may never for a moment depart from it, for, if you know it, you will see
that I am telling nothing but the truth when I say that he whom the Lord
brings thus far possesses this love. Those whom God brings to this state
are, I think, generous and royal souls; they are not content with loving
anything so miserable as these bodies, however beautiful they be and however
numerous the graces they possess. If the sight of the body gives them
pleasure they praise the Creator, but as for dwelling upon it for more than
just a moment”no! When I use that phrasedwelling upon it, I refer to
having love for such things. If they had such love, they would think they
were loving something insubstantial and were conceiving fondness for a
shadow, they would feel shame for themselves and would not have the
effrontery to tell God that they love Him, without feeling great confusion.

You will answer me that such persons cannot love or repay the affection
shown to them by others. Certainly they care little about having this
affection. They may from time to time experience a natural and momentary
pleasure at being loved; yet, as soon as they return to their normal
condition, they realize that such pleasure is folly save when the persons
concerned can benefit their souls, either by instruction or by prayer. Any
other kind of affection wearies them, for they know it can bring them no
profit and may well do them harm; none the less they are grateful for it and
recompense it by commending those who love them to God. They take this
affection as something for which those who love them lay the responsibility
upon the Lord, from Whom, since they can see nothing lovable in themselves,
they suppose the love comes, and think that others love them because God
loves them; and so they leave His Majesty to recompense them for this and
beg Him to do so, thus freeing themselves and feeling they have no more
responsibility. When I ponder it carefully, I sometimes think this desire
for affection is sheer blindness, except when, as I say, it relates to
persons who can lead us to do good so that we may gain blessings in
perfection.

It should be noted here that, when we desire anyones affection, we always
seek it because of some interest, profit or pleasure of our own. Those who
are perfect, however, have trodden all these things beneath their feet”[and
have despised] the blessings which may come to them in this world, and its
pleasures and delights”in such a way that, even if they wanted to, so to
say, they could not love anything outside God, or unless it had to do with
God. What profit, then, can come to them from being loved themselves?

When this truth is put to them, they laugh at the distress which had been
assailing them in the past as to whether their affection was being returned
or no. Of course, however pure our affection may be, it is quite natural for
us to wish it to be returned. But, when we come to evaluate the return of
affection, we realize that it is insubstantial, like a thing of straw, as
light as air and easily carried away by the wind. For, however dearly we
have been loved, what is there that remains to us? Such persons, then,
except for the advantage that the affection may bring to their souls
(because they realize that our nature is such that we soon tire of life
without love), care nothing whether they are loved or not. Do you think that
such persons will love none and delight in none save God? No; they will love
others much more than they did, with a more genuine love, with greater
passion and with a love which brings more profit; that, in a word, is what
love really is. And such souls are always much fonder of giving than of
receiving, even in their relations with the Creator Himself. This [holy
affection], I say, merits the name of love, which name has been usurped from
it by those other base affections.

Do you ask, again, by what they are attracted if they do not love things
they see? They do love what they see and they are greatly attracted by what
they hear; but the things which they see are everlasting. If they love
anyone they immediately look right beyond the body (on which, as I say, they
cannot dwell), fix their eyes on the soul and see what there is to be loved
in that. If there is nothing, but they see any suggestion or inclination
which shows them that, if they dig deep, they will find gold within this
mine, they think nothing of the labour of digging, since they have love.
There is nothing that suggests itself to them which they will not willingly
do for the good of that soul since they desire their love for it to be
lasting, and they know quite well that that is impossible unless the loved
one has certain good qualities and a great love for God. I really mean that
it is impossible, however great their obligations and even if that soul were
to die for love of them and do them all the kind actions in its power; even
had it all the natural graces joined in one, their wills would not have
strength enough to love it nor would they remain fixed upon it. They know
and have learned and experienced the worth of all this; no false dice can
deceive them. They see that they are not in unison with that soul and that
their love for it cannot possibly last; for, unless that soul keeps the law
of God, their love will end with life” they know that unless it loves Him
they will go to different places.

Those into whose souls the Lord has already infused true wisdom do not
esteem this love, which lasts only on earth, at more than its true worth”if,
indeed, at so much. Those who like to take pleasure in worldly things,
delights, honours and riches, will account it of some worth if their friend
is rich and able to afford them pastime and pleasure and recreation; but
those who already hate all this will care little or nothing for such things.
If they have any love for such a person, then, it will be a passion that he
may love God so as to be loved by Him; for, as I say, they know that no
other kind of affection but this can last, and that this kind will cost them
dear, for which reason they do all they possibly can for their friends
profit; they would lose a thousand lives to bring him a small blessing. Oh,
precious love, forever imitating the Captain of Love, Jesus, our Good!
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 7
Treats of the same subject of spiritual love and gives certain counsels for
gaining it.

It is strange to see how impassioned this love is; how many tears, penances
and prayers it costs; how careful is the loving soul to commend the object
of its affection to all who it thinks may prevail with God and to ask them
to intercede with Him for it; and how constant is its longing, so that it
cannot be happy unless it sees that its loved one is making progress. If
that soul seems to have advanced, and is then seen to fall some way back,
her friend seems to have no more pleasure in life: she neither eats nor
sleeps, is never free from this fear and is always afraid that the soul whom
she loves so much may be lost, and that the two may be parted for ever. She
cares nothing for physical death, but she will not suffer herself to be
attached to something which a puff of wind may carry away so that she is
unable to retain her hold upon it. This, as I have said, is love without any
degree whatsoever of self-interest; all that this soul wishes and desires is
to see the soul [it loves] enriched with blessings from Heaven. This is
love, quite unlike our ill-starred earthly affections”to say nothing of
illicit affections, from which may God keep us free.

These last affections are a very hell, and it is needless for us to weary
ourselves by saying how evil they are, for the least of the evils which they
bring are terrible beyond exaggeration. There is no need for us ever to take
such things upon our lips, sisters, or even to think of them, or to remember
that they exist anywhere in the world; you must never listen to anyone
speaking of such affections, either in jest or in earnest, nor allow them to
be mentioned or discussed in your presence. No good can come from our doing
this and it might do us harm even to hear them mentioned. But with regard to
the lawful affections which, as I have said, we may have for each other, or
for relatives and friends, it is different. Our whole desire is that they
should not die: if their heads ache, our souls seem to ache too; if we see
them in distress, we are unable (as people say) to sit still under it; [27]
and so on.

This is not so with spiritual affection. Although the weakness of our nature
may at first allow us to feel something of all this, our reason soon begins
to reflect whether our friends trials are not good for her, and to wonder
if they are making her richer in virtue and how she is bearing them, and
then we shall ask God to give her patience so that they may win her merit.
If we see that she is being patient, we feel no distress”indeed, we are
gladdened and consoled. If all the merit and gain which suffering is capable
of producing could be made over to her, we should still prefer suffering her
trial ourselves to seeing her suffer it, but we are not worried or
disquieted.

I repeat once more that this love is a similitude and copy of that which was
borne for us by the good Lover, Jesus. It is for that reason that it brings
us such immense benefits, for it makes us embrace every kind of suffering,
so that others, without having to endure the suffering, may gain its
advantages. The recipients of this friendship, then, profit greatly, but
their friends should realize that either this intercourse”I mean, this
exclusive friendship”must come to an end or that they must prevail upon Our
Lord that their friend may walk in the same way as themselves, as Saint
Monica prevailed with Him for Saint Augustine. Their heart does not allow
them to practise duplicity: if they see their friend straying from the road,
or committing any faults, they will speak to her about it; they cannot allow
themselves to do anything else. And if after this the loved one does not
amend, they will not flatter her or hide anything from her. Either, then,
she will amend or their friendship will cease; for otherwise they would be
unable to endure it, nor is it in fact endurable. It would mean continual
war for both parties. A person may be indifferent to all other people in the
world and not worry whether they are serving God or not, since the person
she has to worry about is herself. But she cannot take this attitude with
her friends: nothing they do can be hidden from her; she sees the smallest
mote in them. This, I repeat, is a very heavy cross for her to bear.

Happy the souls that are loved by such as these! Happy the day on which they
came to know them! O my Lord, wilt Thou not grant me the favour of giving me
many who have such love for me? Truly, Lord, I would rather have this than
be loved by all the kings and lords of the world”and rightly so, for such
friends use every means in their power to make us lords of the whole world
and to have all that is in it subject to us. When you make the acquaintance
of any such persons, sisters, the Mother Prioress should employ every
possible effort to keep you in touch with them. Love such persons as much as
you like. There can be very few of them, but none the less it is the Lords
will that their goodness should be known. When one of you is striving after
perfection, she will at once be told that she has no need to know such
people”that it is enough for her to have God. But to get to know Gods
friends is a very good way ofhaving Him; as I have discovered by
experience, it is most helpful. For, under the Lord, I owe it to such
persons that I am not in hell; I was always very fond of asking them to
commend me to God, and so I prevailed upon them to do so.

Let us now return to what we were saying. It is this kind of love which I
should like us to have; at first it may not be perfect but the Lord will
make it increasingly so. Let us begin with the methods of obtaining it. At
first it may be mingled with emotion, [28] but this, as a rule, will do no
harm. It is sometimes good and necessary for us to show emotion in our love,
and also to feel it, and to be distressed by some of our sisters, trials and
weaknesses, however trivial they may be. For on one occasion as much
distress may be caused by quite a small matter as would be caused on another
by some great trial, and there are people whose nature it is to be very much
cast down by small things. If you are not like this, do not neglect to have
compassion on others; it may be that Our Lord wishes to spare us these
sufferings and will give us sufferings of another kind which will seem heavy
to us, though to the person already mentioned they may seem light. In these
matters, then, we must not judge others by ourselves, nor think of ourselves
as we have been at some time when, perhaps without any effort on our part,
the Lord has made us stronger than they; let us think of what we were like
at the times when we have been weakest.

Note the importance of this advice for those of us who would learn to
sympathize with our neighbours trials, however trivial these may be. It is
especially important for such souls as have been described, for, desiring
trials as they do, they make light of them all. They must therefore try hard
to recall what they were like when they were weak, and reflect that, if they
are no longer so, it is not due to themselves. For otherwise, little by
little, the devil could easily cool our charity toward our neighbours and
make us think that what is really a failing on our part is perfection. In
every respect we must be careful and alert, for the devil never slumbers.
And the nearer we are to perfection, the more careful we must be, since his
temptations are then much more cunning because there are no others that he
dare send us; and if, as I say, we are not cautious, the harm is done before
we realize it. In short, we must always watch and pray, for there is no
better way than prayer of revealing these hidden wiles of the devil and
making him declare his presence.

Contrive always, even if you do not care for it, to take part in your
sisters necessary recreation and to do so for the whole of the allotted
time, for all considerate treatment of them is a part of perfect love. It is
a very good thing for us to take compassion on each others needs. See that
you show no lack of discretion about things which are contrary to obedience.
Though privately you may think the prioress orders harsh ones, do not allow
this to be noticed or tell anyone about it (except that you may speak of it,
with all humility, to the prioress herself), for if you did so you would be
doing a great deal of harm. Get to know what are the things in your sisters
which you should be sorry to see and those about which you should sympathize
with them; and always show your grief at any notorious fault which you may
see in one of them. It is a good proof and test of our love if we can bear
with such faults and not be shocked by them. Others, in their turn, will
bear with your faults, which, if you include those of which you are not
aware, must be much more numerous. Often commend to God any sister who is at
fault and strive for your own part to practise the virtue which is the
opposite of her fault with great perfection. Make determined efforts to do
this so that you may teach your sister by your deeds what perhaps she could
never learn by words nor gain by punishment.

The habit of performing some conspicuously virtuous action through seeing it
performed by another is one which very easily takes root. This is good
advice: do not forget it. Oh, how true and genuine will be the love of a
sister who can bring profit to everyone by sacrificing her own profit to
that of the rest! She will make a great advance in each of the virtues and
keep her Rule with great perfection. This will be a much truer kind of
friendship than one which uses every possible loving expression (such as are
not used, and must not be used, in this house):My life!My love!My
darling! [29] and suchlike things, one or another of which people are
always saying. Let such endearing words be kept for your Spouse, for you
will be so often and so much alone With Him that you will want to make use
of them all, and this His Majesty permits you. If you use them among
yourselves they will not move the Lord so much; and, quite apart from that,
there is no reason why you should do so. They are very effeminate; and I
should not like you to be that, or even to appear to be that, in any way, my
daughters; I want you to be strong men. If you do all that is in you, the
Lord will make you so manly that men themselves will be amazed at you. And
how easy is this for His Majesty, Who made us out of nothing at all!

It is also a very clear sign of love to try to spare others household work
by taking it upon oneself and also to rejoice and give great praise to the
Lord if you see any increase in their virtues. All such things, quite apart
from the intrinsic good they bring, add greatly to the peace and concord
which we have among ourselves, as, through the goodness of God, We can now
see by experience. May His Majesty be pleased ever to increase it, for it
would be terrible if it did not exist, and very awkward if, when there are
so few of us, we got on badly together. May God forbid that.

If one of you should be cross with another because of some hasty word, the
matter must at once be put right and you must betake yourselves to earnest
prayer. The same applies to the harbouring of any grudge, or to party
strife, or to the desire to be greatest, or to any nice point concerning
your honour. (My blood seems to run cold, as I write this, at the very idea
that this can ever happen, but I know it is the chief trouble in convents.)
If it should happen to you, consider yourselves lost. Just reflect and
realize that you have driven your Spouse from His home: He will have to go
and seek another abode, since you are driving Him from His own house. Cry
aloud to His Majesty and try to put things right; and if frequent
confessions and communions do not mend them, you may well fear that there is
some Judas among you.

For the love of God, let the prioress be most careful not to allow this to
occur. She must put a stop to it from the very outset, and, if love will not
suffice, she must use heavy punishments, for here we have the whole of the
mischief and the remedy. If you gather that any of the nuns is making
trouble, see that she is sent to some other convent and God will provide
them with a dowry for her. Drive away this plague; cut off the branches as
well as you can; and, if that is not sufficient, pull up the roots. If you
cannot do this, shut up anyone who is guilty of such things and forbid her
to leave her cell; far better this than that all the nuns should catch so
incurable a plague. Oh, what a great evil is this! God deliver us from a
convent into which it enters: I would rather our convent caught fire and we
were all burned alive. As this is so important I think I shall say a little
more about it elsewhere, so I will not write at greater length here, except
to say that, provided they treat each other equally, I would rather that the
nuns showed a tender and affectionate love and regard for each other, even
though there is less perfection in this than in the love I have described,
than that there were a single note of discord to be heard among them. May
the Lord forbid this, for His own sake. Amen.
_________________________________________________________________

[27] Lit.:There remains, as people say, no patience; but, as the phrase
as people say (which E. omits) suggests that this was a popular phrase, I
have translated rather more freely and picturesquely. T. has (afterache
too):and it upsets us, and so on.

[28] Ternura. Lit.:˜tenderness.

[29] Lit.:My life!My soul!My good!
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 8
Treats of the great benefit of self-detachment, both interior and exterior,
from all things created.

Let us now come to the detachment which we must practise, for if this is
carried out perfectly it includes everything else. I sayit includes
everything else because, if we care nothing for any created things, but
embrace the Creator alone, His Majesty will infuse the virtues into us in
such a way that, provided we labour to the best of our abilities day by day,
we shall not have to wage war much longer, for the Lord will take our
defence in hand against the devils and against the whole world. Do you
suppose, daughters, that it is a small benefit to obtain for ourselves this
blessing of giving ourselves wholly to Him, [30] and keeping nothing for
ourselves? Since, as I say, all blessings are in Him, let us give Him hearty
praise, sisters, for having brought us together here, where we are occupied
in this alone. I do not know why I am saying this, when all of you here are
capable of teaching me, for I confess that, in this important respect, I am
not as perfect as I should like to be and as I know I ought to be; and I
must say the same about all the virtues and about all that I am dealing with
here, for it is easier to write of such things than to practise them. I may
not even be able to write of them effectively, for sometimes ability to do
this comes only from experience”[that is to say, if I have any success, it
must be because] I explain the nature of these virtues by describing the
contraries of the qualities I myself possess.

As far as exterior matters are concerned, you know how completely cut off we
are from everything. Oh, my Creator and Lord! When have I merited so great
an honour? Thou seemest to have searched everywhere for means of drawing
nearer to us. May it please Thy goodness that we lose not this through our
own fault. Oh, sisters, for the love of God, try to realize what a great
favour the Lord has bestowed on those of us whom He has brought here. Let
each of you apply this to herself, since there are only twelve of us [31]
and His Majesty has been pleased for you to be one. How many people”what a
multitude of people!”do I know who are better than myself and would gladly
take this place of mine, yet the Lord has granted it to me who so ill
deserve it! Blessed be Thou, my God, and let the angels and all created
things praise Thee, for I can no more repay this favour than all the others
Thou hast shown me. It was a wonderful thing to give me the vocation to be a
nun; but I have been so wicked, Lord, that Thou couldst not trust me. In a
place where there were many good women living together my wickedness would
not perhaps have been noticed right down to the end of my life: I should
have concealed it, as I did for so many years. So Thou didst bring me here,
where, as there are so few of us that it would seem impossible for it to
remain unnoticed, Thou dost remove occasions of sin from me so that I may
walk the more carefully. There is no excuse for me, then, O Lord, I confess
it, and so I have need of Thy mercy, that Thou mayest pardon me.

Remember, my sisters, that if we are not good we are much more to blame than
others. What I earnestly beg of you is that anyone who knows she will be
unable to follow our customs will say so [before she is professed]: there
are other convents in which the Lord is also well served and she should not
remain here and disturb these few of us whom His Majesty has brought
together for His service. In other convents nuns are free to have the
pleasure of seeing their relatives, whereas here, if relatives are ever
admitted, it is only for their own pleasure. A nun who [very much] wishes to
see her relatives in order to please herself, and does not get tired of them
after the second visit, must, unless they are spiritual persons and do her
soul some good, consider herself imperfect and realize that she is neither
detached nor healthy, and will have no freedom of spirit or perfect peace.
She needs a physician”and I consider that if this desire does not leave her,
and she is not cured, she is not intended for this house.

The best remedy, I think, is that she should not see her relatives again
until she feels free in spirit and has obtained this freedom from God by
many prayers. When she looks upon such visits as crosses, let her receive
them by all means, for then they will do the visitors good and herself no
harm. But if she is fond of the visitors, if their troubles are a great
distress to her and if she delights in listening to the stories which they
tell her about the world, she may be sure that she will do herself harm and
do them no good.
_________________________________________________________________

[30] Lit.: de darnos todas a‰l todo:giving ourselves wholly to Him
wholly.

[31] The thirteenth was St. Teresa.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 9
Treats of the great blessing that shunning their relatives brings to those who
have left the world and shows how by doing so they will find truer friends.

Oh, if we religious understood what harm we get from having so much to do
with our relatives, how we should shun them! do not see what pleasure they
can give us, or how, quite apart from the harm they do us as touching our
obligations to God, they can bring us any peace or tranquillity. For we
cannot take part in their recreations, as it is not lawful for us to do so;
and, though we can certainly share their troubles, we can never help weeping
for them, sometimes more than they do themselves. If they bring us any
bodily comforts, there is no doubt that our spiritual life and our poor
souls will pay for it. From this you are [quite] free here; for, as you have
everything in common and none of you may accept any private gift, all the
alms given us being held by the community, you are under no obligation to
entertain your relatives in return for what they give you, since, as you
know, the Lord will provide for us all in common.

I am astounded at the harm which intercourse with our relatives does us: I
do not think anyone who had not experience of it would believe it. And how
our religious Orders nowadays, or most of them, at any rate, seem to be
forgetting about perfection, though all, or most, of the saints wrote about
it! I do not know how much of the world we really leave when we say that we
are leaving everything for Gods sake, if we do not withdraw ourselves from
the chief thing of all”namely, our kinsfolk. The matter has reached such a
pitch that some people think, when religious are not fond of their relatives
and do not see much of them, it shows a want of virtue in them. And they not
only assert this but allege reasons for it.

In this house, daughters, we must be most careful to commend our relatives
to God, for that is only right. For the rest, we must keep them out of our
minds as much as we can, as it is natural that our desires should be
attached to them more than to other people. My own relatives were very fond
of me, or so they used to say, and I was so fond of them that I would not
let them forget me. But I have learned, by my own experience and by that of
others, that it is Gods servants who have helped me in trouble; my
relatives, apart from my parents, have helped me very little. Parents are
different, for they very rarely fail to help their children, and it is right
that when they need our comfort we should not refuse it them: if we find our
main purpose is not harmed by our so doing we can give it them and yet be
completely detached; and this also applies to brothers and sisters.

Believe me, sisters, if you serve God as you should, you will find no better
relatives than those [of His servants] whom His Majesty sends you. I know
this is so, and, if you keep on as you are doing here, and realize that by
doing otherwise you will be failing your true Friend and Spouse, you may be
sure that you will very soon gain this freedom. Then you will be able to
trust those who love you for His sake alone more than all your relatives,
and they will not fail you, so that you will find parents and brothers and
sisters where you had never expected to find them. For these help us and
look for their reward only from God; those who look for rewards from us soon
grow tired of helping us when they see that we are poor and can do nothing
for them. This cannot be taken as a generalization, but it is the most usual
thing to happen in the world, for it is the world all over! If anyone tells
you otherwise, and says it is a virtue to do such things, do not believe
him. I should have to write at great length, in view of my lack of skill and
my imperfection, if I were to tell you of all the harm that comes from it;
as others have written about it who know what they are talking about better
than I, what I have said will suffice. If, imperfect as I am, I have been
able to grasp as much as this, how much better will those who are perfect do
so!

All the advice which the saints give us about fleeing from the world is, of
course, good. Believe me, then, attachment to our relatives is, as I have
said, the thing which sticks to us most closely and is hardest to get rid
of. People are right, therefore, when they flee from their own part of the
country [32]”if it helps them, I mean, for I do not think we are helped so
much by fleeing from any place in a physical sense as by resolutely
embracing the good Jesus, Our Lord, with the soul. Just as we find
everything in Him, so for His sake we forget everything. Still, it is a
great help, until we have learned this truth, to keep apart from our
kinsfolk; later on, it may be that the Lord will wish us to see them again,
so that what used to give us pleasure may be a cross to us.
_________________________________________________________________

[32] De sus tierras. The phrase will also bear the interpretation:from
their own countries.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 10
Teaches that detachment from the things aforementioned is insufficient if we
are not detached from our own selves and that this virtue and humility go
together.

Once we have detached ourselves from the world, and from our kinsfolk, and
are cloistered here, in the conditions already described, it must look as if
we have done everything and there is nothing left with which we have to
contend. But, oh, my sisters, do not feel secure and fall asleep, or you
will be like a man who goes to bed quite peacefully, after bolting all his
doors for fear of thieves, when the thieves are already in the house. And
you know there is no worse thief than one who lives in the house. We
ourselves are always the same; [33] unless we take great care and each of us
looks well to it that she renounces her self-will, which is the most
important business of all, there will be many things to deprive us of the
holy freedom of spirit which our souls seek in order to soar to their Maker
unburdened by the leaden weight of the earth.

It will be a great help towards this if we keep constantly in our thoughts
the vanity of all things and the rapidity with which they pass away, so that
we may withdraw our affections from things which are so trivial and fix them
upon what will never come to an end. This may seem a poor kind of help but
it will have the effect of greatly fortifying the soul. With regard to small
things, we must be very careful, as soon as we begin to grow fond of them,
to withdraw our thoughts from them and turn them to God. His Majesty will
help us to do this. He has granted us the great favour of providing that, in
this house, most of it is done already; but it remains for us to become
detached from our own selves and it is a hard thing to withdraw from
ourselves and oppose ourselves, because we are very close to ourselves and
love ourselves very dearly.

It is here that true humility can enter, [34] for this virtue and that of
detachment from self, I think, always go together. They are two sisters, who
are inseparable. These are not the kinsfolk whom I counsel you to avoid: no,
you must embrace them, and love them, and never be seen without them. Oh,
how sovereign are these virtues, mistresses of all created things, empresses
of the world, our deliverers from all the snares and entanglements laid by
the devil so dearly loved by our Teacher, Christ, Who was never for a moment
without them! He that possesses them can safely go out and fight all the
united forces of hell and the whole world and its temptations. Let him fear
none, for his is the kingdom of the Heavens. There is none whom he need
fear, for he cares nothing if he loses everything, nor does he count this as
loss: his sole fear is that he may displease his God and he begs Him to
nourish these virtues within him lest he lose them through any fault of his
own.

These virtues, it is true, have the property of hiding themselves from one
who possesses them, in such a way that he never sees them nor can believe
that he has any of them, even if he be told so. But he esteems them so much
that he is for ever trying to obtain them, and thus he perfects them in
himself more and more. And those who possess them soon make the fact clear,
even against their will, to any with whom they have intercourse. But how
inappropriate it is for a person like myself to begin to praise humility and
mortification, when these virtues are so highly praised by the King of Glory
”a praise exemplified in all the trials He suffered. It is to possess these
virtues, then, my daughters, that you must labour if you would leave the
land of Egypt, for, when you have obtained them, you will also obtain the
manna; all things will taste well to you; and, however much the world may
dislike their savour, to you they will be sweet.

The first thing, then, that we have to do, and that at once, is to rid
ourselves of love for this body of ours”and some of us pamper our natures so
much that this will cause us no little labour, while others are so concerned
about their health that the trouble these things give us (this is especially
so of poor nuns, but it applies to others as well) is amazing. Some of us,
however, seem to think that we embraced the religious life for no other
reason than to keep ourselves alive [35] and each nun does all she can to
that end. In this house, as a matter of fact, there is very little chance
for us to act on such a principle, but I should be sorry if we even wanted
to. Resolve, sisters, that it is to die for Christ, and not to practise
self-indulgence for Christ, that you have come here. The devil tells us that
self-indulgence is necessary if we are to carry out and keep the Rule of our
Order, and so many of us, forsooth, try to keep our Rule by looking after
our health that we die without having kept it for as long as a month”
perhaps even for a day. I really do not know what we are coming to.

No one need be afraid of our committing excesses here, by any chance”for as
soon as we do any penances our confessors begin to fear that we shall kill
ourselves with them. We are so horrified at our own possible excesses”if
only we were as conscientious about everything else! Those who tend to the
opposite extreme will I know, not mind my saying this, nor shall I mind if
they say I am judging others by myself, for they will be quite right. I
believe”indeed, I am sure”that more nuns are of my way of thinking than are
offended by me because they do just the opposite. My own belief is that it
is for this reason that the Lord is pleased to make us such weakly
creatures; at least He has shown me great mercy in making me so; for, as I
was sure to be self-indulgent in any case, He was pleased to provide me with
an excuse for this. It is really amusing to see how some people torture
themselves about it, when the real reason lies in themselves; sometimes they
get a desire to do penances, as one might say, without rhyme or reason; they
go on doing them for a couple of days; and then the devil puts it into their
heads that they have been doing themselves harm and so he makes them afraid
of penances, after which they dare not do even those that the Order
requires”they have tried them once! They do not keep the smallest points in
the Rule, such as silence, which is quite incapable of harming us. Hardly
have we begun to imagine that our heads are aching than we stay away from
choir, though that would not kill us either. One day we are absent because
we had a headache some time ago; another day, because our head has just been
aching again; and on the next three days in case it should ache once more.
Then we want to invent penances of our own, with the result that we do
neither the one thing nor the other. Sometimes there is very little the
matter with us, yet we think that it should dispense us from all our
obligations and that if we ask to be excused from them we are doing all we
need.

But why, you will say, does the Prioress excuse us? Perhaps she would not if
she knew what was going on inside us; but she sees one of you wailing about
a mere nothing as if your heart were breaking, and you come and ask her to
excuse you from keeping the whole of your Rule, saying it is a matter of
great necessity, and, when there is any substance in what you say, there is
always a physician at hand to confirm it or some friend or relative weeping
at your side. Sometimes the poor Prioress sees that your request is
excessive, but what can she do? She feels a scruple if she thinks she has
been lacking in charity and she would rather the fault were yours than hers:
she thinks, too, that it would be unjust of her to judge you harshly.

Oh, God help me! That there should be complaining like this among nuns! May
He forgive me for saying so, but I am afraid it has become quite a habit. I
happened to observe this incident once myself: a nun began complaining about
her headaches and she went on complaining to me for a long time. In the end
I made enquiries and found she had no headache whatever, but was suffering
from some pain or other elsewhere.

These are things which may sometimes happen and I put them down here so that
you may guard against them; for if once the devil begins to frighten us
about losing our health, we shall never get anywhere. The Lord give us light
so that we may act rightly in everything! Amen.
_________________________________________________________________

[33] The sense of this passage, especially without the phrase from E. which
V. omits, is not very clear. T. remodels thus:You know there is no worse
thief for the perfection of the soul than the love of ourselves, for unless
etc.

[34] Here, in the margin, is written:Humility and mortification, very
great virtues.

[35] Lit.:to contrive not to die. But the reading of E. (to think that
we came to the convent for no other reason than to serve our bodies and look
after them) suggests that this is what is meant.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 11
Continues to treat of mortification and describes how it may be attained in
times of sickness.

These continual moanings which we make about trifling ailments, my sisters,
seem to me a sign of imperfection: if you can bear a thing, say nothing
about it. When the ailment is serious, it proclaims itself; that is quite
another kind of moaning, which draws attention to itself immediately.
Remember, there are only a few of you, and if one of you gets into this
habit she will worry all the rest”that is, assuming you love each other and
there is charity among you. On the other hand, if one of you is really ill,
she should say so and take the necessary remedies; and, if you have got rid
of your self-love, you will so much regret having to indulge yourselves in
any way that there will be no fear of your doing so unnecessarily or of your
making a moan without proper cause. When such a reason exists, it would be
much worse to say nothing about it than to allow yourselves unnecessary
indulgence, and it would be very wrong if everybody were not sorry for you.

However, I am quite sure that where there is prayer and charity among you,
and your numbers are so small that you will be aware of each others needs,
there will never be any lack of care in your being looked after. Do not
think of complaining about the weaknesses and minor ailments from which
women suffer, for the devil sometimes makes you imagine them. They come and
go; and unless you get rid of the habit of talking about them and
complaining of everything (except to God) you will never come to the end of
them. I lay great stress on this, for I believe myself it is important, and
it is one of the reasons for the relaxation of discipline in religious
houses. For this body of ours has one fault: the more you indulge it, the
more things it discovers to be essential to it. It is extraordinary how it
likes being indulged; and, if there is any reasonable pretext for
indulgence, however little necessity for it there may be, the poor soul is
taken in and prevented from making progress. Think how many poor people
there must be who are ill and have no one to complain to, for poverty and
self-indulgence make bad company. Think, too, how many married women”people
of position, as I know”have serious complaints and sore trials and yet dare
not complain to their husbands about them for fear of annoying them. Sinner
that I am! Surely we have not come here to indulge ourselves more than they!
Oh, how free you are from the great trials of the world! Learn to suffer a
little for the love of God without telling everyone about it. When a woman
has made an unhappy marriage she does not talk about it or complain of it,
lest it should come to her husbands knowledge, she has to endure a great
deal of misery and yet has no one to whom she may relieve her mind. Cannot
we, then, keep secret between God and ourselves some of the ailments which
He sends us because of our sins? The more so since talking about them does
nothing whatever to alleviate them.

In nothing that I have said am I referring to serious illnesses, accompanied
by high fever, though as to these, too, I beg you to observe moderation and
to have patience: I am thinking rather of those minor indispositions which
you may have and still keep going [36] without worrying everybody else to
death over them. What would happen if these lines should be seen outside
this house? What would all the nuns say of me! And how willingly would I
bear what they said if it helped anyone to live a better life! For when
there is one person of this kind, the thing generally comes to such a pass
that some suffer on account of others, and nobody who says she is ill will
be believed, however serious her ailment. As this book is meant only for my
daughters, they will put up with everything I say. Let us remember our holy
Fathers of past days, the hermits whose lives we attempt to imitate. What
sufferings they bore, what solitude, cold, [thirst] and hunger, what burning
sun and heat! And yet they had no one to complain to except God. Do you
suppose they were made of iron? No: they were as frail as we are. Believe
me, daughters, once we begin to subdue these miserable bodies of ours, they
give us much less trouble. There will be quite sufficient people to see to
what you really need, [37] so take no thought for yourselves except when you
know it to be necessary. Unless we resolve to put up with death and
ill-health once and for all, we shall never accomplish anything.

Try not to fear these and commit yourselves wholly to God, come what may.
What does it matter if we die? How many times have our bodies not mocked us?
Should we not occasionally mock them in our turn? And, believe me, slight as
it may seem by comparison with other things, this resolution is much more
important than we may think; for, if we continually make it, day by day, by
the grace of the Lord, we shall gain dominion over the body. To conquer such
an enemy is a great achievement in the battle of life. May the Lord grant,
as He is able, that we may do this. I am quite sure that no one who does not
enjoy such a victory, which I believe is a great one, will understand what
advantage it brings, and no one will regret having gone through trials in
order to attain this tranquillity and self-mastery.
_________________________________________________________________

[36] Lit.:which can be suffered on foot.

[37] Lit.:to look at (or to) what is needful”the phrase is ambiguous and
might mean:to worry about their own needs. The word translatedpeople
is feminine.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 12
Teaches that the true lover of God must care little for life and honour.

We now come to some other little things which are also of very great
importance, though they will appear trifling. All this seems a great task,
and so it is, for it means warring against ourselves. But once we begin to
work, God, too, works in our souls and bestows such favours on them that the
most we can do in this life seems to us very little. And we nuns are doing
everything we can, by giving up our freedom for the love of God and
entrusting it to another, and in putting up with so many trials”fasts,
silence, enclosure, service in choir”that however much we may want to
indulge ourselves we can do so only occasionally: perhaps, in all the
convents I have seen, I am the only nun guilty of self-indulgence. Why,
then, do we shrink from interior mortification, since this is the means by
which every other kind of mortification may become much more meritorious and
perfect, so that it can then be practised with greater tranquillity and
ease? This, as I have said, is acquired by gradual progress and by never
indulging our own will and desire, even in small things, until we have
succeeded in subduing the body to the spirit.

I repeat that this consists mainly or entirely in our ceasing to care about
ourselves and our own pleasures, for the least that anyone who is beginning
to serve the Lord truly can offer Him is his life. Once he has surrendered
his will to Him, what has he to fear? It is evident that if he is a true
religious and a real man of prayer and aspires to the enjoyment of Divine
consolations, he must not [turn back or] shrink from desiring to die and
suffer martyrdom for His sake. And do you not know, sisters, that the life
of a good religious, who wishes to be among the closest friends of God, is
one long martyrdom? I saylong, for, by comparison with decapitation,
which is over very quickly, it may well be termed so, though life itself is
short and some lives are short in the extreme. How do we know but that ours
will be so short that it may end only one hour or one moment after the time
of our resolving to render our entire service to God? This would be quite
possible; and so we must not set store by anything that comes to an end,
least of all by life, since not a day of it is secure. Who, if he thought
that each hour might be his last, would not spend it in labour?

Believe me, it is safest to think that this is so; by so doing we shall
learn to subdue our wills in everything; for if, as I have said, you are
very careful about your prayer, you will soon find yourselves gradually
reaching the summit of the mountain without knowing how. But how harsh it
sounds to say that we must take pleasure in nothing, unless we also say what
consolations and delights this renunciation brings in its train, and what a
great gain it is, even in this life! What security it gives us! Here, as you
all practise this, you have done the principal part; each of you encourages
[38] and helps the rest; and each of you must try to outstrip her sisters.

Be very careful about your interior thoughts, especially if they have to do
with precedence. May God, by His Passion, keep us from expressing, or
dwelling upon, such thoughts as these:But I am her senior [in the
Order];But I am older;But I have worked harder;But that other
sister is being better treated than I am. If these thoughts come, you must
quickly check them; if you allow yourselves to dwell on them, or introduce
them into your conversation, they will spread like the plague and in
religious houses they may give rise to great abuses. Remember, I know a
great deal about this. If you have a prioress who allows such things,
however trifling, you must believe that God has permitted her to be given to
you because of your sins and that she will be the beginning of your ruin.
Cry to Him, and let your whole prayer be that He may come to your aid by
sending you either a religious or a person given to prayer; for, if anyone
prays with the resolve to enjoy the favours and consolations which God
bestows in prayer, it is always well that he should have this detachment.

You may ask why I lay such stress on this, and think that I am being too
severe about it, and say that God grants consolations to persons less
completely detached than that. I quite believe He does; for, in His infinite
wisdom, He sees that this will enable Him to lead them to leave everything
for His sake. I do not mean, byleaving everything, entering the religious
life, for there may be obstacles to this, and the soul that is perfect can
be detached and humble anywhere. It will find detachment harder in the
world, however, for worldly trappings will be a great impediment to it.
Still, believe me in this: questions of honour and desires for property can
arise within convents as well as outside them, and the more temptations of
this kind are removed from us, the more we are to blame if we yield to them.
Though persons who do so may have spent years in prayer, or rather in
meditation (for perfect prayer eventually destroys [all] these attachments),
they will never make great progress or come to enjoy the real fruit of
prayer.

Ask yourselves, sisters, if these things, which seem so insignificant, mean
anything to you, for the only reason you are here is that you may detach
yourselves from them. Nobody honours you any the more for having them and
they lose you advantages which might have gained you more honour; the result
is that you get both dishonour and loss at the same time. Let each of you
ask herself how much humility she has and she will see what progress she has
made. If she is really humble, I do not think the devil will dare to tempt
her to take even the slightest interest in matters of precedence, for he is
so shrewd that he is afraid of the blow she would strike him. If a humble
soul is tempted in this way by the devil, that virtue cannot fail to bring
her more fortitude and greater profit. For clearly the temptation will cause
her to look into her life, to compare the services she has rendered the Lord
with what she owes Him and with the marvellous way in which He abased
Himself to give us an example of humility, and to think over her sins and
remember where she deserves to be on account of them. Exercises like this
bring the soul such profit that on the following day Satan will not dare to
come back again lest he should get his head broken.

Take this advice from me and do not forget it: you should see to it that
your sisters profit by your temptations, not only interiorly (where it would
be very wrong if they did not), but exteriorly as well. If you want to
avenge yourself on the devil and free yourselves more quickly from
temptation, ask the superior, as soon as a temptation comes to you, to give
you some lowly office to do, or do some such thing, as best you can, on our
own initiative, studying as you do it how to bend your will to perform tasks
you dislike. The Lord will show you ways of doing so and this will soon rid
you of the temptation.

God deliver us from people who wish to serve Him yet who are mindful of
their own honour. Reflect how little they gain from this; for, as I have
said, the very act of desiring honour robs us of it, especially in matters
of precedence: there is no poison in the world which is so fatal to
perfection. You will say that these are little things which have to do with
human nature and are not worth troubling about; do not trifle with them, for
in religious houses they spread like foam on water, and there is no small
matter so extremely dangerous as are punctiliousness about honour and
sensitiveness to insult. Do you know one reason, apart from many others, why
this is so? [39] It may have its root, perhaps, in some trivial
slight”hardly anything, in fact”and the devil will then induce someone else
to consider it important, so that she will think it a real charity to tell
you about it and to ask how you can allow yourself to be insulted so; and
she will pray that God may give you patience and that you may offer it to
Him, for even a saint could not bear more. The devil is simply putting his
deceitfulness into this other persons mouth; and, though you yourself are
quite ready to bear the slight, you are tempted to vainglory because you
have not resisted something else as perfectly as you should.

This human nature of ours is so wretchedly weak that, even while we are
telling ourselves that there is nothing for us to make a fuss about, we
imagine we are doing something virtuous, and begin to feel sorry for
ourselves, particularly when we see that other people are sorry for us too.
In this way the soul begins to lose the occasions of merit which it had
gained; it becomes weaker; and thus a door is opened to the devil by which
he can enter on some other occasion with a temptation worse than the last.
It may even happen that, when you yourself are prepared to suffer an insult,
your sisters come and ask you if you are a beast of burden, and say you
ought to be more sensitive about things. Oh, my sisters, for the love of
God, never let charity move you to show pity for another in anything to do
with these fancied insults, for that is like the pity shown to holy Job by
his wife and friends.
_________________________________________________________________

[38] Lit.:awakens.

[39] Lit.:Do you know why, apart from other things?
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 13
Continues to treat of mortification and explains how one must renounce the
worlds standards of wisdom in order to attain to true wisdom.

I often tell you, sisters, and now I want it to be set down in writing, not
to forget that we in this house, and for that matter anyone who would be
perfect, must flee a thousand leagues from such phrases as:I had right on
my side;They had no right to do this to me;The person who treated me
like this was not right. God deliver us from such a false idea of right as
that! Do you think that it was right for our good Jesus to have to suffer so
many insults, and that those who heaped them on Him [40] were right, and
that they had any right to do Him those wrongs? I do not know why anyone is
in a convent who is willing to bear only the crosses that she has a perfect
right to expect: such a person should return to the world, though even there
such rights will not be safeguarded. Do you think you can ever possibly have
to bear so much that you ought not to have to bear any more? How does right
enter into the matter at all? I really do not know.

Before we begin talking about not having our rights, let us wait until we
receive some honour or gratification, or are treated kindly, for it is
certainly not right that we should have anything in this life like that.
When, on the other hand, some offence is done to us (and we do not feel it
an offence to us that it should be so described), I do not see what we can
find to complain of. Either we are the brides of this great King or we are
not. If we are, what wife is there with a sense of honour who does not
accept her share in any dishonour done to her spouse, even though she may do
so against her will? Each partner, in fact, shares in the honour and
dishonour of the other. To desire to share in the kingdom [of our Spouse
Jesus Christ], and to enjoy it, and yet not to be willing to have any part
in His dishonours and trials, is ridiculous.

God keep us from being like that! Let the sister who thinks that she is
accounted the least among all consider herself the [happiest and] most
fortunate, as indeed she really is, if she lives her life as she should, for
in that case she will, as a rule, have no lack of honour either in this life
or in the next. Believe me when I say this”what an absurdity, though, it is
for me to sayBelieve me when the words come from Him Who is true Wisdom,
Who is Truth Itself, and from the Queen of the angels! Let us, my daughters,
in some small degree, imitate the great humility of the most sacred Virgin,
whose habit we wear and whose nuns we are ashamed to call ourselves. Let us
at least imitate this humility of hers in some degree”I sayin some
degree because, however much we may seem to humble ourselves, we fall far
short of being the daughters of such a Mother, and the brides of such a
Spouse. If, then, the habits I have described are not sternly checked, what
seems nothing to-day will perhaps be a venial sin to-morrow, and that is so
infectious a tendency that, if you leave it alone, the sin will not be the
only one for long; and that is a very bad thing for communities.

We who live in a community should consider this very carefully, so as not to
harm those who labour to benefit us and to set us a good example. If we
realize what great harm is done by the formation of a bad habit of
over-punctiliousness about our honour, we should rather die a thousand
deaths than be the cause of such a thing. For only the body would die,
whereas the loss of a soul is a great loss which is apparently without end;
some of us will die, but others will take our places and perhaps they may
all be harmed more by the one bad habit which we started than they are
benefited by many virtues. For the devil does not allow a single bad habit
to disappear and the very weakness of our mortal nature destroys the virtues
in us.

Oh, what a real charity it would be, and what a service would be rendered to
God, if any nun who sees that she cannot [endure and] conform to the customs
of this house would recognize the fact and go away [before being professed,
as I have said elsewhere], and leave the other sisters in peace! And no
convent (at least, if it follows my advice) will take her or allow her to
make her profession until they have given her many years probation to see
if she improves. I am not referring to shortcomings affecting penances and
fasts, for, although these are wrong, they are not things which do so much
harm. I am thinking of nuns who are of such a temperament that they like to
be esteemed and made much of; who see the faults of others but never
recognize their own; and who are deficient in other ways like these, the
true source of which is want of humility. If God does not help such a person
by bestowing great spirituality upon her, until after many years she becomes
greatly improved, may God preserve you from keeping her in your community.
For you must realize that she will neither have peace there herself nor
allow you to have any.

As you do not take dowries, God is very gracious to you in this respect. It
grieves me that religious houses should often harbour one who is a thief and
robs them of their treasure, either because they are unwilling to return a
dowry or out of regard for the relatives. In this house you have risked
losing worldly honour and forgone it (for no such honour is paid to those
who are poor); do not desire, then, that others should be honoured at such a
cost to yourselves. Our honour, sisters, must lie in the service of God,
and, if anyone thinks to hinder you in this, she had better keep her honour
and stay at home. It was with this in mind that our Fathers ordered a
years probation (which in our Order we are free to extend to four years):
personally, I should like it to be prolonged to ten years. A humble nun will
mind very little if she is not professed: for she knows that if she is good
she will not be sent away, and if she is not, why should she wish to do harm
to one of Christs communities? [41]

By not being good, I do not mean being fond of vanities, which, I believe,
with the help of God, will be a fault far removed from the nuns in this
house. I am referring to a want of mortification and an attachment to
worldly things and to self-interest in the matter which I have described.
Let anyone who knows that she is not greatly mortified take my advice and
not make her profession if she does not wish to suffer a hell on earth, and
God grant there may not be another hell awaiting such a nun in the world to
come! There are many reasons why she should fear there may belt and possibly
neither she nor her sisters may realize this as well as I do.

Believe what I say here; if you will not, I must leave it to time to prove
the truth of my words. For the whole manner of life we are trying to live is
making us, not only nuns, but hermits [like the holy Fathers our
predecessors] and leading us to detachment from all things created. I have
observed that anyone whom the Lord has specially chosen for this life is
granted that favour. She may not have it in full perfection, but that she
has it will be evident from the great joy and gladness that such detachment
gives her, and she will never have any more to do with worldly things, for
her delight will be in all the practices of the religious life. I say once
more that anyone who is inclined to things of the world should leave the
convent [42] if she sees she is not making progress. If she still wishes to
be a nun she should go to another convent; if she does not, she will see
what happens to her. She must not complain of me as the foundress of this
convent and say I have not warned her.

This house is another Heaven, if it be possible to have Heaven upon earth.
Anyone whose sole pleasure lies in pleasing God and who cares nothing for
her own pleasure will find our life a very good one; if she wants anything
more, she will lose everything, for there is nothing more that she can have.
A discontented soul is like a person suffering from severe nausea, who
rejects all food, however nice it may be; things which persons in good
health delight in eating only cause her the greater loathing. Such a person
will save her soul better elsewhere than here; she may even gradually reach
a degree of perfection which she could not have attained here because we
expected too much of her all at once. For although we allow time for the
attainment of complete detachment and mortification in interior matters, in
externals this has to be practised immediately, because of the harm which
may otherwise befall the rest; and anyone who sees this being done, and
spends all her time in such good company, and yet, at the end of six months
or a year, has made no progress, will, I fear, make none over a great many
years, and will even go backward. I do not say that such a nun must be as
perfect as the rest, but she must be sure that her soul is gradually growing
healthier”and it will soon become clear if her disease is mortal.
_________________________________________________________________

[40] Lit.:did them to Him.

[41] Lit.:to this college of Christ.

[42] I.e., St. Josephs,vila.
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CHAPTER 14
Treats of the great importance of not professing anyone whose spirit is
contrary to the things aforementioned.

I feel sure that the Lord bestows great help on anyone who makes good
resolutions, and for that reason it is necessary to enquire into the
intentions of anyone who enters [the life of religion]. She must not come,
as many nuns [now] do, simply to further her own interests, although the
Lord can perfect even this intention if she is a person of intelligence. If
not intelligent, a person of this kind should on no account be admitted; for
she will not understand her own reasons for coming, nor will she understand
others who attempt subsequently to improve her. For, in general, a person
who has this fault always thinks she knows better than the wisest what is
good for her; and I believe this evil is incurable, for it is rarely
unaccompanied by malice. In a convent where there are a great many nuns it
may be tolerated, but it cannot be suffered among a few.

When an intelligent person begins to grow fond of what is good, she clings
to it manfully, for she sees that it is the best thing for her; this course
may not bring her great spirituality but it will help her to give profitable
advice, and to make herself useful in many ways, without being a trouble to
anybody. But I do not see how a person lacking in intelligence can be of any
use in community life, and she may do a great deal of harm. This defect,
like others, will not become obvious immediately; for many people are good
at talking and bad at understanding, while others speak in a sharp and none
too refined a tone, [43] and yet they have intelligence and can do a great
deal of good. There are also simple, holy people who are quite unversed in
business matters and worldly conventions but have great skill in converse
with God. Many enquiries, therefore, must be made before novices are
admitted, and the period of probation before profession should be a long
one. The world must understand once and for an that you are free to send
them away again, as it is often necessary to do in a convent where the life
is one of austerity; and then if you use this right no one will take
offence.

I say this because these times are so unhappy, and our weakness is so great,
that we are not content to follow the instructions of our predecessors and
disregard the current ideas about honour, lest we should give offence to the
novices relatives. God grant that those of us who admit unsuitable persons
may not pay for it in the world to come! Such persons are never without a
pretext for persuading us to accept them, though in a matter of such
importance no pretext is valid. If the superior is unaffected by her
personal likings and prejudices, and considers what is for the good of the
house, I do not believe God will ever allow her to go astray. But if she
considers other peoples feelings and trivial points of detail, I feel sure
she will be bound to err.

This is something which everyone must think out for herself; she must
commend it to God and encourage her superior when her courage fails her, of
such great importance is it. So I beg God to give you light about it. You do
very well not to accept dowries; for, if you were to accept them, it might
happen that, in order not to have to give back money which you no longer
possess, you would keep a thief in the house who was robbing you of your
treasure; and that would be no small pity. So you must not receive dowries
from anyone, for to do so may be to harm the very person to whom you desire
to bring profit.
_________________________________________________________________

[43] An untranslatable play upon words: corto y no muy cortado”as though
sharpened could be used in the sense ofrefined.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 15
Treats of the great advantage which comes from our not excusing ourselves, even
though we find we are unjustly condemned.

But how disconnectedly I am writing! I am just like a person who does not
know what she is doing. It is your fault, sisters, for I am doing this at
your command. Read it as best you can, for I am writing it as best I can,
and, if it is too bad, burn it. I really need leisure, and, as you see, I
have so little opportunity for writing that a week passes without my putting
down a word, and so I forget what I have said and what I am going to say
next. Now what I have just been doing”namely, excusing myself”is very bad
for me, and I beg you not to copy it, for to suffer without making excuses
is a habit of great perfection, and very edifying and meritorious; and,
though I often teach you this, and by Gods goodness you practise it, His
Majesty has never granted this favour to me. May He be pleased to bestow it
on me before I die.

I am greatly confused as I begin to urge this virtue upon you, for I ought
myself to have practised at least something of what I am recommending you
with regard to it: but actually I must confess I have made very little
progress. I never seem unable to find a reason for thinking I am being
virtuous when I make excuses for myself. There are times when this is
lawful, and when not to do it would be wrong, but I have not the discretion
(or, better, the humility) to do it only when fitting. For, indeed, it takes
great humility to find oneself unjustly condemned and be silent, and to do
this is to imitate the Lord Who set us free from all our sins. I beg you,
then, to study earnestly to do so, for it brings great gain; whereas I can
see no gain in our trying to free ourselves from blame: none whatever”save,
as I say, in a few cases where hiding the truth might cause offence or
scandal. Anyone will understand this who has more discretion than I.

I think it is very important to accustom oneself to practise this virtue and
to endeavour to obtain from the Lord the true humility which must result
from it. The truly humble person will have a genuine desire to be thought
little of, and persecuted, and condemned unjustly, even in serious matters.
For, if she desires to imitate the Lord, how can she do so better than in
this? And no bodily strength is necessary here, nor the aid of anyone save
God.

These are great virtues, my sisters, and I should like us to study them
closely, and to make them our penance. As you know, I deprecate [other
severe and] excessive penances, which, if practised indiscreetly, may injure
the health. Here, however, there is no cause for fear; for, however great
the interior virtues may be, they do not weaken the body so that it cannot
serve the Order, while at the same time they strengthen the soul; and,
furthermore, they can be applied to very little things, and thus, as I have
said on other occasions, they accustom one to gain great victories in very
important matters. I have not, however, been able to test this particular
thing myself, for I never heard anything bad said of me which I did not
clearly realize fell short of the truth. If I had not sometimes”often,
indeed” offended God in the ways they referred to, I had done so in many
others, and I felt they had treated me far too indulgently in saying nothing
about these: I much preferred people to blame me for what was not true than
to tell the truth about me. For I disliked hearing things that were true
said about me, whereas these other things, however serious they were, I did
not mind at all. In small matters I followed my own inclinations, and I
still do so, without paying any affection to what is most perfect. So I
should like you to begin to realize this at an early stage, and I want each
of you to ponder how much there is to be gained in every way by this virtue,
and how, so far as I can see, there is nothing to be lost by it. The chief
thing we gain is being able, in some degree, to follow the Lord.

It is a great help to meditate upon the great gain which in any case this is
bound to bring us, and to realize how, properly speaking, we can never be
blamed unjustly, since we are always full of faults, and a just man falls
seven times a day, [44] so that it would be a falsehood for us to say we
have no sin. If, then, we are not to blame for the thing that we are accused
of, we are never wholly without blame in the way that our good Jesus was.

Oh, my Lord! When I think in how many ways Thou didst suffer, and in all of
them undeservedly, I know not what to say for myself, or what I can have
been thinking about when I desired not to suffer, or what I am doing when I
make excuses for myself. Thou knowest, my Good, that if there is anything
good in me it comes from no other hands than Thine own. For what is it to
Thee, Lord, to give much instead of little? True, I do not deserve it, but
neither have I deserved the favours which Thou hast shown me already. Can it
be that I should wish a thing so evil as myself to be thought well of by
anyone, when they have said such wicked things of Thee, Who art good above
all other good? It is intolerable, my God, it is intolerable; nor would I
that Thou shouldst have to tolerate anything displeasing in Thine eyes being
found in Thy handmaiden. For see, Lord, mine eyes are blind and very little
pleases them. Do Thou give me light and make me truly to desire that all
should hate me, since I have so often left Thee, Who hast loved me with such
faithfulness.

What is this, my God? What advantage do we think to gain from giving
pleasure to creatures? What does it matter to us if we are blamed by them
all, provided we are without blame in the sight of the Lord? Oh, my sisters
we shall never succeed in understanding this truth and we shall never attain
perfection unless we think and meditate upon what is real and upon what is
not. If there were no other gain than the confusion which will be felt by
the person who has blamed you when she sees that you have allowed yourselves
to be condemned unjustly, that would be a very great thing. Such an
experience uplifts the soul more than ten sermons. And we must all try to be
preachers by our deeds, since both the Apostle and our own lack of ability
forbid us to be preachers in word.

Never suppose that either the evil or the good that you do will remain
secret, however strict may be your enclosure. Do you suppose, daughter,
that, if you do not make excuses for yourself, there will not be someone
else who will defend you? Remember how the Lord took the Magdalens part in
the Pharisees house and also when her sister blamed her. He will not treat
you as rigorously as He treated Himself: it was not until He was on the
Cross that He had even a thief to defend Him. His Majesty, then, will put it
into somebodys mind to defend you; if He does not, it will be because there
is no need. This I have myself seen, and it is a fact, although I should not
like you to think too much of it, but rather to be glad when you are blamed,
and in due time you will see what profit you experience in your souls. For
it is in this way that you will begin to gain freedom; soon you will not
care if they speak ill or well of you; it will seem like someone elses
business. It will be as if two persons are talking in your presence and you
are quite uninterested in what they are saying because you are not actually
being addressed by them. So here: it becomes such a habit with us not to
reply that it seems as if they are not addressing us at all. This may seem
impossible to those of us who are very sensitive and not capable of great
mortification. It is indeed difficult at first, but I know that, with the
Lords help, the gradual attainment of this freedom, and of renunciation and
self-detachment, is quite possible.
_________________________________________________________________

[44] Proverbs xxiv, 16.
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CHAPTER 16
Describes the difference between perfection in the lives of contemplatives and
in the lives of those who are content with mental prayer. Explains how it is
sometimes possible for God to raise a distracted soul to perfect contemplation
and the reason for this. This chapter and that which comes next are to be noted
carefully. [45]

I hope you do not think I have written too much about this already; for I
have only been placing the board, as they say. You have asked me to tell you
about the first steps in prayer; although God did not lead me by them, my
daughters I know no others, and even now I can hardly have acquired these
elementary virtues. But you may be sure that anyone who cannot set out the
pieces in a game of chess will never be able to play well, and, if he does
not know how to give check, he will not be able to bring about a checkmate.
[46] Now you will reprove me for talking about games, as we do not play them
in this house and are forbidden to do so. That will show you what kind of a
mother God has given you”she even knows about vanities like this! However,
they say that the game is sometimes legitimate. How legitimate it will be
for us to play it in this way, and, if we play it frequently, how quickly we
shall give checkmate to this Divine King! He will not be able to move out of
our check nor will He desire to do so.

It is the queen which gives the king most trouble in this game and all the
other pieces support her. There is no queen who can beat this King as well
as humility can; for humility brought Him down from Heaven into the
Virgins womb and with humility we can draw Him into our souls by a single
hair. Be sure that He will give most humility to him who has most already
and least to him who has least. I cannot understand how humility exists, or
can exist, without love, or love without humility, and it is impossible for
these two virtues to exist save where there is great detachment from all
created things.

You will ask, my daughters, why I am talking to you about virtues when you
have more than enough books to teach you about them and when you want me to
tell you only about contemplation. My reply is that, if you had asked me
about meditation, I could have talked to you about it, and advised you all
to practise it, even if you do not possess the virtues. For this is the
first step to be taken towards the acquisition of the virtues and the very
life of all Christians depends upon their beginning it. No one, however lost
a soul he may be, should neglect so great a blessing if God inspires him to
make use of it. All this I have already written elsewhere, and so have many
others who know what they are writing about, which I certainly do not: God
knows that.

But contemplation, daughters, is another matter. This is an error which we
all make: if a person gets so far as to spend a short time each day in
thinking about his sins, as he is bound to do if he is a Christian in
anything more than name, people at once call him a great contemplative; and
then they expect him to have the rare virtues which a great contemplative is
bound to possess; he may even think he has them himself, but he will be
quite wrong. In his early stages he did not even know how to set out the
chess-board, and thought that, in order to give checkmate, it would be
enough to be able to recognize the pieces. But that is impossible, for this
King does not allow Himself to be taken except by one who surrenders wholly
to Him.

Therefore, daughters, if you want me to tell you the way to attain to
contemplation, do allow me to speak at some length about these things, even
if at the time they do not seem to you very important, for I think myself
that they are. If you have no wish either to hear about them or to practise
them, continue your mental prayer all your life; but in that case I assure
you, and all persons who desire this blessing, that in my opinion you will
not attain true contemplation. I may, of course, be wrong about this, as I
am judging by my own experience, but I have been striving after
contemplation for twenty years.

I will now explain what mental prayer is, as some of you will not understand
this. God grant that we may practise it as we should! I am afraid, however,
that, if we do not achieve the virtues, this can only be done with great
labour, although the virtues are not necessary here in such a high degree as
they are for contemplation. I mean that the King of glory will not come to
our souls”that is, so as to be united with them” unless we strive to gain
the greatest virtues. [47] I will explain this, for if you once catch me out
in something which is not the truth, you will believe nothing I say”and if I
were to say something untrue intentionally, from which may God preserve me,
you would be right; but, if I did, it would be because I knew no better or
did not understand what I said. I will tell you, then, that God is sometimes
pleased to show great favour to persons who are in an evil state [and to
raise them to perfect contemplation], so that by this means He may snatch
them out of the hands of the devil. It must be understood, I think, that
such persons will not be in mortal sin at the time. They may be in an evil
state, and yet the Lord will allow them to see a vision, even a very good
one, in order to draw them back to Himself. But I cannot believe that He
would grant them contemplation. For that is a Divine union, in which the
Lord takes His delight in the soul and the soul takes its delight in Him;
and there is no way in which the Purity of the Heavens can take pleasure in
a soul that is unclean, nor can the Delight of the angels have delight in
that which is not His own. And we know that, by committing mortal sin, a
soul becomes the property of the devil, and must take its delight in him,
since it has given him pleasure; and, as we know, his delights, even in this
life, are continuous torture. My Lord will have no lack of children of His
own in whom He may rejoice without going and taking the children of others.
Yet His Majesty will do what He often does”namely, snatch them out of the
devils hands. [48]

Oh, my Lord! How often do we cause Thee to wrestle with the devil! Was it
not enough that Thou shouldst have allowed him to bear Thee in his arms when
he took Thee to the pinnacle of the Temple in order to teach us how to
vanquish him? What a sight it would have been, daughters, to see this Sun by
the side of the darkness, and what fear that wretched creature must have
felt, though he would not have known why, since God did not allow Him to
understand!

Blessed be such great pity and mercy; we Christians ought to feel great
shame at making Him wrestle daily, in the way I have described, with such an
unclean beast. Indeed, Lord, Thine arms had need to be strong, but how was
it that they were not weakened by the many [trials and] tortures which Thou
didst endure upon the Cross? Oh, how quickly all that is borne for loves
sake heals again! I really believe that, if Thou hadst lived longer, the
very love which Thou hast for us would have healed Thy wounds again and Thou
wouldst have needed no other medicine. Oh, my God, who will give me such
medicine for all the things which grieve and try me? How eagerly should I
desire them if it were certain that I could be cured by such a health-giving
ointment!

Returning to what I was saying, there are souls whom God knows He may gain
for Himself by this means; seeing that they are completely lost, His Majesty
wants to leave no stone unturned to help them; and therefore, though they
are in a sad way and lacking in virtues, He gives them consolations, favours
and emotions [49] which begin to move their desires, and occasionally even
brings them to a state of contemplation, though rarely and not for long at a
time. And this, as I say, He does because He is testing them to see if that
favour will not make them anxious to prepare themselves to enjoy it often;
if it does not, may they be pardoned; pardon Thou us, Lord, for it is a
dreadful thing that a soul whom Thou hast brought near to Thyself should
approach any earthly thing and become attached to it.

For my own part I believe there are many souls whom God our Lord tests in
this way, and few who prepare themselves to enjoy this favour. When the Lord
does this and we ourselves leave nothing undone either, I think it is
certain that He never ceases from giving until He has brought us to a very
high degree of prayer. If we do not give ourselves to His Majesty as
resolutely as He gives Himself to us, He will be doing more than enough for
us if He leaves us in mental prayer and from time to time visits us as He
would visit servants in His vineyard. But these others are His beloved
children, whom He would never want to banish from His side; and, as they
have no desire to leave Him, He never does so. He seats them at His table,
and feeds them with His own food, almost taking the food from His mouth in
order to give it them.

Oh, what blessed care of us is this, my daughters! How happy shall we be if
by leaving these few, petty [50] things we can arrive at so high an estate!
Even if the whole world should blame you, and deafen you with its cries,
what matter so long as you are in the arms of God? He is powerful enough to
free you from everything; for only once did He command the world to be made
and it was done; with Him, to will is to do. Do not be afraid, then, if He
is pleased to speak with you, for He does this for the greater good of those
who love Him. His love for those to whom He is dear is by no means so weak:
He shows it in every way possible. Why, then, my sisters, do we not show Him
love in so far as we can? Consider what a wonderful exchange it is if we
give Him our love and receive His. Consider that He can do all things, and
we can do nothing here below save as He enables us. And what is it that we
do for Thee, O Lord, our Maker? We do hardly anything [at all]” just make
some poor weak resolution. And, if His Majesty is pleased that by doing a
mere nothing we should win everything, let us not be so foolish as to fail
to do it.

O Lord! All our trouble comes to us from not having our eyes fixed upon
Thee. If we only looked at the way along which we are walking, we should
soon arrive; but we stumble and fall a thousand times and stray from the way
because, as I say, we do not set our eyes on the true Way. One would think
that no one had ever trodden it before, so new is it to us. It is indeed a
pity that this should sometimes happen. I mean, it hardly seems that we are
Christians at all or that we have ever in our lives read about the Passion.
Lord help us”that we should be hurt about some small point of honour! And
then, when someone tells us not to worry about it, we think he is no
Christian. I used to laugh”or sometimes I used to be distressed”at the
things I heard in the world, and sometimes, for my sins, in religious
Orders. We refuse to be thwarted over the very smallest matter of
precedence: apparently such a thing is quite intolerable. We cry out at
once:Well, Im no saint; I used to say that myself.

God deliver us, sisters, from sayingWe are not angels, orWe are not
saints, whenever we commit some imperfection. We may not be; but what a
good thing it is for us to reflect that we can be if we will only try and if
God gives us His hand! Do not be afraid that He will fail to do His part if
we do not fail to do ours. And since we come here for no other reason, let
us put our hands to the plough, as they say. Let there be nothing we know of
which it would be a service to the Lord for us to do, and which, with His
help, we would not venture to take in hand. I should like that kind of
venturesomeness to be found in this house, as it always increases humility.
We must have a holy boldness, for God helps the strong, being no respecter
of persons; [51] and He will give courage to you and to me.

I have strayed far from the point. I want to return to what I was
saying”that is, to explain the nature of mental prayer and contemplation. It
may seem irrelevant, but it is all done for your sakes; you may understand
it better as expressed in my rough style than in other books which put it
more elegantly. May the Lord grant me His favour, so that this may be so.
Amen.
_________________________________________________________________

[45] The first four paragraphs of this chapter originally formed part of V.,
but, after writing them, St. Teresa tore them out of the manuscript, as
though, on consideration, she had decided not to leave on record her
knowledge of such a worldly game as chess. The allegory, however, is so
expressive and beautiful that it has rightly become famous, and from the
time of Fray Luis de Len all the editions have included it. The text here
followed is that of E.

[46] Chess was very much in vogue in the Spain of St. Teresas day and it
was only in 1561 that its great exponent Ruy Lpez de Segura had published
his celebrated treatise, in Spanish, entitledBook of the liberal invention
and art of the game of chess.

[47] Lit.:the great virtues. In V. St. Teresa originally began this
sentence thus:In the last chapter I said that the King of glory, etc.,
and ended it:to gain the virtues which I there described as great. Later
she altered it to read as above.

[48] Lit.:out of his hands, but the meaning, made more explicit in V., is
evident. On the doctrinal question involved in this paragraph, see
Introduction, above. P. Silverio (III, 75-6), has a more extensive note on
the subject than can be given here and cites a number of Spanish
authorities, from P. Juan de Jesºs Mar­a (Theologia Mystica, Chap. III) to
P. Seisdedos Sanz (Principios fundamentales de la m­stica, Madrid, 1913, II,
61-77.)

[49] Lit.:and tenderness.

[50] Lit.:low, contrasting withhigh at the end of the sentence.

[51] Acts x, 34.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 17
How not all souls are fitted for contemplation and how some take long to attain
it. True humility will walk happily along the road by which the Lord leads it.

I seem now to be beginning my treatment of prayer, but there still remains a
little for me to say, which is of great importance because it has to do with
humility, and in this house that is necessary. For humility is the principal
virtue which must be practised by those who pray, and, as I have said, it is
very fitting that you should try to learn how to practise it often: that is
one of the chief things to remember about it and it is very necessary that
it should be known by all who practise prayer. How can anyone who is truly
humble think herself as good as those who become contemplatives? God, it is
true, by His goodness and mercy, can make her so; but my advice is that she
should always sit down in the lowest place, for that is what the Lord
instructed us to do and taught us by His own example. [52] Let such a one
make herself ready for God to lead her by this road if He so wills; if He
does not, the whole point of true humility is that she should consider
herself happy in serving the servants of the Lord and in praising Him. For
she deserves to be a slave of the devils in hell; yet His Majesty has
brought her here to live among His servants.

I do not say this without good reason, for, as I have said, it is very
important for us to realize that God does not lead us all by the same road,
and perhaps she who believes herself to be going along the lowest of roads
is the highest in the Lords eyes. So it does not follow that, because all
of us in this house practise prayer, we are all perforce to be
contemplatives. That is impossible; and those of us who are not would be
greatly discouraged if we did not grasp the truth that contemplation is
something given by God, and, as it is not necessary for salvation and God
does not ask it of us before He gives us our reward, we must not suppose
that anyone else will require it of us. We shall not fail to attain
perfection if we do what has been said here; we may, in fact, gain much more
merit, because what we do will cost us more labour; the Lord will be
treating us like those who are strong and will be laying up for us all that
we cannot enjoy in this life. Let us not be discouraged, then, and give up
prayer or cease doing what the rest do; for the Lord sometimes tarries long,
and gives us as great rewards all at once as He has been giving to others
over many years.

I myself spent over fourteen years without ever being able to meditate
except while reading. There must be many people like this, and others who
cannot meditate even after reading, but can only recite vocal prayers, in
which they chiefly occupy themselves and take a certain pleasure. Some find
their thoughts wandering so much that they cannot concentrate upon the same
thing, but are always restless, to such an extent that, if they try to fix
their thoughts upon God, they are attacked by a thousand foolish ideas and
scruples and doubts concerning the Faith. I know a very old woman, leading a
most excellent life”I wish mine were like hers”a penitent and a great
servant of God, who for many years has been spending hours and hours in
vocal prayer, but from mental prayer can get no help at all; the most she
can do is to dwell upon each of her vocal prayers as she says them. There
are a great many other people just like this; if they are humble, they will
not, I think, be any the worse off in the end, but very much in the same
state as those who enjoy numerous consolations. In one way they may feel
safer, for we cannot tell if consolations come from God or are sent by the
devil. If they are not of God, they are the more dangerous; for the chief
object of the devils work on earth is to fill us with pride. If they are of
God, there is no reason for fear, for they bring humility with them, as I
explained in my other book at great length.

Others [53] walk in humility, and always suspect that if they fail to
receive consolations the fault is theirs, and are always most anxious to
make progress. They never see a person shedding a tear without thinking
themselves very backward in Gods service unless they are doing the same,
whereas they may perhaps be much more advanced. For tears, though good, are
not invariably signs of perfection; there is always greater safety in
humility, mortification, detachment and other virtues. There is no reason
for fear, and you must not be afraid that you will fail to attain the
perfection of the greatest contemplatives.

Saint Martha was holy, but we are not told that she was a contemplative.
What more do you want than to be able to grow to be like that blessed woman,
who was worthy to receive Christ our Lord so often in her house, and to
prepare meals for Him, and to serve Him and perhaps to eat at table with
Him? If she had been absorbed in devotion [all the time], as the Magdalen
was, there would have been no one to prepare a meal for this Divine Guest.
Now remember that this little community is Saint Marthas house and that
there must be people of all kinds here. Nuns who are called to the active
life must not murmur at others who are very much absorbed in contemplation,
for contemplatives know that, though they themselves may be silent, the Lord
will speak for them, and this, as a rule, makes them forget themselves and
everything else.

Remember that there must be someone to cook the meals and count yourselves
happy in being able to serve like Martha. Reflect that true humility
consists to a great extent in being ready for what the Lord desires to do
with you and happy that He should do it, and in always considering
yourselves unworthy to be called His servants. If contemplation and mental
and vocal prayer and tending the sick and serving in the house and working
at even the lowliest tasks are of service to the Guest who comes to stay
with us and to eat and take His recreation with us, what should it matter to
us if we do one of these things rather than another?

I do not mean that it is for us to say what we shall do, but that we must do
our best in everything, for the choice is not ours but the Lords. If after
many years He is pleased to give each of us her office, it will be a curious
kind of humility for you to wish to choose; let the Lord of the house do
that, for He is wise and powerful and knows what is fitting for you and for
Himself as well. Be sure that, if you do what lies in your power and prepare
yourself for high contemplation with the perfection aforementioned, then, if
He does not grant it you (and I think He will not fail to do so if you have
true detachment and humility), it will be because He has laid up this joy
for you so as to give it you in Heaven, and because, as I have said
elsewhere, He is pleased to treat you like people who are strong and give
you a cross to bear on earth like that which His Majesty Himself always
bore.

What better sign of friendship is there than for Him to give you what He
gave Himself? It might well be that you would not have had so great a reward
from contemplation. His judgments are His own; we must not meddle in them.
It is indeed a good thing that the choice is not ours; for, if it were, we
should think it the more restful life and all become great contemplatives.
Oh, how much we gain if we have no desire to gain what seems to us best and
so have no fear of losing, since God never permits a truly mortified person
to lose anything except when such loss will bring him greater gain!
_________________________________________________________________

[52] St. Luke xiv, 10.

[53] Lit.:These others.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 18
Continues the same subject and shows how much greater are the trials of
contemplatives than those of actives. This chapter offers great consolation to
actives.

I tell you, then, daughters”those of you whom God is not leading by this
road [of contemplation]”that, as I know from what I have seen and been told
by those who are following this road, they are not bearing a lighter cross
than you; you would be amazed at all the ways and manners in which God sends
them crosses. I know about both types of life and I am well aware that the
trials given by God to contemplatives are intolerable; and they are of such
a kind that, were He not to feed them with consolations, they could not be
borne. It is clear that, since God leads those whom He most loves by the way
of trials, the more He loves them, the greater will be their trials; and
there is no reason to suppose that He hates contemplatives, since with His
own mouth He praises them and calls them friends.

To suppose that He would admit to His close friendship pleasure-loving
people who are free from all trials is ridiculous. I feel quite sure that
God gives them much greater trials; and that He leads them by a hard and
rugged road, so that they sometimes think they are lost and will have to go
back and begin again. Then His Majesty is obliged to give them
sustenance”not water, but wine, so that they may become inebriated by it and
not realize what they are going through and what they are capable of
bearing. Thus I find few true contemplatives who are not courageous and
resolute in suffering; for, if they are weak, the first thing the Lord does
is to give them courage so that they may fear no trials that may come to
them.

I think, when those who lead an active life occasionally see contemplatives
receiving consolations, they suppose that they never experience anything
else. But I can assure you that you might not be able to endure their
sufferings for as long as a day. The point is that the Lord knows everyone
as he really is and gives each his work to do”according to what He sees to
be most fitting for his soul, and for His own Self, and for the good of his
neighbour. Unless you have omitted to prepare yourselves for your work you
need have no fear that it will be lost. Note that I say we must all strive
to do this, for we are here for no other purpose; and we must not strive
merely for a year, or for two years or ten years, or it will look as if we
are abandoning our work like cowards. It is well that the Lord should see we
are not leaving anything undone. We are like soldiers who, however long they
have served, must always be ready for their captain to send them away on any
duty which he wants to entrust to them, since it is he who is paying them.
And how much better is the payment given by our King than by people on this
earth! For the unfortunate soldiers die, and God knows who pays them after
that!

When their captain sees they are all present, and anxious for service, he
assigns duties to them according to their fitness, though not so well as our
Heavenly Captain. But if they were not present, He would give them neither
pay [54] nor service orders. So practise mental prayer, sisters; or, if any
of you cannot do that, vocal prayer, reading and colloquies with God, as I
shall explain to you later. Do not neglect the hours of prayer which are
observed by all the nuns; you never know when the Spouse will call you (do
not let what happened to the foolish virgins happen to you) and if He will
give you fresh trials under the disguise of consolations. If He does not,
you may be sure that you are not fit for them and that what you are doing is
suitable for you. That is where both merit and humility come in, when you
really think that you are not fit for what you are doing.

Go cheerfully about whatever services you are ordered to do, as I have said;
if such a servant is truly humble she will be blessed in her active life and
will never make any complaint save of herself. I would much rather be like
her than like some contemplatives. Leave others to wage their own conflicts,
which are not light ones. The standard-bearer is not a combatant, yet none
the less he is exposed to great danger, and, inwardly, must suffer more than
anyone, for he cannot defend himself, as he is carrying the standard, which
he must not allow to leave his hands, even if he is cut to pieces. Just so
contemplatives have to bear aloft the standard of humility and must suffer
all the blows which are aimed at them without striking any themselves. Their
duty is to suffer as Christ did, to raise the Cross on high, not to allow it
to leave their hands, whatever the perils in which they find themselves, and
not to let themselves be found backward in suffering. It is for this reason
that they are given such an honourable duty. Let the contemplative consider
what he is doing; for, if he lets the standard fall, the battle will be
lost. Great harm, I think, is done to those who are not so far advanced if
those whom they consider as captains and friends of God let them see them
acting in a way unbefitting to their office.

The other soldiers do as best they can; at times they will withdraw from
some position of extreme danger, and, as no one observes them, they suffer
no loss of honour. But these others have all eyes fixed on them and cannot
move. Their office, then, is a noble one, and the King confers great honour
and favour upon anyone to whom He gives it, and who, in receiving it,
accepts no light obligation. So, sisters, as we do not understand ourselves
and know not what we ask, let us leave everything to the Lord, Who knows us
better than we know ourselves. True humility consists in our being satisfied
with what is given us. There are some people who seem to want to ask favours
from God as a right. A pretty kind of humility that is! He Who knows us all
does well in seldom giving things to such persons, He sees clearly that they
are unable to drink of His chalice.

If you want to know whether you have made progress or not, sisters, you may
be sure that you have if each of you thinks herself the worst of all and
shows that she thinks this by acting for the profit and benefit of the rest.
Progress has nothing to do with enjoying the greatest number of consolations
in prayer, or with raptures, visions or favours [often] given by the Lord,
the value of which we cannot estimate until we reach the world to come. The
other things I have been describing are current coin, an unfailing source of
revenue and a perpetual inheritance”not payments liable at any time to
cease, like those favours which are given us and then come to an end. I am
referring to the great virtues of humility, mortification and an obedience
so extremely strict that we never go an inch beyond the superiors orders,
knowing that these orders come from God since she is in His place. It is to
this duty of obedience that you must attach the greatest importance. It
seems to me that anyone who does not have it is not a nun at all, and so I
am saying no more about it, as I am speaking to nuns whom I believe to be
good, or, at least, desirous of being so. So well known is the matter, and
so important, that a single word will suffice to prevent you from forgetting
it.

I mean that, if anyone is under a vow of obedience and goes astray through
not taking the greatest care to observe these vows with the highest degree
of perfection, I do not know why she is in the convent. I can assure her, in
any case, that, for so long as she fails in this respect, she will never
succeed in leading the contemplative life, or even in leading a good active
life: of that I am absolutely certain. [55] And even a person who has not
this obligation, but who wishes or tries to achieve contemplation, must, if
she would walk safely, be fully resolved to surrender her will to a
confessor who is himself a contemplative [56] and will understand her. It is
a well-known fact that she will make more progress in this way in a year
than in a great many years if she acts otherwise. As this does not affect
you, however, I will say no more about it.

I conclude, my daughters, [by saying] that these are the virtues which I
desire you to possess and to strive to obtain and of which you should
cherish a holy envy. Do not be troubled because you have no experience of
those other kinds of devotion: they are very unreliable. It may be that to
some people they come from God, and yet that if they came to you it might be
because His Majesty had permitted you to be deceived and deluded by the
devil, as He has permitted others: there is danger in this for women. Why do
you want to serve the Lord in so doubtful a way when there are so many ways
of [serving Him in] safety? Who wants to plunge you into these perils? I
have said a great deal about this, because I am sure it will be useful, for
this nature of ours is weak, though His Majesty will strengthen those on
whom He wishes to bestow contemplation. With regard to the rest, I am glad
to have given them this advice, which will teach contemplatives humility
also. If you say you have no need of it, daughters, some of you may perhaps
find it pleasant reading. May the Lord, for His own sake, give us light to
follow His will in all things and we shall have no cause for fear.
_________________________________________________________________

[54] Lit.:would give them nothing, but the reference seems to be to
payment.

[55] Lit.:very, very certain” a typically Teresan repetition.

[56] Lit.:who is such.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 19
Begins to treat of prayer. Addresses souls who cannot reason with the
understanding.

It is a long time [57] since I wrote the last chapter and I have had no
chance of returning to my writing, so that, without reading through what I
have written, I cannot remember what I said. However, I must not spend too
much time at this, so it will be best if I go right on [58] without
troubling about the connection. For those with orderly minds, and for souls
who practise prayer and can be a great deal in their own company, many books
have been written, and these are so good and are the work of such competent
people that you would be making a mistake if you paid heed to anything about
prayer that you learned from me. There are books, as I say, in which the
mysteries of the life of the Lord and of His sacred Passion are described in
short passages, one for each day of the week; there are also meditations on
the Judgment, on hell, on our own nothingness and on all that we owe to God,
and these books are excellent both as to their teaching and as to the way in
which they plan the beginning and the end of the time of prayer. [59] There
is no need to tell anyone who is capable of practising prayer in this way,
and has already formed the habit of doing so, that by this good road the
Lord will bring her to the harbour of light. If she begins so well, her end
will be good also; and all who can walk along this road will walk restfully
and securely, for one always walks restfully when the understanding is kept
in restraint. It is something else that I wish to treat of and help you
about if the Lord is pleased to enable me to do so; if not, you will at
least realize that there are many souls who suffer this trial, and you will
not be so much distressed at undergoing it yourselves at first, but will
find some comfort in it.

There are some souls, and some minds, as unruly as horses not yet broken in.
No one can stop them: now they go this way, now that way; they are never
still. Although a skilled rider mounted on such a horse may not always be in
danger, he will be so sometimes; and, even if he is not concerned about his
life, there will always be the risk of his stumbling, [60] so that he has to
ride with great care. Some people are either like this by nature or God
permits them to become so. I am very sorry for them; they seem to me like
people who are very thirsty and see water a long way off, yet, when they try
to go to it, find someone who all the time is barring their path”at the
beginning of their journey, in the middle and at the end. And when, after
all their labour”and the labour is tremendous”they have conquered the first
of their enemies, they allow themselves to be conquered by the second, and
they prefer to die of thirst rather than drink water which is going to cost
them so much trouble. Their strength has come to an end; their courage has
failed them; and, though some of them are strong enough to conquer their
second enemies as well as their first, when they meet the third group their
strength comes to an end, though perhaps they are only a couple of steps
from the fountain of living water, of which the Lord said to the Samaritan
woman that whosoever drinks of it shall not thirst again. [61] How right and
how very true is that which comes from the lips of Truth Himself! In this
life the soul will never thirst for anything more, although its thirst for
things in the life to come will exceed any natural thirst that we can
imagine here below. How the soul thirsts to experience this thirst! For it
knows how very precious it is, and, grievous though it be and exhausting, it
creates the very satisfaction by which this thirst is allayed. It is
therefore a thirst which quenches nothing but desire for earthly things,
and, when God slakes it, satisfies in such a way that one of the greatest
favours He can bestow on the soul is to leave it with this longing, so that
it has an even greater desire to drink of this water again.

Water has three properties”three relevant properties which I can remember,
that is to say, for it must have many more. One of them is that of cooling
things; however hot we are, water tempers the heat, and it will even put out
a large fire, except when there is tar in the fire, in which case, they say,
it only burns the more. God help me! What a marvellous thing it is that,
when this fire is strong and fierce and subject to none of the elements,
water should make it grow fiercer, and, though its contrary element, should
not quench it but only cause it to burn the more! It would be very useful to
be able to discuss this with someone who understands philosophy; if I knew
the properties of things I could explain it myself; but, though I love
thinking about it, I cannot explain it”perhaps I do not even understand it.

You will be glad, sisters, if God grants you to drink of this water, as are
those who drink of it now, and you will understand how a genuine love of
God, if it is really strong, and completely free from earthly things, and
able to rise above them, is master of all the elements and of the whole
world. And, as water proceeds from the earth, there is no fear of its
quenching this fire, which is the love of God; though the two elements are
contraries, it has no power over it. The fire is absolute master, and
subject to nothing. You will not be surprised, then, sisters, at the way I
have insisted in this book that you should strive to obtain this freedom. Is
it not a funny thing that a poor little nun of Saint Josephs should attain
mastery over the whole earth and all the elements? What wonder that the
saints did as they pleased with them by the help of God? Fire and water
obeyed Saint Martin; even birds and fishes were obedient to Saint Francis;
and similarly with many other saints. Helped as they were by God, and
themselves doing all that was in their power, they could almost have claimed
this as a right. It was clear that they were masters over everything in the
world, because they had striven so hard to despise it and subjected
themselves to the Lord of the world with all their might. So, as I say, the
water, which springs from the earth, has no power over this fire. Its flames
rise high and its source is in nothing so base as the earth. There are other
fires of love for God”small ones, which may be quenched by the least little
thing. But this fire will most certainly not be so quenched. [62] Even
should a whole sea of temptations assail it, they will not keep it from
burning or prevent it from gaining the mastery over them.

Water which comes down as rain from Heaven will quench the flames even less,
for in that case the fire and the water are not contraries, but have the
same origin. Do not fear that the one element may harm the other; each helps
the other and they produce the same effect. For the water of genuine
tears” that is, tears which come from true prayer”is a good gift from the
King of Heaven; it fans the flames and keeps them alight, while the fire
helps to cool the water. God bless me! What a beautiful and wonderful thing
it is that fire should cool water! But it does; and it even freezes all
worldly affections, when it is combined with the living water which comes
from Heaven, the source of the above-mentioned tears, which are given us,
and not acquired by our diligence. Certainly, then, nothing worldly has
warmth enough left in it to induce us to cling to it unless it is something
which increases this fire, the nature of which is not to be easily
satisfied, but, if possible, to enkindle the entire world.

The second property of water is that it cleanses things that are not clean
already. What would become of the world if there were no water for washing?
Do you know what cleansing properties there are in this living water, this
heavenly water, this clear water, when it is unclouded, and free from mud,
and comes down from Heaven? Once the soul has drunk of it I am convinced
that it makes it pure and clean of all its sins; for, as I have written, God
does not allow us to drink of this water of perfect contemplation whenever
we like: the choice is not ours; this Divine union is something quite
supernatural, given that it may cleanse the soul and leave it pure and free
from the mud and misery in which it has been plunged because of its sins.
Other consolations, excellent as they may be, which come through the
intermediacy of the understanding, are like water running all over the
ground. This cannot be drunk directly from the source; and its course is
never free from clogging impurities, so that it is neither so pure nor so
clean as the other. I should not say that this prayer I have been
describing, which comes from reasoning with the intellect, is living
water”I mean so far as my understanding of it goes. For, despite our
efforts, there is always something clinging to the soul, through the
influence of the body and of the baseness of our nature, which we should
prefer not to be there.

I will explain myself further. We are meditating on the nature of the world,
and on the way in which everything will come to an end, so that we may learn
to despise it, when, almost without noticing it, we find ourselves
ruminating on things in the world that we love. We try to banish these
thoughts, but we cannot help being slightly distracted by thinking of things
that have happened, or will happen, of things we have done and of things we
are going to do. Then we begin to think of how we can get rid of these
thoughts; and that sometimes plunges us once again into the same danger. It
is not that we ought to omit such meditations; but we need to retain our
misgivings about them and not to grow careless. In contemplation the Lord
Himself relieves us of this care, for He will not trust us to look after
ourselves. So dearly does He love our souls that He prevents them from
rushing into things which may do them harm just at this time when He is
anxious to help them. So He calls them to His side at once, and in a single
moment reveals more truths to them and gives them a clearer insight into the
nature of everything than they could otherwise gain in many years. For our
sight is poor and the dust which we meet on the road blinds us; but in
contemplation the Lord brings us to the end of the days journey without our
understanding how.

The third property of water is that it satisfies and quenches thirst.
Thirst, I think, means the desire for something which is very necessary for
us”so necessary that if we have none of it we shall die. It is a strange
thing that if we have no water we die, and that we can also lose our lives
through having too much of it, as happens to many people who get drowned.
Oh, my Lord, if only one could be plunged so deeply into this living water
that ones life would end! Can that be? Yes: this love and desire for God
can increase so much that human nature is unable to bear it, and so there
have been persons who have died of it. I knew one person [63] who had this
living water in such great abundance that she would almost have been drawn
out of herself by raptures if God had not quickly succoured her. She had
such a thirst, and her desire grew so greatly, that she realized clearly
that she might quite possibly die of thirst if something were not done for
her. I say that she would almost have been drawn out of herself because in
this state the soul is in repose. So intolerable does such a soul find the
world that it seems to be overwhelmed, [64] but it comes to life again in
God; and in this way His Majesty enables it to enjoy experiences which, if
it had remained within itself, would perforce have cost it its life.

Let it be understood from this that, as there can be nothing in our supreme
Good which is not perfect, all that He gives is for our welfare; and,
however abundant this water which He gives may be, in nothing that He gives
can there be superfluity. For, if His gift is abundant, He also bestows on
the soul, as I have said, an abundant capacity for drinking; just as a
glassmaker moulds his vessels to the size he thinks necessary, so that there
is room for what he wishes to pour into them. As our desires for this water
come from ourselves, they are never free from fault; any good that there may
be in them comes from the help of the Lord. But we are so indiscreet that,
as the pain is sweet and pleasant, we think we can never have too much of
it. We have an immeasurable longing for it, [65] and, so far as is possible
on earth, we stimulate this longing: sometimes this goes so far as to cause
death. How happy is such a death! And yet by living one might perhaps have
helped others to die of the desire for it. I believe the devil has something
to do with this: knowing how much harm we can do him by living, he tempts us
to be indiscreet in our penances and so to ruin our health, which is a
matter of no small moment to him.

I advise anyone who attains to an experience of this fierce thirst to watch
herself carefully, for I think she will have to contend with this
temptation. She may not die of her thirst, but her health will be ruined,
and she will involuntarily give her feelings outward expression, which ought
at all costs to be avoided. Sometimes, however, all our diligence in this
respect is unavailing and we are unable to hide our emotions as much as we
should like. Whenever we are assailed by these strong impulses stimulating
the increase of our desire, let us take great care not to add to them
ourselves but to check them gently [66] by thinking of something else. For
our own nature may be playing as great a part in producing these feelings as
our love. There are some people of this type who have keen desires for all
kinds of things, even for bad things, but I do not think such people can
have achieved great mortification, for mortification is always profitable.
It seems foolish to check so good a thing as this desire, but it is not. I
am not saying that the desire should be uprooted”only checked; one may be
able to do this by stimulating some other desire which is equally
praiseworthy.

In order to explain myself better I will give an illustration. A man has a
great desire to be with God, as Saint Paul had, and to be loosed from this
prison. [67] This causes him pain which yet is in itself a great joy, and no
small degree of mortification will be needed if he is to check it”in fact,
he will not always be able to do so. But when he finds it oppressing him so
much he may almost lose his reason. I saw this happen to someone not long
ago; she was of an impetuous nature, but so accustomed to curbing her own
will that, from what I had seen at other times, I thought her will was
completely annihilated; yet, when I saw her for a moment, the great stress
and strain caused by her efforts to hide her feelings had all but destroyed
her reason. [68] In such an extreme case, I think, even did the desire come
from the Spirit of God, it would be true humility to be afraid; for we must
not imagine that we have sufficient charity to bring us to such a state of
oppression.

I shall not think it at all wrong (if it be possible, I mean, for it may not
always be so) for us to change our desire by reflecting that, if we live, we
have more chance of serving God, and that we might do this by giving light
to some soul which otherwise would be lost; as well as that, if we serve Him
more, we shall deserve to enjoy Him more, and grieve that we have served Him
so little. These are consolations appropriate to such great trials: they
will allay our pain and we shall gain a great deal by them if in order to
serve the Lord Himself we are willing to spend a long time here below and to
live with our grief. It is as if a person were suffering a great trial or a
grievous affliction and we consoled him by telling him to have patience and
leave himself in Gods hands so that His will might be fulfilled in him: it
is always best to leave ourselves in Gods hands.

And what if the devil had anything to do with these strong desires? This
might be possible, as I think is suggested in Cassians story of a hermit,
leading the austerest of lives, who was persuaded by the devil to throw
himself down a well so that he might see God the sooner. [69] I do not think
this hermit can have served God either humbly or efficiently, for the Lord
is faithful and His Majesty would never allow a servant of His to be blinded
in a matter in which the truth was so clear. But, of course, if the desire
had come from God, it would have done the hermit no harm; for such desires
bring with them illumination, moderation and discretion. This is fitting,
but our enemy and adversary seeks to harm us wherever he can; and, as he is
not unwatchful, we must not be so either. This is an important matter in
many respects: for example, we must shorten our time of prayer, however much
joy it gives us, if we see our bodily strength waning or find that our head
aches: discretion is most necessary in everything.

Why do you suppose, daughters, that I have tried, as people say, to describe
the end of the battle before it has begun and to point to its reward by
telling you about the blessing which comes from drinking of the heavenly
source of this living water? I have done this so that you may not be
distressed at the trials and annoyances of the road, and may tread it with
courage and not grow weary; for, as I have said, it may be that, when you
have arrived, and have only to stoop and drink of the spring, you may fail
to do so and lose this blessing, thinking that you have not the strength to
attain it and that it is not for you.

Remember, the Lord invites us all; and, since He is Truth Itself, we cannot
doubt Him. If His invitation were not a general one, He would not have said:
I will give you to drink. He might have said:Come, all of you, for after
all you will lose nothing by coming; and I will give drink to those whom I
think fit for it. But, as He said we were all to come, without making this
condition, I feel sure that none will fail to receive this living water
unless they cannot keep to the path. [70] May the Lord, Who promises it,
give us grace, for His Majestys own sake, to seek it as it must be sought.
_________________________________________________________________

[57] Lit.:so many days.

[58] Lit.:It will have to go as it comes out.

[59] St Teresa is probably referring to the treatises of Luis de Granada and
St. Peter of Alc¡ntara (S.S.M, 1, 40-52, II, 106-20). Cf. Constitutions
(Vol. III, p. 236, below).

[60] Lit.:of his doing something on (the horse) which is not graceful.

[61] St. John iv, 13.

[62] Lit.:But this one” no, no.

[63] The author probably refers to herself: Cf. Life, Chapter XX, and
Relations, passim.

[64] Lit.:drowned.

[65] Lit.:We eat it without measure.

[66] Lit.:to cut the thread.

[67] Presumably a reminiscence of Romans vii, 24 or Philippians i, 23.

[68] This, too, is generally taken as referring to St. Teresa herself.

[69] Cassian: Conferences, II. v.

[70] E. ends the chapter here. This final paragraph appears to be based upon
St. John vii, 37.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 20
Describes how, in one way or another, we never lack consolation on the road of
prayer. Counsels the sisters to include this subject continually in their
conversation.

In this last chapter I seem to have been contradicting what I had previously
said, as, in consoling those who had not reached the contemplative state, I
told them that the Lord had different roads by which they might come to Him,
just as He also had many mansions. [71] I now repeat this: His Majesty,
being Who He is and understanding our weakness, has provided for us. But He
did not say:Some must come by this way and others by that. His mercy is
so great that He has forbidden none to strive to come and drink of this
fountain of life. Blessed be He for ever! What good reasons there would have
been for His forbidding me!

But as He did not order me to cease from drinking when I had begun to do so,
but caused me to be plunged into the depths of the water, it is certain that
He will forbid no one to come: indeed, He calls us publicly, and in a loud
voice, to do so. [72] Yet, as He is so good, He does not force us to drink,
but enable those who wish to follow Him to drink in many ways so that none
may lack comfort or die of thirst. For from this rich spring flow many
streams”some large, others small, and also little pools for children, which
they find quite large enough, for the sight of a great deal of water would
frighten them: by children, I mean those who are in the early stages. [73]
Therefore, sisters, have no fear that you will die of thirst on this road;
you will never lack so much of the water of comfort that your thirst will be
intolerable; so take my advice and do not tarry on the way, but strive like
strong men until you die in the attempt, for you are here for nothing else
than to strive. If you always pursue this determination to die rather than
fail to reach the end of the road, the Lord may bring you through this life
with a certain degree of thirst, but in the life which never ends He will
give you great abundance to drink and you will have no fear of its failing
you. May the Lord grant us never to fail Him. Amen.

Now, in order to set out upon this aforementioned road so that we do not go
astray at the very start, let us consider for a moment how the first stage
of our journey is to be begun, for that is the most important thing”or
rather, every part of the journey is of importance to the whole. I do not
mean to say that no one who has not the resolution that I am going to
describe should set out upon the road, for the Lord will gradually bring her
nearer to perfection. And even if she did no more than take one step, this
alone has such virtue that there is no fear of her losing it or of failing
to be very well rewarded. We might compare her to someone who has a rosary
with a bead specially indulgenced: [74] one prayer in itself will bring her
something, and the more she uses the bead the more she will gain; but if she
left it in a box and never took it out it would be better for her not to
have it. So, although she may never go any farther along the same road, the
short distance she has progressed will give her light and thus help her to
go along other roads, and the farther she goes the more light she will gain.
In fact, she may be sure that she will do herself no kind of harm through
having started on the road, even if she leaves it, for good never leads to
evil. So, daughters, whenever you meet people and find them well-disposed
and even attracted to the life of prayer, try to remove from them all fear
of beginning a course which may bring them such great blessings. [75] For
the love of God, I beg you always to see to it that your conversation is
benefiting those with whom you speak. For your prayers must be for the
profit of their souls; and, since you must always pray to the Lord for them,
sisters, you would seem to be doing ill if you did not strive to benefit
them in every possible way.

If you would be a good kinswoman, this is true friendship; if you would be a
good friend, you may be sure that this is the only possible way. Let the
truth be in your hearts, as it will be if you practise meditation, and you
will see clearly what love we are bound to have for our neighbours. This is
no time for childs play, sisters, and these worldly friendships, good
though they may be, seem no more than that. Neither with your relatives nor
with anyone else must you use such phrases asIf you love me, orDont
you love me? unless you have in view some noble end and the profit of the
person to whom you are speaking. It may be necessary, in order to get a
relative”a brother or some such person”to listen to the truth and accept
it, to prepare him for it by using such phrases and showing him signs of
love, which are always pleasing to sense. He may possibly be more affected,
and influenced, by one kind word, as such phrases are called, than by a
great deal which you might say about God, and then there would be plenty of
opportunities for you to talk to him about God afterwards. I do not forbid
such phrases, therefore, provided you use them in order to bring someone
profit. But for no other reason can there be any good in them and they may
even do harm without your being aware of it. Everybody knows that you are
nuns and that your business is prayer. Do not say to yourselves:I have no
wish to be considered good, for what people see in you is bound to bring
them either profit or harm. People like nuns, on whom is laid the obligation
to speak of nothing save in the spirit of God, [76] act very wrongly if they
dissemble in this way, except occasionally for the purpose of doing greater
good. Your intercourse and conversation must be like this: let any who wish
to talk to you learn your language; and, if they will not, be careful never
to learn theirs: it might lead you to hell.

It matters little if you are considered ill-bred and still less if you are
taken for hypocrites: indeed, you will gain by this, because only those who
understand your language will come to see you. If one knows no Arabic, one
has no desire to talk a great deal with a person who knows no other
language. So worldly people will neither weary you nor do you harm” and it
would do you no small harm to have to begin to learn and talk a new
language; you would spend all your time learning it. You cannot know as well
as I do, for I have found it out by experience, how very bad this is for the
soul; no sooner does it learn one thing than it has to forget another and it
never has any rest. This you must at all costs avoid; for peace and quiet in
the soul are of great importance on the road which we are about to tread.

If those with whom you converse wish to learn your language, it is not for
you to teach it to them, but you can tell them what wealth they will gain by
learning it. Never grow tried of this, but do it piously, lovingly and
prayerfully, with a view to helping them; they will then realize what great
gain it brings, and will go and seek a master to teach it them. Our Lord
would be doing you no light favour if through your agency He were to arouse
some soul to obtain this blessing. When once one begins to describe this
road, what a large number of things there are to be said about it, even by
those who have trodden it as unsuccessfully as I have! I only wish I could
write with both hands, so as not to forget one thing while I am saying
another. May it please the Lord, sisters, that you may be enabled to speak
of it better than I have done.
_________________________________________________________________

[71] There is a reference here to St. John xiv, 2.

[72] St. John vii, 37.

[73] Lit.:these are they who are, etc.

[74] Cuenta de perdones: a bead larger in size than the remainder in the
rosary and carrying special indulgences for the souls in purgatory.

[75] Lit.:of beginning so great a good.

[76] Lit.:save in God”i.e., save as those whose life is centred in God:
not necessarily, I think, only of God.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 21
Describes the great importance of setting out upon the practice of prayer with
firm resolution and of heeding no difficulties put in the way by the devil.

Do not be dismayed, daughters, at the number of things which you have to
consider before setting out on this Divine journey, which is the royal road
to Heaven. [77] By taking this road we gain such precious treasures that it
is no wonder if the cost seems to us a high one. The time will come when we
shall realize that all we have paid has been nothing at all by comparison
with the greatness of our prize.

Let us now return to those who wish to travel on this road, and will not
halt until they reach their goal, which is the place where they can drink of
this water of life. Although in some book or other”in several, in fact”I
have read what a good thing it is to begin in this way, I do not think
anything will be lost if I speak of it here. As I say, it is most
important”all-important, indeed”that they should begin well by making an
earnest and most determined resolve [78] not to halt until they reach their
goal, whatever may come, whatever may happen to them, however hard they may
have to labour, whoever may complain of them, whether they reach their goal
or die on the road or have no heart to confront the trials which they meet,
whether the very world dissolves before them. Yet again and again people
will say to us:It is dangerous,So-and-so was lost through doing this,
Someone else got into wrong ways,Some other person, who was always
praying, fell just the same,It is bad for virtue,It is not meant for
women; it may lead them into delusions,They would do better to stick to
their spinning,These subtleties are of no use to them,It is quite
enough for them to say their Paternoster and Ave Maria.

With this last remark, sisters, I quite agree. Of course it is enough! It is
always a great thing to base your prayer on prayers which were uttered by
the very lips of the Lord. People are quite right to say this, and, were it
not for our great weakness and the lukewarmness of our devotion, there would
be no need for any other systems of prayer or for any other books at all. I
am speaking to souls who are unable to recollect themselves by meditating
upon other mysteries, and who think they need special methods of prayer;
some people have such ingenious minds [79] that nothing is good enough for
them! So I think I will start to lay down some rules for each part of our
prayer”beginning, middle and end”although I shall not spend long on the
higher stages. They cannot take books from you, and, if you are studious and
humble, you need nothing more.

I have always been fond of the words of the Gospels and have found more
recollection in them than in the most carefully planned books”especially
books of which the authors were not fully approved, and which I never wanted
to read. If I keep close to this Master of wisdom, He may perhaps give me
some thoughts [80] which will help you. I do not say that I will explain
these Divine prayers, for that I should not presume to do, and there are a
great many explanations of them already. Even were there none, it would be
ridiculous for me to attempt any. But I will write down a few thoughts on
the words of the Paternoster; for sometimes, when we are most anxious to
nurture our devotion, consulting a great many books will kill it. When a
master is himself giving a lesson, he treats his pupil kindly and likes him
to enjoy being taught and does his utmost to help him learn. Just so will
this heavenly Master do with us.

Pay no heed, then, to anyone who tries to frighten you or depicts to you the
perils of the way. What a strange idea that one could ever expect to travel
on a road infested by thieves, for the purpose of gaining some great
treasure, without running into danger! Worldly people like to take life
peaceably; but they will deny themselves sleep, perhaps for nights on end,
in order to gain a farthings profit, and they will leave you no peace
either of body or of soul. If, when you are on the way to gaining this
treasure, or to taking it by force (as the Lord says the violent do) and are
travelling by this royal road”this safe road trodden by our King and by His
elect and His saints”if even then they tell you it is full of danger and
make you so afraid, what will be the dangers encountered by those who think
they will be able to gain this treasure and yet are not on the road to it?

Oh, my daughters, how incomparably greater must be the risks they run! And
yet they have no idea of this until they fall headlong into some real
danger. Having perhaps no one to help them, they lose this water altogether,
and drink neither much nor little of it, either from a pool or from a
stream. How do you suppose they can do without a drop of this water and yet
travel along a road on which there are so many adversaries to fight? Of
course, sooner or later, they will die of thirst; for we must all journey to
this fountain, my daughters, whether we will or no, though we may not all do
so in the same way. Take my advice, then, and let none mislead you by
showing you any other road than that of prayer.

I am not now discussing whether or no everyone must practise mental or vocal
prayer; but I do say that you yourselves require both. For prayer is the
duty of religious. If anyone tells you it is dangerous, look upon that
person himself as your principal danger and flee from his company. Do not
forget this, for it is advice that you may possibly need. It will be
dangerous for you if you do not possess humility and the other virtues; but
God forbid that the way of prayer should be a way of danger! This fear seems
to have been invented by the devil, who has apparently been very clever in
bringing about the fall of some who practise prayer.

See how blind the world is! It never thinks of all the thousands who have
fallen into heresies and other great evils through yielding to distractions
and not practising prayer. As against these multitudes there are a few who
did practise prayer and whom the devil has been successful enough at his own
trade to cause to fall: in doing this he has also caused some to be very
much afraid of virtuous practices. Let those who make use of this pretext to
absolve themselves from such practices take heed, for in order to save
themselves from evil they are fleeing from good. I have never heard of such
a wicked invention; it must indeed come from the devil. Oh, my Lord, defend
Thyself. See how Thy words are being misunderstood. Permit no such weakness
in Thy servants.

There is one great blessing”you will always find a few people ready to help
you. For it is a characteristic of the true servant of God, to whom His
Majesty has given light to follow the true path, that, when beset by these
fears, his desire not to stop only increases. He sees clearly whence the
devils blows are coming, but he parries each blow and breaks his
adversarys head. The anger which this arouses in the devil is greater than
all the satisfaction which he receives from the pleasures given him by
others. When, in troublous times, he has sown his tares, and seems to be
leading men everywhere in his train, half-blinded, and [deceiving them into]
believing themselves to be zealous for the right, God raises up someone to
open their eyes and bid them look at the fog with which the devil has
obscured their path. (How great God is! To think that just one man, or
perhaps two, can do more by telling the truth than can a great many men all
together!) And then they gradually begin to see the path again and God gives
them courage. If people say there is danger in prayer, this servant of God,
by his deeds if not by his words, tries to make them realize what a good
thing it is. If they say that frequent communion is inadvisable, he only
practises it the more. So, because just one or two are fearlessly following
the better path, the Lord gradually regains what He had lost.

Cease troubling about these fears, then, sisters; and never pay heed to such
matters of popular opinion. This is no time for believing everyone; believe
only those whom you see modelling their lives on the life of Christ.
Endeavour always to have a good conscience; practise humility; despise all
worldly things; and believe firmly in the teaching of our Holy Mother [the
Roman] Church. You may then be quite sure that you are on a [very] good
road. Cease, as I have said, to have fear where no fear is; if any one
attempts to frighten you, point out the road to him in all humility. Tell
him that you have a Rule which commands you, as it does, to pray without
ceasing, and that that rule you must keep. If they tell you that you should
practise only vocal prayer, ask whether your mind and heart ought not to be
in what you say. If they answerYes”and they cannot do otherwise”you see
they are admitting that you are bound to practise mental prayer, and even
contemplation, if God should grant it you. [Blessed be He for ever.]
_________________________________________________________________

[77]Do not be surprised, daughters, for this is the royal road (camino
real) to Heaven. A more idiomatic translation of camino real would be
kings highway.

[78] Lit.:determined determination: this doubling of words is not
uncommon in St. Teresa.

[79] Lit.:are such ingenious geniuses.

[80] V.: alguna consideracin: the use of the singular form in a plural
sense, with the shade of meaning which might be conveyed bysome occasional
thoughts, is common in Spanish. E. uses one of St. Teresas characteristic
diminutives (see Vol. 1, p. xxi) alguna consideracioncita”some (occasional)
trifling thoughts.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 22
Explains the meaning of mental prayer.

You must know, daughters, that whether or no you are practising mental
prayer has nothing to do with keeping the lips closed. If, while I am
speaking with God, I have a clear realization and full consciousness that I
am doing so, and if this is more real to me than the words I am uttering,
then I am combining mental and vocal prayer. When people tell you that you
are speaking with God by reciting the Paternoster and thinking of worldly
things”well, words fail me. When you speak, as it is right for you to do,
with so great a Lord, it is well that you should think of Who it is that you
are addressing, and what you yourself are, if only that you may speak to Him
with proper respect. How can you address a king with the deference due to
him, or how can you know what ceremonies have to be used when speaking to a
grandee, unless you are clearly conscious of the nature of his position and
of yours? It is because of this, and because it is the custom to do so, that
you must behave respectfully to him, and must learn what the custom is, and
not be careless about such things, or you will be dismissed as a simpleton
and obtain none of the things you desire. And furthermore, unless you are
quite conversant with it, you must get all necessary information, and have
what you are going to say written down for you. It once happened to me, when
I was not accustomed to addressing aristocrats, that I had to go on a matter
of urgent business to see a lady who had to be addressed asYour
Ladyship. [81] I was shown that word in writing; but I am stupid, and had
never used such a term before; so when I arrived I got it wrong. So I
decided to tell her about it and she laughed heartily and told me to be good
enough to use the ordinary form of polite address, [82] which I did.

How is it, my Lord, how is it, my Emperor, that Thou canst suffer this,
Prince of all Creation? For Thou, my God, art a King without end, and Thine
is no borrowed Kingdom, but Thine own, and it will never pass away. When the
Creed saysWhose Kingdom shall have no end the phrase nearly always makes
me feel particularly happy. I praise Thee, Lord, and bless Thee, and all
things praise Thee for ever”for Thy Kingdom will endure for ever. Do Thou
never allow it to be thought right, Lord, for those who praise Thee and come
to speak with Thee to do so with their lips alone. What do you mean,
Christians, when you say that mental prayer is unnecessary? Do you
understand what you are saying? I really do not think you can. And so you
want us all to go wrong: you cannot know what mental prayer is, or how vocal
prayers should be said, or what is meant by contemplation. For, if you knew
this, you would not condemn on the one hand what you praise on the other.

Whenever I remember to do so, I shall always speak of mental and vocal
prayer together, daughters, so that you may not be alarmed. I know what such
fears lead to, [83] for I have suffered a certain number of trials in this
respect, and so I should be sorry if anyone were to unsettle you, for it is
very bad for you to have misgivings while you are walking on this path. It
is most important that you should realize you are making progress; for if a
traveller is told that he has taken the wrong road, and has lost his way, he
begins to wander to and fro and the constant search for the right road tires
him, wastes his time and delays his arrival. Who can say that it is wrong
if, before we begin reciting the Hours or the Rosary, we think Whom we are
going to address, and who we are that are addressing Him, so that we may do
so in the way we should? I assure you, sisters, that if you gave all due
attention to a consideration of these two points before beginning the vocal
prayers which you are about to say you would be engaging in mental prayer
for a very long time. For we cannot approach a prince and address him in the
same careless way that we should adopt in speaking to a peasant or to some
poor woman like ourselves, whom we may address however we like.

The reason we sometimes do so is to be found in the humility of this King,
Who, unskilled though I am in speaking with Him, does not refuse to hear me
or forbid me to approach Him, or command His guards to throw me out. For the
angels in His presence know well that their King is such that He prefers the
unskilled language of a humble peasant boy, knowing that he would say more
if he had more to say, to the speech of the wisest and most learned men,
however elegant may be their arguments, if these are not accompanied by
humility. But we must not be unmannerly because He is good. If only to show
our gratitude to Him for enduring our foul odour and allowing such a one as
myself to come near Him, it is well that we should try to realize His purity
and His nature. It is true that we recognize this at once when we approach
Him, just as we do when we visit the lords of the earth. Once we are told
about their fathers names and their incomes and dignities, there is no more
for us to know about them; for on earth one makes account of persons, and
honours them, not because of their merits but because of their possessions.

O miserable world! Give hearty praise to God, daughters, that you have left
so wretched a place, [84] where people are honoured, not for their own
selves, but for what they get from their tenants and vassals: if these fail
them, they have no honour left. It is a curious thing, and when you go out
to recreation together you should laugh about it, for it is a good way of
spending your time to reflect how blindly people in the world spend theirs.

O Thou our Emperor! Supreme Power, Supreme Goodness, Wisdom Itself, without
beginning, without end and without measure in Thy works: infinite are these
and incomprehensible, a fathomless ocean of wonders, O Beauty [85]
containing within Thyself all beauties. O Very Strength! God help me! Would
that I could command all the eloquence of mortals and all wisdom, so as to
understand, as far as is possible here below, that to know nothing is
everything, and thus to describe some of the many things on which we may
meditate in order to learn something of the nature of this our Lord and
Good.

When you approach God, then, try [86] to think and realize Whom you are
about to address and continue to do so while you are addressing Him. If we
had a thousand lives, we should never fully understand how this Lord merits
that we behave toward Him, before Whom even the angels tremble. He orders
all things and He can do all things: with Him to will is to perform. It will
be right, then, daughters, for us to endeavour to rejoice in these wondrous
qualities of our Spouse and to know Whom we have wedded and what our lives
should be. Why, God save us, when a woman in this world is about to marry,
she knows beforehand whom she is to marry, what sort of a person he is and
what property he possesses. Shall not we, then, who are already betrothed,
think about our Spouse, [87] before we are wedded to Him and He takes us
home to be with Him? If these thoughts are not forbidden to those who are
betrothed to men on earth, how can we be forbidden to discover Who this Man
is, Who is His Father, what is the country to which He will take me, what
are the riches with which He promises to endow me, what is His rank, how I
can best make Him happy, what I can do that will give Him pleasure, and how
I can bring my rank into line with His. If a woman is to be happy in her
marriage, it is just those things that she is advised to see about, even
though her husband be a man of very low station.

Shall less respect be paid to Thee, then, my Spouse, than to men? If they
think it unfitting to do Thee honour, let them at least leave Thee Thy
brides, who are to spend their lives with Thee. A woman is indeed fortunate
in her life if her husband is so jealous that he will allow her to speak
with no one but himself; it would be a pretty pass if she could not resolve
to give him this pleasure, for it is reasonable enough that she should put
up with this and not wish to converse with anyone else, since in him she has
all that she can desire. To understand these truths, my daughters, is to
practise mental prayer. If you wish to learn to understand them, and at the
same time to practise vocal prayer, well and good. But do not, I beg you,
address God while you are thinking of other things, for to do that is the
result of not understanding what mental prayer is. I think I have made this
clear. May the Lord grant us to learn how to put it into practice. Amen.
_________________________________________________________________

[81] This is generally taken as referring to St. Teresas visit to Doa
Luisa de la Cerda in 1562.

[82] Lit.:to call her˜Honour. The point of this delightfully unaffected
reminiscence, omitted in V. and inserted here rather for its attractiveness
than for its artistic appropriateness, is thatYour Honour (Vuestra
Merced: now abbreviated to Vd. and used as the third personal pronoun of
ordinary polite address) was an expression merely of respect and not of
rank: the Saint often uses it, for example, in addressing her confessors. It
was as though a peer of the realm were to sayJust call me˜Sir.

[83] Forfears the original hasthings; but that seems to be the
meaning.

[84] Lit.:a thing.

[85] Lit.:a Beauty . . . itself, as though referring to obras:
works.

[86] Lit.:Yes, approach God, and, in approaching, try.

[87] The wordsthink about our Spouse appear in no manuscript but were
added by Luis de Len.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 23
Describes the importance of not turning back when one has set out upon the way
of prayer. Repeats how necessary it is to be resolute.

Now, as I have said, it is most important that from the first we should be
very resolute, and for this there are so many reasons that if I were to give
them all I should have to write at great length. Some of them are given in
other books. I will tell you just two or three of them, sisters. One is that
when we decide to give anything”such as this slight effort of recollection
[88]”to Him Who has given us so much, and Who is continually giving, it
would be wrong for us not to be entirely resolute in doing so and to act
like a person who lends something and expects to get it back again. (Not
that we do not receive interest: on the contrary, we gain a great deal.) I
do not call thisgiving. Anyone who has been lent something always feels
slightly displeased when the lender wants it back again, especially if he is
using it himself and has come to look upon it as his own. If the two are
friends and the lender is indebted to the recipient for many things of which
he has made him free gifts, he will think it meanness and a great lack of
affection if he will leave not even the smallest thing in his possession,
merely as a sign of love.

What wife is there who, after receiving many valuable jewels from her
husband, will not give him so much as a ring”which he wants, not because of
its value, for all she has is his, but as a sign of love and a token that
she will be his until she dies? Does the Lord deserve less than this that we
should mock Him by taking away the worthless gift [89] which we have given
Him? Since we have resolved to devote to Him this very brief period of time
”only a small part of what we spend upon ourselves and upon people who are
not particularly grateful to us for it”let us give it Him freely, with our
minds unoccupied by other things and entirely resolved never to take it back
again, whatever we may suffer through trials, annoyances or aridities. Let
me realize that this time is being lent me and is not my own, and feel that
I can rightly be called to account for it if I am not prepared to devote it
wholly to God.

I saywholly, but we must not be considered as taking it back if we should
fail to give it Him for a day, or for a few days, because of legitimate
occupations or through some indisposition. Provided the intention remains
firm, my God is not in the least meticulous; [90] He does not look at
trivial details; and, if you are trying to please Him in any way, He will
assuredly accept that as your gift. The other way is suitable for ungenerous
souls, so mean that they are not large-hearted enough to give but find it as
much as they can do to lend. Still, let them make some effort, for this Lord
of ours will reckon everything we do to our credit and accept everything we
want to give Him. In drawing up our reckoning, He is not in the least
exacting, but generous; however large the amount we may owe Him, it is a
small thing for Him to forgive us. And, as to paying us, He is so careful
about this that you need have no fear He will leave us without our reward if
only we raise our eyes to Heaven and remember Him.

A second reason why we should be resolute is that this will give the devil
less opportunity to tempt us. He is very much afraid of resolute souls,
knowing by experience that they inflict great injury upon him, and, when he
plans to do them harm, he only profits them and others and is himself the
loser. We must not become unwatchful, or count upon this, for we have to do
with treacherous folk, who are great cowards and dare not attack the wary,
but, if they see we are careless, will work us great harm. And if they know
anyone to be changeable, and not resolute in doing what is good and firmly
determined to persevere, they will not leave him alone either by night or by
day and will suggest to him endless misgivings and difficulties. This I know
very well by experience and so I have been able to tell you about it: I am
sure that none of us realize its great importance.

Another reason, very much to the point, is that a resolute person fights
more courageously. He knows that, come what may, he must not retreat. He is
like a soldier in battle who is aware that if he is vanquished his life will
not be spared and that if he escapes death in battle he must die afterwards.
It has been proved, I think, that such a man will fight more resolutely and
will try, as they say, to sell his life dearly, fearing the enemys blows
the less because he understands the importance of victory and knows that his
very life depends upon his gaining it. We must also be firmly convinced from
the start that, if we fight courageously and do not allow ourselves to be
beaten, we shall get what we want, and there is no doubt that, however small
our gains may be, they will make us very rich. Do not be afraid that the
Lord Who has called us to drink of this spring will allow you to die of
thirst. This I have already said and I should like to repeat it; for people
are often timid when they have not learned by experience of the Lords
goodness, even though they know of it by faith. It is a great thing to have
experienced what friendship and joy He gives to those who walk on this road
and how He takes almost the whole cost of it upon Himself.

I am not surprised that those who have never made this test should want to
be sure that they will receive some interest on their outlay. But you
already know that even in this life we shall receive a hundredfold, and that
the Lord says:Ask and it shall be given you. [91] If you do not believe
His Majesty in those passages of His Gospel where He gives us this
assurance, it will be of little help to you, sisters, for me to weary my
brains by telling you of it. Still, I will say to anyone who is in doubt
that she will lose little by putting the matter to the test; for this
journey has the advantage [92] of giving us very much more than we ask or
shall even get so far as to desire. This is a never-failing truth: I know
it; though, if you do not find it so, do not believe any of the things I
tell you. I can call as witnesses those of you who, by Gods goodness, know
it from experience.
_________________________________________________________________

[88] Este cuidadito: lit.,this little attentiveness”another
characteristic diminuitive.

[89] Lit.:a nothing at all (una nonada).

[90] No es nada delicado mi Dios.Fastidious might be nearer to the
characteristically bold adjective of the original.

[91] St. Luke xi, 9.

[92] Lit.:the good.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 24
Describes how vocal prayer may be practised with perfection and how closely
allied it is to mental prayer.

Let us now return to speak of those souls I have mentioned who cannot
practise recollection or tie down their minds to mental prayer or make a
meditation. We must not talk to them of either of those two things”they will
not hear of them; as a matter of fact, there are a great many people who
seem terrified at the very name of contemplation or mental prayer.

In case any such person should come to this house (for, as I have said, not
all are led by the same path), I want to advise you, or, I might even say,
to teach you (for, as your mother, and by the office of prioress which I
hold, I have the right to do so) how you must practise vocal prayer, for it
is right that you should understand what you are saying. Anyone unable to
think of God may find herself wearied by long prayers, and so I will not
begin to discuss these, but will speak simply of prayers which, as
Christians, we must perforce recite”namely, the Paternoster and the Ave
Maria”and then no one will be able to say of us that we are repeating words
without understanding what we are saying. We may, of course, consider it
enough to say our prayers as a mere habit, repeating the words and thinking
that this will suffice. Whether it suffices or no I will not now discuss.
[93] Learned men must decide: they will instruct people to whom God gives
light to consult them, and I will not discuss the position of those who have
not made a profession like our own. But what I should like, daughters, is
for us not to be satisfied with that alone: when I say the Creed, it seems
to me right, and indeed obligatory, that I should understand and know what
it is that I believe; and, when I repeat theOur Father, my love should
make me want to understand Who this Father of ours is and Who the Master is
that taught us this prayer.

If you assert that you know Who He is already, and so there is no need for
you to think about Him, you are not right; there is a great deal of
difference between one master and another, and it would be very wrong of us
not to think about those who teach us, even on earth; if they are holy men
and spiritual masters, and we are good pupils, it is impossible for us not
to have great love for them, and indeed to hold them in honour and often to
talk about them. And when it comes to the Master Who taught us this prayer,
and Who loves us so much and is so anxious for us to profit by it, may God
forbid that we should fail to think of Him often when we repeat it, although
our own weakness may prevent us from doing so every time.

Now, in the first place, you know that His Majesty teaches that this prayer
must be made when we are alone, just as He was often alone when He prayed,
not because this was necessary for Him, but for our edification. It has
already been said that it is impossible to speak to God and to the world at
the same time; yet this is just what we are trying to do when we are saying
our prayers and at the same time listening to the conversation of others or
letting our thoughts wander on any matter that occurs to us, without making
an effort to control them. There are occasions when one cannot help doing
this: times of ill-health (especially in persons who suffer from
melancholia); or times when our heads are tired, and, however hard we try,
we cannot concentrate; or times when, for their own good, God allows His
servants for days on end to go through great storms. And, although they are
distressed and strive to calm themselves, they are unable to do so and
incapable of attending to what they are saying, however hard they try, nor
can they fix their understanding on anything: they seem to be in a frenzy,
so distraught are they.

The very suffering of anyone in this state will show her that she is not to
blame, and she must not worry, for that only makes matters worse, nor must
she weary herself by trying to put sense into something”namely, her
mind”which for the moment is without any. She should pray as best she can:
indeed, she need not pray at all, but may try to rest her spirit as though
she were ill and busy herself with some other virtuous action. These
directions are meant for persons who keep careful guard over themselves and
know that they must not speak to God and to the world at the same time. What
we can do ourselves is to try to be alone”and God grant that this may
suffice, as I say, to make us realize in Whose presence we are and how the
Lord answers our petitions. Do you suppose that, because we cannot hear Him,
He is silent? He speaks clearly to the heart when we beg Him from our hearts
to do so. It would be a good idea for us to imagine [94] that He has taught
this prayer to each one of us individually, and that He is continually
expounding it to us. The Master is never so far away that the disciple needs
to raise his voice in order to be heard: He is always right at his side. I
want you to understand that, if you are to recite the Paternoster well, one
thing is needful: you must not leave the side of the Master Who has taught
it you.

You will say at once that this is meditation, and that you are not capable
of it, and do not even wish to practise it, but are content with vocal
prayer. For there are impatient people who dislike giving themselves
trouble, and it is troublesome at first to practise recollection of the mind
when one has not made it a habit. So, in order not to make themselves the
least bit tired, they say they are incapable of anything but vocal prayer
and do not know how to do anything further. You are right to say that what
we have described is mental prayer; but I assure you that I cannot
distinguish it from vocal prayer faithfully recited with a realization of
Who it is that we are addressing. Further, we are under the obligation of
trying to pray attentively: may God grant that, by using these means, we may
learn to say the Paternoster well and not find ourselves thinking of
something irrelevant. I have sometimes experienced this myself, and the best
remedy I have found for it is to try to fix my mind on the Person by Whom
the words were first spoken. Have patience, then, and try to make this
necessary practice into a habit, for necessary it is, in my opinion, for
those who would be nuns, and indeed for all who would pray like good
Christians.
_________________________________________________________________

[93] The word rendereddiscuss, both here and below, is a strong one,
entrometerse, to intermeddle.

[94] More literally:consider,reflect.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 25
Describes the great gain which comes to a soul when it practises vocal prayer
perfectly. Shows how God may raise it thence to things supernatural.

In case you should think there is little gain to be derived from practising
vocal prayer perfectly, I must tell you that, while you are repeating the
Paternoster or some other vocal prayer, it is quite possible for the Lord to
grant you perfect contemplation. In this way His Majesty shows that He is
listening to the person who is addressing Him, and that, in His greatness,
He is addressing her, [95] by suspending the understanding, putting a stop
to all thought, and, as we say, taking the words out of her mouth, so that
even if she wishes to speak she cannot do so, or at any rate not without
great difficulty.

Such a person understands that, without any sound of words, she is being
taught by this Divine Master, Who is suspending her faculties, which, if
they were to work, would be causing her harm rather than profit. The
faculties rejoice without knowing how they rejoice; the soul is enkindled in
love without understanding how it loves; it knows that it is rejoicing in
the object of its love, yet it does not know how it is rejoicing in it. It
is well aware that this is not a joy which can be attained by the
understanding; the will embraces it, without understanding how; but, in so
far as it can understand anything, it perceives that this is a blessing
which could not be gained by the merits of all the trials suffered on earth
put together. It is a gift of the Lord of earth and Heaven, Who gives it
like the God He is. This, daughters, is perfect contemplation.

You will now understand how different it is from mental prayer, which I have
already described, and which consists in thinking of what we are saying,
understanding it, and realizing Whom we are addressing, and who we are that
are daring to address so great a Lord. To think of this and other similar
things, such as how little we have served Him and how great is our
obligation to serve Him, is mental prayer. Do not think of it as one more
thing with an outlandish name [96] and do not let the name frighten you. To
recite the Paternoster and the Ave Maria, or any other petition you like, is
vocal prayer. But think how harsh your music will be without what must come
first; sometimes even the words will get into the wrong order. In these two
kinds of prayer, with Gods help, we may accomplish something ourselves. In
the contemplation which I have just described we can do nothing. It is His
Majesty Who does everything; the work is His alone and far transcends human
nature.

I described this as well as I was able in the relation which I made of it,
as I have said, so that my confessors should see it when they read the
account of my life which they had ordered me to write. As I have explained
all this about contemplation at such length, therefore, I shall not repeat
myself here and I am doing no more than touch upon it. If those of you who
have experienced the happiness of being called by the Lord to this state of
contemplation can get this book, you will find in it points and counsels
which the Lord was pleased to enable me to set down. These should bring you
great comfort and profit”in my opinion, at least, and in the opinion of
several people who have seen it and who keep it at hand in order to make
frequent use of it. I am ashamed to tell you that anything of mine is made
such use of and the Lord knows with what confusion I write a great deal that
I do. Blessed be He for thus bearing with me. Those of you who, as I say,
have experience of supernatural prayer should procure the book after my
death; those who have not have no need to do so but they should try to carry
out what has been said in this one. Let them leave everything to the Lord,
to Whom it belongs to grant this gift, and He will not deny it you if you do
not tarry on the road but press forward so as to reach the end of your
journey.
_________________________________________________________________

[95] Lit.:and that His greatness is addressing her.

[96] algarab­a. Lit.:Arabic and hencegibberish,jargon.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 26
Continues the description of a method for recollecting the thoughts. Describes
means of doing this. This chapter is very profitable for those who are
beginning prayer.

Let us now return to our vocal prayer, so that we may learn to pray in such
a way that, without our understanding how, God may give us everything at
once: if we do this, as I have said, we shall pray as we ought. As you know,
the first things must be examination of conscience, confession of sin and
the signing of yourself with the Cross. Then, daughter, as you are alone,
you must look for a companion”and who could be a better Companion than the
very Master Who taught you the prayer that you are about to say? Imagine
that this Lord Himself is at your side and see how lovingly and how humbly
He is teaching you”and, believe me, you should stay with so good a Friend
for as long as you can before you leave Him. If you become accustomed to
having Him at your side, and if He sees that you love Him to be there and
are always trying to please Him, you will never be able, as we put it, to
send Him away, nor will He ever fail you. He will help you in all your
trials and you will have Him everywhere. Do you think it is a small thing to
have such a Friend as that beside you?

O sisters, those of you whose minds cannot reason for long or whose thoughts
cannot dwell upon God but are constantly wandering must at all costs form
this habit. I know quite well that you are capable of it”for many years I
endured this trial of being unable to concentrate on one subject, and a very
sore trial it is. But I know the Lord does not leave us so devoid of help
that if we approach Him humbly and ask Him to be with us He will not grant
our request. If a whole year passes without our obtaining what we ask, let
us be prepared to try for longer. Let us never grudge time so well spent.
Who, after all, is hurrying us? I am sure we can form this habit and strive
to walk at the side of this true Master.

I am not asking you now to think of Him, or to form numerous conceptions of
Him, or to make long and subtle meditations with your understanding. I am
asking you only to look at Him. For who can prevent you from turning the
eyes of your soul (just for a moment, if you can do no more) upon this Lord?
You are capable of looking at very ugly and loathsome things: can you not,
then, look at the most beautiful thing imaginable? Your Spouse never takes
His eyes off you, daughters. He has borne with thousands of foul and
abominable sins which you have committed against Him, yet even they have not
been enough to make Him cease looking upon you. Is it such a great matter,
then, for you to avert the eyes of your soul from outward things and
sometimes to look at Him? See, He is only waiting for us to look at Him, as
He says to the Bride. [97] you will find Him. He longs so much for us to
look at Him once more that it will not be for lack of effort on His part if
we fail to do so.

A wife, they say, must be like this if she is to have a happy married life
with her husband. If he is sad, she must show signs of sadness; if he is
merry, even though she may not in fact be so, she must appear merry too. See
what slavery you have escaped from, sisters! Yet this, without any pretence,
is really how we are treated by the Lord. He becomes subject to us and is
pleased to let you be the mistress and to conform to your will. If you are
happy, look upon your risen Lord, and the very thought of how He rose from
the sepulchre will gladden you. How bright and how beautiful was He then!
How majestic! [98] How victorious! How joyful! He was like one emerging from
a battle in which He had gained a great kingdom, all of which He desires you
to have”and with it Himself. Is it such a great thing that you should turn
your eyes but once and look upon Him Who has made you such great gifts?

If you are suffering trials, or are sad, look upon Him on His way to the
Garden. What sore distress He must have borne in His soul, to describe His
own suffering as He did and to complain of it! Or look upon Him bound to the
Column, full of pain, His flesh all torn to pieces by His great love for
you. How much He suffered, persecuted by some, spat upon by others, denied
by His friends, and even deserted by them, with none to take His part,
frozen with the cold and left so completely alone that you may well comfort
each other! Or look upon Him bending under the weight of the Cross and not
even allowed to take breath: He will look upon you with His lovely and
compassionate eyes, full of tears, and in comforting your grief will forget
His own because you are bearing Him company in order to comfort Him and
turning your head to look upon Him.

O Lord of the world, my true Spouse! you may say to Him, if seeing Him in
such a plight has filled your heart with such tenderness that you not only
desire to look upon Him but love to speak to Him, not using forms of prayer,
but words issuing from the compassion of your heart, which means so much to
Him:Art Thou so needy, my Lord and my Good, that Thou wilt accept poor
companionship like mine? Do I read in Thy face that Thou hast found comfort,
even in me? How can it be possible, Lord, that the angels are leaving Thee
alone and that Thy Father is not comforting Thee?

If Thou, Lord, art willing to suffer all this for me, what am I suffering
for Thee? What have I to complain of? I am ashamed, Lord, when I see Thee in
such a plight, and if in any way I can imitate Thee I will suffer all trials
that come to me and count them as a great blessing. Let us go both together,
Lord: whither Thou goest, I must go; through whatsoever Thou passest, I must
pass. Take up this cross, sisters: never mind if the Jews trample upon you
provided you can save Him some of His trials. Take no heed of what they say
to you; be deaf to all detraction; stumble and fall with your Spouse, but do
not draw back from your cross or give it up. Think often of the weariness of
His journey and of how much harder His trials were than those which you have
to suffer. However hard you may imagine yours to be, and however much
affliction they may cause you, they will be a source of comfort to you, for
you will see that they are matters for scorn compared with the trials
endured by the Lord.

You will ask me, sisters, how you can possibly do all this, and say that, if
you had seen His Majesty with your bodily eyes at the time when He lived in
the world, you would have done it willingly and gazed at Him for ever. Do
not believe it: anyone who will not make the slight effort necessary for
recollection in order to gaze upon this Lord present within her, which she
can do without danger and with only the minimum of trouble, would have been
far less likely to stand at the foot of the Cross with the Magdalen, who
looked death (as they say) straight in the face. What the glorious Virgin
and this blessed saint must have suffered! What threats, what malicious
words, what shocks, what insults! For the people they were dealing with were
not exactly polite to them. No, indeed; theirs was the kind of courtesy you
might meet in hell, for they were the ministers of the devil himself. Yet,
terrible as the sufferings of these women must have been, they would not
have noticed them in the presence of pain so much greater.

So do not suppose, sisters, that you would have been prepared to endure such
great trials then, if you are not ready for such trifling ones now. Practise
enduring these and you may be given others which are greater. Believe that I
am telling the truth when I say that you can do this, for I am speaking from
experience. You will find it very helpful if you can get an image or a
picture of this Lord” one that you like”not to wear round your neck and
never look at but to use regularly whenever you talk to Him, and He will
tell you what to say. If words do not fail you when you talk to people on
earth, why should they do so when you talk to God? Do not imagine that they
will”I shall certainly not believe that they have done so if you once form
the habit. For when you never have intercourse with a person he soon becomes
a stranger to you, and you forget how to talk to him; and before long, even
if he is a kinsman, you feel as if you do not know him, for both kinship and
friendship lose their influence when communication ceases.

It is also a great help to have a good book, written in the vernacular,
simply as an aid to recollection. With this aid you will learn to say your
vocal prayers well, I mean, as they ought to be said”and little by little,
persuasively and methodically, you will get your soul used to this, so that
it will no longer be afraid of it. Remember that many years have passed
since it went away from its Spouse, and it needs very careful handling
before it will return home. We sinners are like that: we have accustomed our
souls and minds to go after their own pleasures (or pains, it would be more
correct to say) until the unfortunate soul no longer knows what it is doing.
When that has happened, a good deal of skill is necessary before it can be
inspired with enough love to make it stay at home; but unless we can
gradually do that we shall accomplish nothing. Once again I assure you that,
if you are careful to form habits of the kind I have mentioned, you will
derive such great profit from them that I could not describe it even if I
wished. Keep at the side of this good Master, then, and be most firmly
resolved to learn what He teaches you; His Majesty will then ensure your not
failing to be good disciples, and He will never leave you unless you leave
Him. Consider the words uttered by those Divine lips: the very first of them
will show you at once what love He has for you, and it is no small blessing
and joy for the pupil to see that his Master loves Him.
_________________________________________________________________

[97] A vague reminiscence of some phrase from Canticles: perhaps ii, 14, 16,
v, 2, or vi, 12.

[98] Lit.:With what majesty!
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 27
Describes the great love shown us by the Lord in the first words of the
Paternoster and the great importance of our making no account of good birth if
we truly desire to be the daughters of God.

Our Father, which art in the Heavens. O my Lord, how Thou dost reveal
Thyself as the Father of such a Son, while Thy Son reveals Himself as the
Son of such a Father! Blessed be Thou for ever and ever. Ought not so great
a favour as this, Lord, to have come at the end of the prayer? Here, at the
very beginning, Thou dost fill our hands and grant us so great a favour that
it would be a very great blessing if our understanding could be filled with
it so that the will would be occupied and we should be unable to say another
word. Oh, how appropriate, daughters, would perfect contemplation be here!
Oh, how right would the soul be to enter within itself, so as to be the
better able to rise above itself, that this holy Son might show it the
nature of the place where He says His Father dwells”namely, the Heavens! Let
us leave earth, my daughters, for it is not right that a favour like this
should be prized so little, and that, after we have realized how great this
favour is, we should remain on earth any more.

O Son of God and my Lord! How is it that Thou canst give us so much with Thy
first word? It is so wonderful that Thou shouldst descend to such a degree
of humility as to join with us when we pray and make Thyself the Brother of
creatures so miserable and lowly! How can it be that, in the name of Thy
Father, Thou shouldst give us all that there is to be given, by willing Him
to have us as His children”and Thy word cannot fail? [It seems that] Thou
dost oblige Him to fulfil Thy word, a charge by no means light, since, being
our Father, He must bear with us, however great our offences. If we return
to Him, He must pardon us, as He pardoned the prodigal son, must comfort us
in our trials, and must sustain us, as such a Father is bound to do, for He
must needs be better than any earthly father, since nothing good can fail to
have its perfection in Him. He must cherish us; He must sustain us; and at
the last He must make us participants and fellow-heirs with Thee.

Behold, my Lord, with the love that Thou hast for us and with Thy humility,
nothing can be an obstacle to Thee. And then, Lord, Thou hast been upon
earth and by taking our nature upon Thee hast clothed Thyself with humanity:
Thou hast therefore some reason to care for our advantage. But behold, Thy
Father is in Heaven, as Thou hast told us, and it is right that Thou
shouldst consider His honour. Since Thou hast offered Thyself to be
dishonoured by us, leave Thy Father free. Oblige Him not to do so much for
people as wicked as I, who will make Him such poor acknowledgment.

O good Jesus! How clearly hast Thou shown that Thou art One with Him and
that Thy will is His and His is Thine! How open a confession is this, my
Lord! What is this love that Thou hast for us? Thou didst deceive the devil,
and conceal from him that Thou art the Son of God, but Thy great desire for
our welfare overcomes all obstacles to Thy granting us this greatest of
favours. Who but Thou could do this, Lord? I cannot think how the devil
failed to understand from that word of Thine Who Thou wert, beyond any
doubt. I, at least, my Jesus, see clearly that Thou didst speak as a dearly
beloved son both for Thyself and for us, and Thou hast such power that what
Thou sayest in Heaven shall be done on earth. Blessed be Thou for ever, my
Lord, Who lovest so much to give that no obstacle can stay Thee.

Do you not think, daughters, that this is a good Master, since He begins by
granting us this great favour so as to make us love to learn what He teaches
us? Do you think it would be right for us, while we are repeating this
prayer with our lips, to stop trying to think of what we are saying, lest
picturing such love should tear our hearts to pieces? No one who realized
His greatness could possibly say it would be. What son is there in the world
who would not try to learn who his father was if he had one as good, and of
as great majesty and dominion, as ours? Were God not all this, it would not
surprise me if we had no desire to be known as His children; for the world
is such that, if the father is of lower rank than his son, the son feels no
honour in recognizing him as his father. This does not apply here: God
forbid that such a thing should ever happen in this house”it would turn the
place into hell. Let the sister who is of the highest birth speak of her
father least; we must all be equals.

O College of Christ, in which the Lord was pleased that Saint Peter, who was
a fisherman, should have more authority than Saint Bartholomew, who was the
son of a king! His Majesty knew what a fuss would be made in the world about
who was fashioned from the finer clay”which is like discussing whether clay
is better for bricks or for walls. Dear Lord, what a trouble we make about
it! God deliver you, sisters, from such contentions, even if they be carried
on only in jest; I hope that His Majesty will indeed deliver you. If
anything like this should be going on among you, apply the remedy
immediately, and let the sister concerned fear lest she be a Judas among the
Apostles. Do what you can to get rid of such a bad companion. If you cannot,
give her penances heavier than for anything else until she realizes that she
has not deserved to be even the basest clay. You have a good Father, given
you by the good Jesus: let no other father be known or referred to here.
Strive, my daughters, to be such that you deserve to find comfort in Him and
to throw yourselves into His arms. You know that, if you are good children,
He will never send you away. And who would not do anything rather than lose
such a Father?

Oh, thank God, what cause for comfort there is here! Rather than write more
about it I will leave it for you to think about; for, however much your
thoughts may wander, between such a Son and such a Father there must needs
be the Holy Spirit. May He enkindle your will and bind you to Himself with
the most fervent love, since even the great advantage you gain will not
suffice to do so.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 28
Describes the nature of the Prayer of Recollection and sets down some of the
means by which we can make it a habit.

Consider now what your Master says next:Who art in the Heavens. Do you
suppose it matters little what Heaven is and where you must seek your most
holy Father? I assure you that for minds which wander it is of great
importance not only to have a right belief about this but to try to learn it
by experience, for it is one of the best ways of concentrating the mind and
effecting recollection in the soul.

You know that God is everywhere; and this is a great truth, for, of course,
wherever the king is, or so they say, the court is too: that is to say,
wherever God is, there is Heaven. No doubt you can believe that, in any
place where His Majesty is, there is fulness of glory. Remember how Saint
Augustine tells us about his seeking God in many places and eventually
finding Him within himself. Do you suppose it is of little importance that a
soul which is often distracted should come to understand this truth and to
find that, in order to speak to its Eternal Father and to take its delight
in Him, it has no need to go to Heaven or to speak in a loud voice? However
quietly we speak, He is so near that He will hear us: we need no wings to go
in search of Him but have only to find a place where we can be alone and
look upon Him present within us. Nor need we feel strange in the presence of
so kind a Guest; we must talk to Him very humbly, as we should to our
father, ask Him for things as we should ask a father, tell Him our troubles,
beg Him to put them right, and yet realize that we are not worthy to be
called His children.

Avoid being bashful with God, as some people are, in the belief that they
are being humble. It would not be humility on your part if the King were to
do you a favour and you refused to accept it; but you would be showing
humility by taking it, and being pleased with it, yet realizing how far you
are from deserving it. A fine humility it would be if I had the Emperor of
Heaven and earth in my house, coming to it to do me a favour and to delight
in my company, and I were so humble that I would not answer His questions,
nor remain with Him, nor accept what He gave me, but left Him alone. Or if
He were to speak to me and beg me to ask for what I wanted, and I were so
humble that I preferred to remain poor and even let Him go away, so that He
would see I had not sufficient resolution.

Have nothing to do with that kind of humility, daughters, but speak with Him
as with a Father, a Brother, a Lord and a Spouse”and, sometimes in one way
and sometimes in another, He will teach you what you must do to please Him.
Do not be foolish; ask Him to let you speak to Him, and, as He is your
Spouse, to treat you as His brides. Remember how important it is for you to
have understood this truth” that the Lord is within us and that we should be
there with Him.

If one prays in this way, the prayer may be only vocal, but the mind will be
recollected much sooner; and this is a prayer which brings with it many
blessings. It is called recollection because the soul collects together all
the faculties and enters within itself to be with its God. Its Divine Master
comes more speedily to teach it, and to grant it the Prayer of Quiet, than
in any other way. For, hidden there within itself, it can think about the
Passion, and picture the Son, and offer Him to the Father, without wearying
the mind by going to seek Him on Mount Calvary, or in the Garden, or at the
Column.

Those who are able to shut themselves up in this way within this little
Heaven of the soul, wherein dwells the Maker of Heaven and earth, and who
have formed the habit of looking at nothing and staying in no place which
will distract these outward senses, may be sure that they are walking on an
excellent road, and will come without fail to drink of the water of the
fountain, for they will journey a long way in a short time. They are like
one who travels in a ship, and, if he has a little good wind, reaches the
end of his voyage in a few days, while those who go by land take much
longer.

These souls have already, as we may say, put out to sea; though they have
not sailed quite out of sight of land, they do what they can to get away
from it, in the time at their disposal, by recollecting their senses. If
their recollection is genuine, the fact becomes very evident, for it
produces certain effects which I do not know how to explain but which anyone
will recognize who has experience of them. It is as if the soul were rising
from play, for it sees that worldly things are nothing but toys; so in due
course it rises above them, like a person entering a strong castle, in order
that it may have nothing more to fear from its enemies. It withdraws the
senses from all outward things and spurns them so completely that, without
its understanding how, its eyes close and it cannot see them and the souls
spiritual sight becomes clear. Those who walk along this path almost
invariably close their eyes when they say their prayers; this, for many
reasons, is an admirable custom, since it means that they are making an
effort not to look at things of the world. The effort has to be made only at
the beginning; later it becomes unnecessary: eventually, in fact, it would
cost a greater effort to open the eyes during prayer than to close them. The
soul seems to gather up its strength and to master itself at the expense of
the body, which it leaves weakened and alone: in this way it becomes
stronger for the fight against it.

This may not be evident at first, if the recollection is not very
profound”for at this stage it is sometimes more so and sometimes less. At
first it may cause a good deal of trouble, for the body insists on its
rights, not understanding that if it refuses to admit defeat it is, as it
were, cutting off its own head. But if we cultivate the habit, make the
necessary effort and practise the exercises for several days, the benefits
will reveal themselves, and when we begin to pray we shall realize that the
bees are coming to the hive and entering it to make the honey, and all
without any effort of ours. For it is the Lords will that, in return for
the time which their efforts have cost them, the soul and the will should be
given this power over the senses. They will only have to make a sign to show
that they wish to enter into recollection and the senses will obey and allow
themselves to be recollected. Later they may come out again, but it is a
great thing that they should ever have surrendered, for if they come out it
is as captives and slaves and they do none of the harm that they might have
done before. When the will calls them afresh they respond more quickly,
until, after they have entered the soul many times, the Lord is pleased that
they should remain there altogether in perfect contemplation.

What has been said should be noted with great care, for, though it seems
obscure, it will be understood by anyone desirous of putting it into
practice. The sea-voyage, then, can be made; and, as it is very important
that we should not travel too slowly, let us just consider how we can get
accustomed to these good habits. Souls who do so are more secure from many
occasions of sin, and the fire of Divine love is the more readily enkindled
in them; for they are so near that fire that, however little the blaze has
been fanned with the understanding, any small spark that flies out at them
will cause them to burst into flame. When no hindrance comes to it from
outside, the soul remains alone with its God and is thoroughly prepared to
become enkindled.

And now let us imagine that we have within us a palace of priceless worth,
built entirely of gold and precious stones” a palace, in short, fit for so
great a Lord. Imagine that it is partly your doing that this palace should
be what it is” and this is really true, for there is no building so
beautiful as a soul that is pure and full of virtues, and, the greater these
virtues are, the more brilliantly do the stones shine. Imagine that within
the palace dwells this great King, Who has vouchsafed to become your Father
and Who is seated upon a throne of supreme price”namely, your heart.

At first you will think this irrelevant”I mean the use of this figure to
explain my point”but it may prove very useful, especially to persons like
yourselves. For, as we women are not learned or fine-witted, we need all
these things to help us realize that we actually have something within us
incomparably more precious than anything we see outside. Do not let us
suppose that the interior of the soul is empty; God grant that only women
may be so thoughtless as to suppose that. If we took care always to remember
what a Guest we have within us, I think it would be impossible for us to
abandon ourselves to vanities and things of the world, for we should see how
worthless they are by comparison with those which we have within us. What
does an animal do beyond satisfying his hunger by seizing whatever attracts
him when he sees it? There should surely be a great difference between the
brute beasts and ourselves, as we have such a Father.

Perhaps you will laugh at me and say that this is obvious enough; and you
will be right, though it was some time before I came to see it. I knew
perfectly well that I had a soul, but I did not understand what that soul
merited, or Who dwelt within it, until I closed my eyes to the vanities of
this world in order to see it. I think, if I had understood then, as I do
now, how this great King really dwells within this little palace of my soul,
I should not have left Him alone so often, but should have stayed with Him
and never have allowed His dwelling-place to get so dirty. How wonderful it
is that He Whose greatness could fill a thousand worlds, and very many more,
should confine Himself within so small a space, just as He was pleased to
dwell within the womb of His most holy Mother! Being the Lord, He has, of
course, perfect freedom, and, as He loves us, He fashions Himself to our
measure.

When a soul sets out upon this path, He does not reveal Himself to it, lest
it should feel dismayed at seeing that its littleness can contain such
greatness; but gradually He enlarges it to the extent requisite for what He
has to set within it. It is for this reason that I say He has perfect
freedom, since He has power to make the whole of this palace great. The
important point is that we should be absolutely resolved to give it to Him
for His own and should empty it so that He may take out and put in just what
He likes, as He would with something of His own. His Majesty is right in
demanding this; let us not deny it to Him. And, as He refuses to force our
will, He takes what we give Him but does not give Himself wholly until He
sees that we are giving ourselves wholly to Him. This is certain, and, as it
is of such importance, I often remind you of it. Nor does He work within the
soul as He does when it is wholly His and keeps nothing back. I do not see
how He can do so, since He likes everything to be done in order. If we fill
the palace with vulgar people and all kinds of junk, how can the Lord and
His Court occupy it? When such a crowd is there it would be a great thing if
He were to remain for even a short time.

Do you suppose, daughters, that He is alone when He comes to us? Do you not
see that His most holy Son says:Who art in the Heavens? Surely such a
King would not be abandoned by His courtiers. They stay with Him and pray to
Him on our behalf and for our welfare, for they are full of charity. Do not
imagine that Heaven is like this earth, where, if a lord or prelate shows
anyone favours, whether for some particular reason or simply because he
likes him, people at once become envious, and, though the poor man has done
nothing to them, he is maliciously treated, so that his favours cost him
dear.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 29
Continues to describe methods for achieving this Prayer of Recollection. Says
what little account we should make of being favoured by our superiors.

For the love of God, daughters, avoid making any account of these favours.
You should each do your duty; and, if this is not appreciated by your
superior, you may be sure that it will be appreciated and rewarded by the
Lord. We did not come here to seek rewards in this life, but only in the
life to come. Let our thoughts always be fixed upon what endures, and not
trouble themselves with earthly things which do not endure even for a
lifetime. For to-day some other sister will be in your superiors good
books; whereas to-morrow, if she sees you exhibiting some additional virtue,
it is with you that she will be better pleased”and if she is not it is of
little consequence. Never give way to these thoughts, which sometimes begin
in a small way but may cost you a great deal of unrest. Check them by
remembering that your kingdom is not of this world, and that everything
comes quickly to an end, and that there is nothing in this life that goes on
unchangingly.

But even that is a poor remedy and anything but a perfect one; it is best
that this state of things should continue, and that you should be humbled
and out of favour, and should wish to be so for the sake of the Lord Who
dwells in you. Turn your eyes upon yourself and look at yourself inwardly,
as I have said. You will find your Master; He will not fail you: indeed, the
less outward comfort you have, the [much] greater the joy He will give you.
He is full of compassion and never fails those who are afflicted and out of
favour if they trust in Him alone. Thus David tells us that he never saw the
just forsaken, [99] and again, that the Lord is with the afflicted. [100]
Either you believe this or you do not: if you do, as you should, why do you
wear yourselves to death with worry?

O my Lord, if we had a real knowledge of Thee, we should make not the
slightest account of anything, since Thou givest so much to those who will
set their whole trust on Thee. Believe me, friends, it is a great thing to
realize the truth of this so that we may see how deceptive are earthly
things and favours when they deflect the soul in any way from its course and
hinder it from entering within itself. [101] God help me! If only someone
could make you realize this! I myself, Lord, certainly cannot; I know that
[in truth] I owe Thee more than anyone else but I cannot realize this myself
as well as I should.

Returning to what I was saying, I should like to be able to explain the
nature of this holy companionship with our great Companion, the Holiest of
the holy, in which there is nothing to hinder the soul and her Spouse from
remaining alone together, when the soul desires to enter within herself, to
shut the door behind her so as to keep out all that is worldly and to dwell
in that Paradise with her God. I saydesires, because you must understand
that this is not a supernatural state but depends upon our volition, and
that, by Gods favour, we can enter it of our own accord: this condition
must be understood of everything that we say in this book can be done, for
without it nothing can be accomplished and we have not the power to think a
single good thought. For this is not a silence of the faculties: it is a
shutting-up of the faculties within itself by the soul.

There are many ways in which we can gradually acquire this habit, as various
books tell us. We must cast aside everything else, they say, in order to
approach God inwardly and we must retire within ourselves even during our
ordinary occupations. If I can recall the companionship which I have within
my soul for as much as a moment, that is of great utility. But as I am
speaking only about the way to recite vocal prayers well, there is no need
for me to say as much as this. All I want is that we should know [102] and
abide with the Person with Whom we are speaking, and not turn our backs upon
Him; for that, it seems to me, is what we are doing when we talk to God and
yet think of all kinds of vanity. The whole mischief comes from our not
really grasping the fact that He is near us, and imagining Him far away”so
far, that we shall have to go to Heaven in order to find Him. How is it,
Lord, that we do not look at Thy face, when it is so near us? We do not
think people are listening to us when we are speaking to them unless we see
them looking at us. And do we close our eyes so as not to see that Thou art
looking at us? How can we know if Thou hast heard what we say to Thee?

The great thing I should like to teach you is that, in order to accustom
ourselves gradually to giving our minds confidence, so that we may readily
understand what we are saying, and with Whom we are speaking, we must
recollect our outward senses, take charge of them ourselves and give them
something which will occupy them. It is in this way that we have Heaven
within ourselves since the Lord of Heaven is there. If once we accustom
ourselves to being glad [103] that there is no need to raise our voices in
order to speak to Him, since His Majesty will make us conscious that He is
there, we shall be able to say the Paternoster and whatever other prayers we
like with great peace of mind, and the Lord Himself will help us not to grow
tired. Soon after we have begun to force ourselves to remain near the Lord,
He will give us indications by which we may understand that, though we have
had to say the Paternoster many times, He heard us the first time. For He
loves to save us worry; and, even though we may take a whole hour over
saying it once, if we can realize that we are with Him, and what it is we
are asking Him, and how willing He is, like any father, to grant it to us,
and how He loves to be with us, and comfort us, He has no wish for us to
tire our brains by a great deal of talking.

For love of the Lord, then, sisters, accustom yourselves to saying the
Paternoster in this recollected way, and before long you will see how you
gain by doing so. It is a method of prayer which establishes habits that
prevent the soul from going astray and the faculties from becoming restless.
This you will find out in time: I only beg you to test it, even at the cost
of a little trouble, which always results when we try to form a new habit. I
assure you, however, that before long you will have the great comfort of
finding it unnecessary to tire yourselves with seeking this holy Father to
Whom you pray, for you will discover Him within you.

May the Lord teach this to those of you who do not know it: for my own part
I must confess that, until the Lord taught me this method, I never knew what
it was to get satisfaction and comfort out of prayer, and it is because I
have always gained such great benefits from this custom of interior
recollection [104] that I have written about it at such length. Perhaps you
all know this, but some sister may come to you who will not know it, so you
must not be vexed at my having spoken about it here.

I conclude by advising anyone who wishes to acquire it (since, as I say, it
is in our power to do so) not to grow weary of trying to get used to the
method which has been described, for it is equivalent to a gradual gaining
of the mastery over herself and is not vain labour. To conquer oneself for
ones own good is to make use of the senses in the service of the interior
life. If she is speaking she must try to remember that there is One within
her to Whom she can speak; if she is listening, let her remember that she
can listen to Him Who is nearer to her than anyone else. Briefly, let her
realize that, if she likes, she need never withdraw from this good
companionship, and let her grieve when she has left her Father alone for so
long though her need of Him is so sore.

If she can, let her practise recollection many times daily; if not, let her
do so occasionally. As she grows accustomed to it, she will feel its
benefits, either sooner or later. Once the Lord has granted it to her, she
would not exchange it for any treasure.

Nothing, sisters, can be learned without a little trouble, so do, for the
love of God, look upon any care which you take about this as well spent. I
know that, with Gods help, if you practise it for a year, or perhaps for
only six months, you will be successful in attaining it. Think what a short
time that is for acquiring so great a benefit, for you will be laying a good
foundation, so that, if the Lord desires to raise you up to achieve great
things, He will find you ready, because you will be close to Himself. May
His Majesty never allow us to withdraw ourselves from His presence. Amen.
_________________________________________________________________

[99] Psalm xxxvi (A.V., xxxvii, 25).

[100] Psalm xxxiii 20-1 (A.V., xxxiv, 19-20).

[101] Lit.when they deflect the soul in any way from going within
itself.

[102] Lit.:see.

[103] Lit.:once we begin to be glad.

[104] Lit.:of recollection within me.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 30
Describes the importance of understanding what we ask for in prayer. Treats of
these words in the Paternoster:Sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum
tuum. [105] Applies them to the Prayer of Quiet, and begins the explanation of
them.

We must now come to consider the next petition in our good Masters prayer,
in which He begins to entreat His holy Father on our behalf, and see what it
is that He entreats, as it is well that we should know this.

What person, however careless, who had to address someone of importance,
would not spend time in thinking how to approach him so as to please him and
not be considered tedious? He would also think what he was going to ask for
and what use he would make of it, especially if his petition were for some
particular thing, as our good Jesus tells us our petitions must be. This
point seems to me very important. Couldst Thou not, my Lord, have ended this
prayer in a single sentence, by saying:Give us, Father, whatever is good
for us? For, in addressing One Who knows everything, there would seem to be
no need to say any more.

This would have sufficed, O Eternal Wisdom, as between Thee and Thy Father.
It was thus that Thou didst address Him in the Garden, telling Him of Thy
will and Thy fear, but leaving Thyself in His hands. But Thou knowest us, my
Lord, and Thou knowest that we are not as resigned as wert Thou to the will
of Thy Father; we needed, therefore, to be taught to ask for particular
things so that we should stop for a moment to think if what we ask of Thee
is good for us, and if it is not, should not ask for it. For, being what we
are and having our free will, if we do not receive what we ask for, we shall
not accept what the Lord gives us. The gift might be the best one
possible”but we never think we are rich unless we actually see money in our
hands.

Oh, God help me! What is it that sends our faith to sleep, so that we cannot
realize how certain we are, on the one hand, to be punished, and, on the
other, to be rewarded? It is for this reason, daughters, that it is good for
you to know what you are asking for in the Paternoster, so that, if the
Eternal Father gives it you, you shall not cast it back in His face. You
must think carefully if what you are about to ask for will be good for you;
if it will not, do not ask for it, but ask His Majesty to give you light.
For we are blind and often we have such a loathing for life-giving food that
we cannot eat it but prefer what will cause us death”and what a death: so
terrible and eternal!

Now the good Jesus bids us say these words, in which we pray that this
Kingdom may come in us:Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come in us.
Consider now, daughters, how great is our Masters wisdom. I am thinking
here of what we are asking in praying for this kingdom, and it is well that
we should realize this. His Majesty, knowing of how little we are capable,
saw that, unless He provided for us by giving us His Kingdom here on earth,
we could neither hallow nor praise nor magnify nor glorify nor exalt this
holy name of the Eternal Father in a way befitting it. The good Jesus,
therefore, places these two petitions next to each other. Let us understand
this thing that we are asking for, daughters, and how important it is that
we should pray for it without ceasing and do all we can to please Him Who
will give it us: it is for that reason that I want to tell you what I know
about the matter now. If you do not like the subject, think out some other
meditations for yourselves, for our Master will allow us to do this,
provided we submit in all things to the teaching of the [Holy Roman] Church,
as I do here. In any case I shall not give you this book to read until
persons who understand these matters have seen it: so, if there is anything
wrong with it, the reason will be, not wickedness, but my imperfect
knowledge.

To me, then, it seems that, of the many joys to be found in the kingdom of
Heaven, the chief is that we shall have no more to do with the things of
earth; for in Heaven we shall have an intrinsic tranquillity and glory, a
joy in the rejoicings of all, a perpetual peace, and a great interior
satisfaction which will come to us when we see that all are hallowing and
praising the Lord, and are blessing His name, and that none is offending
Him. For all love Him there and the souls one concern is loving Him, nor
can it cease from loving Him because it knows Him. And this is how we should
love Him on earth, though we cannot do so with the same perfection nor yet
all the time; still, if we knew Him, we should love Him very differently
from the way we do now.

It looks as though I were going to say that we must be angels to make this
petition and to say our vocal prayers well. This would indeed be our Divine
Masters wish, since He bids us make so sublime a petition. You may be quite
sure that He never tells us to ask for impossibilities, so it must be
possible, with Gods help, for a soul living in that state of exile to reach
such a point, though not as perfectly as those who have been freed from this
prison, for we are making a sea-voyage and are still on the journey. But
there are times when we are wearied with travelling and the Lord grants our
faculties tranquillity and our soul quiet, and while they are in that state
He gives us a clear understanding of the nature of the gifts He bestows upon
those whom He brings to His Kingdom. Those to whom, while they are still on
earth, He grants what we are asking Him for receive pledges which will give
them a great hope of eventually attaining to a perpetual enjoyment of what
on earth He only allows them to taste.

If it were not that you would tell me I am treating of contemplation, it
would be appropriate, in writing of this petition, to say a little about the
beginning of pure contemplation, which those who experience it call the
Prayer of Quiet; but, as I have said, I am discussing vocal prayer here, and
anyone ignorant of the subject might think that the two had nothing to do
with one another, though I know this is certainly not true. Forgive my
wanting to speak of it, for I know there are many people who practise vocal
prayer in the manner already described and are raised by God to the higher
kind of contemplation without having had any hand in this themselves or even
knowing how it has happened. For this reason, daughters, I attach great
importance to your saying your vocal prayers well. I know a nun who could
never practise anything but vocal prayer but who kept to this and found she
had everything else; yet if she omitted saying her prayers her mind wandered
so much that she could not endure it. May we all practise such mental prayer
as that. She would say a number of Paternosters, corresponding to the number
of times Our Lord shed His blood, and on nothing more than these and a few
other prayers she would spend two or three hours. She came to me once in
great distress, saying that she did not know how to practise mental prayer,
and that she could not contemplate but could only say vocal prayers. She was
quite an old woman and had lived an extremely good and religious life. I
asked her what prayers she said, and from her reply I saw that, though
keeping to the Paternoster, she was experiencing pure contemplation, and the
Lord was raising her to be with Him in union. She spent her life so well,
too, that her actions made it clear she was receiving great favours. So I
praised the Lord and envied her her vocal prayer. If this story is true”and
it is”none of you who have had a bad opinion of contemplatives can suppose
that you will be free from the risk of becoming like them if you say your
vocal prayers as they should be said and keep a pure conscience. I shall
have to say still more about this. Anyone not wishing to hear it may pass it
over.
_________________________________________________________________

[105]Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 31
Continues the same subject. Explains what is meant by the Prayer of Quiet.
Gives several counsels to those who experience it. This chapter is very
noteworthy.

Now, daughters, I still want to describe this Prayer of Quiet to you, in the
way I have heard it talked about, and as the Lord has been pleased to teach
it to me, perhaps in order that I might describe it to you. It is in this
kind of prayer, as I have said, that the Lord seems to me to begin to show
us that He is hearing our petition: He begins to give us His Kingdom on
earth so that we may truly praise Him and hallow His name and strive to make
others do so likewise.

This is a supernatural state, and, however hard we try, we cannot reach it
for ourselves; for it is a state in which the soul enters into peace, or
rather in which the Lord gives it peace through His presence, as He did to
that just man Simeon. [106] In this state all the faculties are stilled. The
soul, in a way which has nothing to do with the outward senses, realizes
that it is now very close to its God, and that, if it were but a little
closer, it would become one with Him through union. This is not because it
sees Him either with its bodily or with its spiritual eyes. The just man
Simeon saw no more than the glorious Infant”a poor little Child, Who, to
judge from the swaddling-clothes in which He was wrapped and from the small
number of the people whom He had as a retinue to take Him up to the Temple,
might well have been the son of these poor people rather than the Son of his
Heavenly Father. But the Child Himself revealed to him Who He was. Just so,
though less clearly, does the soul know Who He is. It cannot understand how
it knows Him, yet it sees that it is in the Kingdom (or at least is near to
the King Who will give it the Kingdom), and it feels such reverence that it
dares to ask nothing. It is, as it were, in a swoon, both inwardly and
outwardly, so that the outward man (let me call it thebody, and then you
will understand me better) does not wish to move, but rests, like one who
has almost reached the end of his journey, so that it may the better start
again upon its way, with redoubled strength for its task.

The body experiences the greatest delight and the soul is conscious of a
deep satisfaction. So glad is it merely to find itself near the fountain
that, even before it has begun to drink, it has had its fill. There seems
nothing left for it to desire. The faculties are stilled and have no wish to
move, for any movement they may make appears to hinder the soul from loving
God. They are not completely lost, however, since, two of them being free,
they can realize in Whose Presence they are. It is the will that is in
captivity now; and, if while in this state it is capable of experiencing any
pain, the pain comes when it realizes that it will have to resume its
liberty. The mind tries to occupy itself with only one thing, and the memory
has no desire to busy itself with more: they both see that this is the one
thing needful and that anything else will unsettle them. Persons in this
state prefer the body to remain motionless, for otherwise their peace would
be destroyed: for this reason they dare not stir. Speaking is a distress to
them: they will spend a whole hour on a single repetition of the
Paternoster. They are so close to God that they know they can make
themselves understood by signs. They are in the palace, near to their King,
and they see that He is already beginning to give them His Kingdom on earth.
Sometimes tears come to their eyes, but they weep very gently and quite
without distress: their whole desire is the hallowing of this name. They
seem not to be in the world, and have no wish to see or hear anything but
their God; nothing distresses them, nor does it seem that anything can
possibly do so. In short, for as long as this state lasts, they are so
overwhelmed and absorbed by the joy and delight which they experience that
they can think of nothing else to wish for, and will gladly say with Saint
Peter:Lord, let us make here three mansions. [107]

Occasionally, during this Prayer of Quiet, God grants the soul another
favour which is hard to understand if one has not had long experience of it.
But any of you who have had this will at once recognize it and it will give
you great comfort to know what it is. I believe God often grants this favour
together with the other. When this quiet is felt in a high degree and lasts
for a long time, I do not think that, if the will were not made fast to
something, the peace could be of such long duration. Sometimes it goes on
for a day, or for two days, and we find ourselves”I mean those who
experience this state”full of this joy without understanding the reason.
They see clearly that their whole self is not in what they are doing, but
that the most important faculty is absent”namely, the will, which I think
is united with its God” and that the other faculties are left free to busy
themselves with His service. For this they have much more capacity at such a
time, though when attending to worldly affairs they are dull and sometimes
stupid.

It is a great favour which the Lord grants to these souls, for it unites the
active life with the contemplative. At such times they serve the Lord in
both these ways at once; the will, while in contemplation, is working
without knowing how it does so; the other two faculties are serving Him as
Martha did. Thus Martha and Mary work together. I know someone to whom the
Lord often granted this favour; she could not understand it and asked a
great contemplative [108] about it, he told her that what she described was
quite possible and had happened to himself. I think, therefore, that as the
soul experiences such satisfaction in this Prayer of Quiet the will must be
almost continuously united with Him Who alone can give it happiness.

I think it will be well, sisters, if I give some advice here to any of you
whom the Lord, out of His goodness alone, has brought to this state, as I
know that this has happened to some of you. First of all, when such persons
experience this joy, without knowing whence it has come to them, but knowing
at least that they could not have achieved it of themselves, they are
tempted to imagine that they can prolong it and they may even try not to
breathe. This is ridiculous: we can no more control this prayer than we can
make the day break, or stop night from falling; it is supernatural and
something we cannot acquire. The most we can do to prolong this favour is to
realize that we can neither diminish nor add to it, but, being most unworthy
and undeserving of it, can only receive it with thanksgiving. And we can
best give thanks, not with many words, but by lifting up our eyes, like the
publican. [109]

It is well to seek greater solitude so as to make room for the Lord and
allow His Majesty to do His own work in us. The most we should do is
occasionally, and quite gently, to utter a single word, like a person giving
a little puff to a candle, when he sees it has almost gone out, so as to
make it burn again; though, if it were fully alight, I suppose the only
result of blowing it would be to put it out. I think the puff should be a
gentle one because, if we begin to tax our brains by making up long
speeches, the will may become active again.

Note carefully, friends, this piece of advice which I want to give you now.
You will often find that these other two faculties are of no help to you. It
may come about that the soul is enjoying the highest degree of quiet, and
that the understanding has soared so far aloft that what is happening to it
seems not to be going on in its own house at all; it really seems to be a
guest in somebody elses house, looking for other lodgings, since its own
lodging no longer satisfies it and it cannot remain there for long together.
Perhaps this is only my own experience and other people do not find it so.
But, speaking for myself, I sometimes long to die because I cannot cure this
wandering of the mind. At other times the mind seems to be settled in its
own abode and to be remaining there with the will as its companion. When all
three faculties work together it is wonderful. The harmony is like that
between husband and wife: if they are happy and love each other, both desire
the same thing; but if the husband is unhappy in his marriage he soon begins
to make the wife restless. Just so, when the will finds itself in this state
of quiet, it must take no more notice of the understanding than it would of
a madman, for, if it tries to draw the understanding along with it, it is
bound to grow preoccupied and restless, with the result that this state of
prayer will be all effort and no gain and the soul will lose what God has
been giving it without any effort of its own.

Pay great attention to the following comparison, which the Lord suggested to
me when I was in this state of prayer, and which seems to me very
appropriate. The soul is like an infant still at its mothers breast: such
is the mothers care for it that she gives it its milk without its having to
ask for it so much as by moving its lips. That is what happens here. The
will simply loves, and no effort needs to be made by the understanding, for
it is the Lords pleasure that, without exercising its thought, the soul
should realize that it is in His company, and should merely drink the milk
which His Majesty puts into its mouth and enjoy its sweetness. The Lord
desires it to know that it is He Who is granting it that favour and that in
its enjoyment of it He too rejoices. But it is not His will that the soul
should try to understand how it is enjoying it, or what it is enjoying; it
should lose all thought of itself, and He Who is at its side will not fail
to see what is best for it. If it begins to strive with its mind so that the
mind may be apprised of what is happening and thus induced to share in it,
[110] it will be quite unable to do so, and the soul will perforce lose the
milk [111] and forgo that Divine sustenance.

This state of prayer is different from that in which the soul is wholly
united with God, for in the latter state it does not even swallow its
nourishment: the Lord places this within it, and it has no idea how. But in
this state it even seems to be His will that the soul should work a little,
though so quietly that it is hardly conscious of doing so. What disturbs it
is the understanding and this is not the case when there is union of all the
three faculties, since He Who created them suspends them: He keeps them
occupied with the enjoyment that He has given them, without their knowing,
or being able to understand, the reason. Anyone who has had experience of
this kind of prayer will understand quite well what I am saying if, after
reading this, she considers it carefully, and thinks out its meaning:
otherwise it will be Greek [112] to her.

Well, as I say, the soul is conscious of having reached this state of
prayer, which is a quiet, deep and Peaceful happiness of the will, without
being able to decide precisely what it is, although it can clearly see how
it differs from the happiness of the world. To have dominion over the whole
world, with all its happiness, would not suffice to bring the soul such
inward satisfaction as it enjoys now in the depths of its will. For other
kinds of happiness in life, it seems to me, touch only the outward part of
the will, which we might describe as its rind.

When one of you finds herself in this sublime state of prayer, which, as I
have already said, is most markedly supernatural, and the understanding (or,
to put it more clearly, the thought) wanders off after the most ridiculous
things in the world, she should laugh at it and treat it as the silly thing
it is, and remain in her state of quiet. For thoughts will come and go, but
the will is mistress and all-powerful, and will recall them without your
having to trouble about it. But if you try to drag the understanding back by
force, you lose your power over it, which comes from your taking and
receiving that Divine sustenance, and neither will nor understanding will
gain, [113] but both will be losers. There is a saying that, if we try very
hard to grasp all, we lose all; and so I think it is here. Experience will
show you the truth of this; and I shall not be surprised if those of you who
have none think this very obscure and unnecessary. But, as I have said, if
you have only a little experience of it you will understand it and be able
to profit by it, and you will praise the Lord for being pleased to enable me
to explain it.

Let us now conclude by saying that, when the soul is brought to this state
of prayer, it would seem that the Eternal Father has already granted its
petition that He will give it His Kingdom on earth. O blessed request, in
which we ask for so great a good without knowing what we do! Blessed manner
of asking! It is for this reason, sisters, that I want us to be careful how
we say this prayer, the Paternoster, and all other vocal prayers, and what
we ask for in them. For clearly, when God has shown us this favour, we shall
have to forget worldly things, all of which the Lord of the world has come
and cast out. I do not mean that everyone who experiences the Prayer of
Quiet must perforce be detached from everything in the world; but at least I
should like all such persons to know what they lack and to humble themselves
and not to make so great a petition as though they were asking for nothing,
and, if the Lord gives them what they ask for, to throw it back in His face.
They must try to become more and more detached from everything, for
otherwise they will only remain where they are. If God gives a soul such
pledges, it is a sign that He has great things in store for it. It will be
its own fault if it does not make great progress. But if He sees that, after
He has brought the Kingdom of Heaven into its abode, it returns to earth,
not only will He refrain from showing it the secrets of His Kingdom but He
will grant it this other favour only for short periods and rarely.

I may be mistaken about this, but I have seen it and know that it happens,
and, for my own part, I believe this is why spiritual people are not much
more numerous. They do not respond to so great a favour in a practical way:
instead of preparing themselves to receive this favour again, they take back
from the Lords hands the will which He considered His own and centre it
upon base things. So He seeks out others who love Him in order to grant them
His greater gifts, although He will not take away all that He has given from
those who live in purity of conscience. But there are persons”and I have
been one of them”to whom the Lord gives tenderness of devotion and holy
inspirations and light on everything. He bestows this Kingdom on them and
brings them to this Prayer of Quiet, and yet they deafen their ears to His
voice. For they are so fond of talking and of repeating a large number of
vocal prayers in a great hurry, as though they were anxious to finish their
task of repeating them daily, that when the Lord, as I say, puts His Kingdom
into their very hands, by giving them this Prayer of Quiet and this inward
peace, they do not accept it, but think that they will do better to go on
reciting their prayers, which only distract them from their purpose.

Do not be like that, sisters, but be watchful when the Lord grants you this
favour. Think what a great treasure you may be losing and realize that you
are doing much more by occasionally repeating a single petition of the
Paternoster than by repeating the whole of it many times in a hurry and not
thinking what you are saying. He to Whom you are praying is very near to you
and will not fail to hear you; and you may be sure that you are truly
praising Him and hallowing His name, since you are glorifying the Lord as a
member of His household and praising Him with increasing affection and
desire so that it seems you can never forsake His service. So I advise you
to be very cautious about this, for it is of the greatest importance.
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[106] The allusion is, of course, to St. Luke ii, 25 (just and devout),
29.

[107] Moradas. Thethree tabernacles of St. Matthew xvii, 4.

[108] In the margin of T. the author adds, in her own hand, that this
contemplative was St. Francis Borgia, Duke of Gand­a. No doubt, then, the
other person referred to was St. Teresa herself. The addition reads:who
was a religious of the Company of Jesus, who had been Duke of Gand­a, and
to this are added some words, also in St. Teresas hand, but partially
scored out and partially cut by the binder, which seem to be:who knew it
well by experience.

[109] St. Luke xviii, 13. St. Teresa apparently forgot that the publican
would not so much as lift his eyes towards heaven.

[110] Lit.:and drawn along with it; the same phrase is found at the end
of the preceding paragraph.

[111] Lit.let the milk fall out of its mouth.

[112] Algarab­a. Cf. n. 96 above.

[113] Lit.:neither the one nor the other will gain.
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CHAPTER 32
Expounds these words of the Paternoster:Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coelo et
in terra. [114] Describes how much is accomplished by those who repeat these
words with full resolution and how well the Lord rewards them for it.

Now that our good Master has asked on our behalf, and has taught us
ourselves to ask, for a thing so precious that it includes all we can desire
on earth, and has granted us the great favour of making us His brethren, let
us see what He desires us to give to His Father, and what He offers Him on
our behalf, and what He asks of us, for it is right that we should render
Him some service in return for such great favours. O good Jesus! Since Thou
givest so little (little, that is to say, on our behalf) how canst Thou ask
[so much] for us? What we give is in itself nothing at all by comparison
with all that has been given us and with the greatness of Our Lord. But in
truth, my Lord, Thou dost not leave us with nothing to give and we give all
that we can”I mean if we give in the spirit of these words:Thy will be
done; as in Heaven, so on earth.

Thou didst well, O our good Master, to make this last petition, so that we
may be able to accomplish what Thou dost promise in our name. For truly,
Lord, hadst Thou not done this, I do not think it would have been possible
for us to accomplish it. But, since Thy Father does what Thou askest Him in
granting us His Kingdom on earth, I know that we can truly fulfil Thy word
by giving what Thou dost promise in our name. For since my earth has now
become Heaven, it will be possible for Thy will to be done in me. Otherwise,
on an earth so wretched as mine, and so barren of fruit, I know not, Lord,
how it could be possible. It is a great thing that Thou dost offer.

When I think of this, it amuses me that there should be people who dare not
ask the Lord for trials, thinking that His sending them to them depends upon
their asking for them! I am not referring to those who omit to ask for them
out of humility because they think themselves to be incapable of bearing
them, though for my own part I believe that He who gives them love enough to
ask for such a stern method of proving it will give them love enough to
endure it. I should like to ask those who are afraid to pray for trials lest
they should at once be given them what they mean when they beg the Lord to
fulfil His will in them. Do they say this because everyone else says it and
not because they want it to be done? That would not be right, sisters.
Remember that the good Jesus is our Ambassador here, and that His desire has
been to mediate between us and His Father at no small cost to Himself: it
would not be right for us to refuse to give what He promises and offers on
our behalf or to say nothing about it. Let me put it in another way.
Consider, daughters, that, whether we wish it or no, Gods will must be
done, and must be done both in Heaven and on earth. Believe me, then, do as
I suggest and make a virtue of necessity.

O my Lord, what a great comfort it is to me that Thou didst not entrust the
fulfilment of Thy will to one so wretched as I! Blessed be Thou for ever and
let all things praise Thee. May Thy name be for ever glorified. I should
indeed have had to be good, Lord, if the fulfilment or non-fulfilment of Thy
will [in Heaven and on earth] were in my hands. But as it is, though my will
is not yet free from self-interest, I give it to Thee freely. For I have
proved, by long experience, how much I gain by leaving it freely in Thy
hands. O friends, what a great gain is this”and how much we lose through not
fulfilling our promises to the Lord in the Paternoster, and giving Him what
we offer Him!

Before I tell you in what this gain consists, I will explain to you how much
you are offering, lest later you should exclaim that you had been deceived
and had not understood what you were saying. Do not behave like some
religious among us, who do nothing but promise, and then excuse ourselves
for not fulfilling our promises by saying that we had not understood what we
were promising. That may well be true, for it is easy to say things and hard
to put them into practice, and anyone who thought that there was no more in
the one than in the other certainly did not understand. It seems very easy
to say that we will surrender our will to someone, until we try it and
realize that it is the hardest thing we can do if we carry it out as we
should. Our superiors do not always treat us strictly when they see we are
weak; and sometimes they treat both weak and strong in the same way. That is
not so with the Lord; He knows what each of us can bear, and, when He sees
that one of us is strong, He does not hesitate to fulfil His will in him.

So I want you to realize with Whom (as they say) you are dealing and what
the good Jesus offers on your behalf to the Father, and what you are giving
Him when you pray that His will may be done in you: it is nothing else than
this that you are praying for. Do not fear that He will give you riches or
pleasures or great honours or any such earthly things; His love for you is
not so poor as that. And He sets a very high value on what you give Him and
desires to recompense you for it since He gives you His Kingdom while you
are still alive. Would you like to see how He treats those who make this
prayer from their hearts? Ask His glorious Son, Who made it thus in the
Garden. Think with what resolution and fullness of desire He prayed; and
consider if the will of God was not perfectly fulfilled in Him through the
trials, sufferings, insults and persecutions which He gave Him, until at
last His life ended with death on a Cross.

So you see, daughters, what God gave to His best Beloved, and from that you
can understand what His will is. These, then, are His gifts in this world.
He gives them in proportion to the love which He bears us. He gives more to
those whom He loves most, and less to those He loves least; and He gives in
accordance with the courage which He sees that each of us has and the love
we bear to His Majesty. When He sees a soul who loves Him greatly, He knows
that soul can suffer much for Him, whereas one who loves Him little will
suffer little. For my own part, I believe that love is the measure of our
ability to bear crosses, whether great or small. So if you have this love,
sisters, try not to let the prayers you make to so great a Lord be words of
mere politeness but brace yourselves to suffer what His Majesty desires. For
if you give Him your will in any other way, you are just showing Him a
jewel, making as if to give it to Him and begging Him to take it, and then,
when He puts out His hand to do so, taking it back and holding on to it
tightly.

Such mockery is no fit treatment for One who endured so much for us. If for
no other reason than this, it would not be right to mock Him so often”and it
is by no means seldom that we say these words to Him in the Paternoster. Let
us give Him once and for all the jewel which we have so often undertaken to
give Him. For the truth is that He gives it to us first so that we may give
it back to Him. Ah, my God! How well Jesus knows us and how much He thinks
of our good! He did not say we must surrender our wills to the Lord until we
had been well paid for this small service. It will be realized from this how
much the Lord intends us to gain by rendering it to Him: even in this life
He begins to reward us for this, as I shall presently explain. Worldly
people will do a great deal if they sincerely resolve to fulfil the will of
God. But you, daughters, must both say and act, and give Him both words and
deeds, as I really think we religious do. Yet sometimes not only do we
undertake to give God the jewel but we even put it into His hand and then
take it back again. We are so generous all of a sudden, and then we become
so mean, that it would have been better if we had stopped to think before
giving.

The aim of all my advice to you in this book is that we should surrender
ourselves wholly to the Creator, place our will in His hands and detach
ourselves from the creatures. As you will already have understood how
important this is, I will say no more about it, but I will tell you why our
good Master puts these words here. He knows how much we shall gain by
rendering this service to His Eternal Father. We are preparing ourselves for
the time, which will come very soon, when we shall find ourselves at the end
of our journey and shall be drinking of living water from the fountain I
have described. Unless we make a total surrender of our will to the Lord,
and put ourselves in His hands so that He may do in all things what is best
for us in accordance with His will, He will never allow us to drink of it.
This is the perfect contemplation of which you asked me to write to you.

In this matter, as I have already said, we can do nothing of ourselves,
either by working hard or by making plans, nor is it needful that we should.
For everything else hinders and prevents us from saying [with real
resolution],Fiat voluntas tua: that is, may the Lord fulfil His will in
me, in every way and manner which Thou, my Lord, desirest. If Thou wilt do
this by means of trials, give me strength and let them come. If by means of
persecutions and sickness and dishonour and need, here I am, my Father, I
will not turn my face away from Thee nor have I the right to turn my back
upon them. For Thy Son gave Thee this will of mine in the name of us all and
it is not right that I for my part should fail. Do Thou grant me the grace
of bestowing on me Thy Kingdom so that I may do Thy will, since He has asked
this of me. Dispose of me as of that which is Thine own, in accordance with
Thy will.

Oh, my sisters, what power this gift has! If it be made with due resolution,
it cannot fail to draw the Almighty to become one with our lowliness and to
transform us into Himself and to effect a union between the Creator and the
creature. Ask yourselves if that will not be a rich reward for you, and if
you have not a good Master. For, knowing how the good will of His Father is
to be gained, He teaches us how and by what means we must serve Him.

The more resolute we are in soul and the more we show Him by our actions
that the words we use to Him are not words of mere politeness, the more and
more does Our Lord draw us to Himself and raise us above all petty earthly
things, and above ourselves, in order to prepare us to receive great favours
from Him, for His rewards for our service will not end with this life. So
much does He value this service of ours that we do not know for what more we
can ask, while His Majesty never wearies of giving. Not content with having
made this soul one with Himself, through uniting it to Himself, He begins to
cherish it, to reveal secrets to it, to rejoice in its understanding of what
it has gained and in the knowledge which it has of all He has yet to give
it. He causes it gradually to lose its exterior senses so that nothing may
occupy it. This we call rapture. He begins to make such a friend of the soul
that not only does He restore its will to it but He gives it His own also.
For, now that He is making a friend of it, He is glad to allow it to rule
with Him, as we say, turn and turn about. So He does what the soul asks of
Him, just as the soul does what He commands, only in a much better way,
since He is all-powerful and can do whatever He desires, and His desire
never comes to an end.

But the poor soul, despite its desires, is often unable to do all it would
like, nor can it do anything at all unless it is given the power. [115] And
so it grows richer and richer; and the more it serves, the greater becomes
its debt; and often, growing weary of finding itself subjected to all the
inconveniences and impediments and bonds which it has to endure while it is
in the prison of this body, it would gladly pay something of what it owes,
for it is quite worn out. But even if we do all that is in us, how can we
repay God, since, as I say, we have nothing to give save what we have first
received? We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can”namely,
surrender our will and fulfil Gods will in us. Anything else must be a
hindrance to the soul which the Lord has brought to this state. It causes
it, not profit, but harm, for nothing but humility is of any use here, and
this is not acquired by the understanding but by a clear perception of the
truth, which comprehends in one moment what could not be attained over a
long period by the labour of the imagination”namely, that we are nothing
and that God is infinitely great.

I will give you one piece of advice: do not suppose that you can reach this
state by your own effort or diligence; that would be too much to expect. On
the contrary, you would turn what devotion you had quite cold. You must
practise simplicity and humility, for those are the virtues which achieve
everything. You must say:Fiat voluntas tua.
_________________________________________________________________

[114]Thy will be done: as in Heaven, so on earth.

[115] Lit.given it.
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CHAPTER 33
Treats of our great need that the Lord should give us what we ask in these
words of the Paternoster:Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie. [116]

The good Jesus understands, as I have said, how difficult a thing He is
offering on our behalf, for He knows our weakness, and how often we show
that we do not understand what the will of the Lord is, since we are weak
while He is so merciful. He knows that some means must be found by which we
shall not omit to give what He has given on our behalf, for if we did that
it would be anything but good for us, since everything we gain comes from
what we give. Yet He knows that it will be difficult for us to carry this
out; for if anyone were to tell some wealthy, pampered person that it is
Gods will for him to moderate his eating so that others, who are dying of
hunger, shall have at least bread to eat, he will discover a thousand
reasons for not understanding this but interpreting it in his own way. If
one tells a person who speaks ill of others that it is Gods will that he
should love his neighbour as himself, [117] he will lose patience and no
amount of reasoning will convince him. If one tells a religious who is
accustomed to liberty and indulgence that he must be careful to set a good
example and to remember that when he makes this petition it is his duty to
keep what he has sworn and promised, and that not in word alone; that it is
the will of God that he should fulfil his vows and see that he gives no
occasion for scandal by acting contrarily to them, even though he may not
actually break them; that he has taken the vow of poverty and must keep it
without evasions, because that is the Lords will”it would be impossible, in
spite of all this, that some religious should not still want their own way.
What would be the case, then, if the Lord had not done most of what was
necessary by means of the remedy He has given us? There would have been very
few who could have fulfilled this petition, which the Lord made to the
Father on our behalf:Fiat voluntas tua. Seeing our need, therefore, the
good Jesus has sought the admirable means whereby He has shown us the
extreme love which He has for us, and in His own name and in that of His
brethren He has made this petition:Give us, Lord, this day our daily
bread.

For the love of God, sisters, let us realize the meaning of our good
Masters petition, for our very life depends on our not disregarding it. Set
very little store by what you have given, since there is so much that you
will receive. It seems to me, in the absence of a better opinion, that the
good Jesus knew what He had given for us and how important it was for us to
give this to God, and yet how difficult it would be for us to do so, as has
been said, because of our natural inclination to base things and our want of
love and courage. He saw that, before we could be aroused, we needed His
aid, not once but every day, and it must have been for this reason that He
resolved to remain with us. As this was so weighty and important a matter,
He wished it to come from the hand of the Eternal Father. Though both Father
and Son are one and the same, and He knew that whatever He did on earth God
would do in Heaven, and would consider it good, since His will and the
Fathers will were one, yet the humility of the good Jesus was such that He
wanted, as it were, to ask leave of His Father, for He knew that He was His
beloved Son and that He was well pleased with Him. He knew quite well that
in this petition He was asking for more than He had asked for in the others,
but He already knew what death He was to suffer and what dishonours and
affronts He would have to bear.

What father could there be, Lord, who, after giving us his son, and such a
Son, would allow Him to remain among us day by day to suffer as He had done
already? None, Lord, in truth, but Thine: well dost Thou know of Whom Thou
art asking this. God help me! What a great love is that of the Son and what
a great love is that of the Father! I am not so much amazed at the good
Jesus, because, as He had already saidFiat voluntas tua, He was bound,
being Who He is, to put what He had said into practice. Yes, for He is not
like us; knowing that He was carrying out His words by loving us as He loves
Himself, He went about seeking how He could carry out this commandment more
perfectly, even at His own cost. But how, Eternal Father, couldst Thou
consent to this? How canst Thou see Thy Son every day in such wicked hands?
Since first Thou didst permit it and consent to it, Thou seest how He has
been treated. How can Thy Mercy, day by day and every day, [118] see Him
affronted? And how many affronts are being offered to-day to this Most Holy
Sacrament? How often must the Father see Him in the hands of His enemies?
What desecrations these heretics commit!

O Eternal Lord! How canst Thou grant such a petition? How canst Thou consent
to it? Consider not His love, which, for the sake of fulfilling Thy will and
of helping us, would allow Him to submit day by day to being cut to pieces.
It is for Thee to see to this, my Lord, since Thy Son allows no obstacle to
stand in His way. Why must all the blessings that we receive be at His cost?
How is it that He is silent in face of all, and cannot speak for Himself,
but only for us? Is there none who will speak for this most loving Lamb?
Give me permission to speak for Him, Lord, since Thou hast been pleased to
leave Him in our power, and let me beseech Thee on His behalf, since He gave
Thee such full obedience and surrendered Himself to us with such great love.

I have been reflecting how in this petition alone the same words are
repeated: first of all the Lord speaks ofour daily bread and asks Thee to
give it, and then He says:Give it us to-day, Lord. [119] He lays the
matter before His Father in this way: the Father gave us His Son once and
for all to die for us, and thus He is our own; yet He does not want the gift
to be taken from us until the end of the world but would have it left to be
a help to us every day. Let this melt your hearts, my daughters, and make
you love your Spouse, for there is no slave who would willingly call himself
by that name, yet the good Jesus seems to think it an honour.

O Eternal Father, how great is the merit of this humility! With what a
treasure are we purchasing Thy Son! How to sell Him we already know, for He
was sold for thirty pieces of silver; but, if we would purchase Him, no
price is sufficient. Being made one with us through the portion of our
nature which is His, and being Lord of His own will, He reminds His Father
that, as our nature is His, He is able to give it to us, and thus He says
our bread. He makes no difference between Himself and us, though we make
one between ourselves and Him through not giving ourselves daily for His
Majestys sake.
_________________________________________________________________

[116]Give us this day our daily bread.

[117] Lit.:should want as much for himself as for his neighbour, and for
his neighbour as for himself. The italicized phrase is found in E. only.

[118] Lit.:each day, each day.

[119] This, as will be observed from the title to this chapter, is the order
of the words in the Latin.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 34
Continues the same subject. This is very suitable for reading after the
reception of the Most Holy Sacrament.

We have now reached the conclusion that the good Jesus, being ours, asks His
Father to let us have Him daily”which appears to meanfor ever. While
writing this I have been wondering why, after sayingour˜daily bread,
the Lord repeated the idea in the wordsGive us this day, Lord. I will
tell you my own foolish idea: if it really is foolish, well and good”in any
case, it is quite bad enough that I should interfere in such a matter at
all. Still, as we are trying to understand what we are praying for, let us
think carefully what this means, so that we may pray rightly, and thank Him
Who is taking such care about teaching us. This bread, then, is ours daily,
it seems to me, because we have Him here on earth, since He has remained
with us here and we receive Him; and, if we profit by His company, we shall
also have Him in Heaven, for the only reason He remains with us is to help
and encourage and sustain us so that we shall do that will, which, as we
have said, is to be fulfilled in us.

In using the wordsthis day He seems to me to be thinking of a day of the
length of this life. And a day indeed it is! As for the unfortunate souls
who will bring damnation upon themselves and will not have fruition of Him
in the world to come, they are His own creatures, and He did everything to
help them on, and was with them, to strengthen them, throughout the
to-day of this life, so it is not His fault if they are vanquished. They
will have no excuse to make nor will they be able to complain of the Father
for taking this bread from them at the time when they most needed it.
Therefore the Son prays the Father that, since this life lasts no more than
a day, He will allow Him to spend it in our service. [120] As His Majesty
has already given His Son to us, by sending Him, of His will alone, into the
world, so now, of that same will, He is pleased not to abandon us, but to
remain here with us for the greater glory of His friends and the
discomfiture of His enemies. He prays for nothing more than thisto-day
since He has given us this most holy Bread. He has given it to us for ever,
as I have said, as the sustenance and manna of humanity. We can have it
whenever we please and we shall not die of hunger save through our own
fault, for, in whatever way the soul desires to partake of food, it will
find joy and comfort in the Most Holy Sacrament. There is no need or trial
or persecution that cannot be easily borne if we begin to partake and taste
of those which He Himself bore, and to make them the subject of our
meditations.

With regard to other bread [121]”the bread of bodily necessaries and
sustenance”I neither like to think that the Lord is always being reminded of
it nor would I have you remember it yourselves. Keep on the level of the
highest contemplation, for anyone who dwells there no more remembers that he
is in the world than if he had already left it”still less does he think
about food. Would the Lord ever have insisted upon our asking for food, or
taught us to do so by His own example? Not in my opinion. He teaches us to
fix our desires upon heavenly things and to pray that we may begin to enjoy
these things while here on earth: would He, then, have us trouble about so
petty a matter as praying for food? As if He did not know that, once we
begin to worry about the needs of the body, we shall forget the needs of the
soul! Besides, are we such moderately minded people that we shall be
satisfied with just a little and pray only for a little? No: the more food
we are given, the less we shall get of the water from Heaven. Let those of
you, daughters, who want more of the necessaries of life pray for this.

Join with the Lord, then, daughters, in begging the Father to let you have
your Spouse to-day, so that, as long as you live, you may never find
yourself in this world without Him. Let it suffice to temper your great joy
that He should remain disguised beneath these accidents of bread and wine,
which is a real torture to those who have nothing else to love and no other
consolation. Entreat Him not to fail you but to prepare you to receive Him
worthily.

As for that other bread, have no anxiety about it if you have truly resigned
yourselves to Gods will. I mean that at these hours of prayer you are
dealing with more important matters and there is time enough for you to
labour and earn your daily bread. Try never at any time to let your thoughts
dwell on this; work with your body, for it is good for you to try to support
yourselves, but let your soul be at rest. Leave anxiety about this to your
Spouse, as has been said at length already, and He will always bear it for
you. Do not fear that He will fail you if you do not fail to do what you
have promised and to resign yourselves to Gods will. I assure you,
daughters, that, if I myself were to fail in this, because of my wickedness,
as I have often done in the past, I would not beg Him to give me that bread,
or anything else to eat. Let Him leave me to die of hunger. Of what use is
life to me if it leads me daily nearer to eternal death?

If, then, you are really surrendering yourselves to God, as you say, cease
to be anxious for yourselves, for He bears your anxiety, and will bear it
always. It is as though a servant had gone into service and were anxious to
please his master in everything. The master is bound to give him food for so
long as he remains in his house, and in his service, unless he is so poor
that he has food neither for his servant nor for himself. Here, however, the
comparison breaks down, for God is, and will always be, rich and powerful.
It would not be right for the servant to go to his master every day and ask
him for food when he knew that his master would see that it was given him
and so he would be sure to receive it. To do this would be a waste of words.
His master would quite properly tell him that he should look after his own
business of serving and pleasing him, for, if he worried himself
unnecessarily, he would not do his work as well as he should. So, sisters,
those who will may worry about asking for earthly bread; let our own task be
to beg the Eternal Father that we may merit our heavenly bread, so that,
although our bodily eyes cannot feast themselves on the sight of Him since
He is thus hidden from us, He may reveal Himself to the eyes of the soul and
may make Himself known to us as another kind of food, full of delight and
joy, which sustains our life.

Do you suppose that this most holy food is not ample sustenance even for the
body and a potent medicine for bodily ills? I am sure that it is. I know a
person who was subject to serious illnesses and often suffered great pain;
and this pain was taken away from her in a flash [122] and she became quite
well again. This often occurs, I believe; and cures are recorded from quite
definite illnesses which could not be counterfeited. As the wondrous effects
produced by this most holy bread in those who worthily receive it are very
well known, I will not describe all the things that could be related about
this person I mentioned, though I have been enabled to learn about them and
I know that they are not fabrications. The Lord had given this person such a
lively faith that, when she heard people say they wished they had lived when
Christ walked on this earth, she would smile to herself, for she knew that
we have Him as truly with us in the Most Holy Sacrament as people had Him
then, and wonder what more they could possibly want.

I know, too, that for many years this person, though by no means perfect,
always tried to strengthen her faith, when she communicated, by thinking
that it was exactly as if she saw the Lord entering her house, with her own
bodily eyes, for she believed in very truth that this Lord was entering her
poor abode, and she ceased, as far as she could, to think of outward things,
and went into her abode with Him. She tried to recollect her senses so that
they might all become aware of this great blessing, or rather, so that they
should not hinder the soul from becoming conscious of it. She imagined
herself at His feet and wept with the Magdalen exactly as if she had seen
Him with her bodily eyes in the Pharisees house. Even if she felt no
devotion, faith told her that it was good for her to be there.

For, unless we want to be foolish and to close our minds to facts, we cannot
suppose that this is the work of the imagination, as it is when we think of
the Lord on the Cross, or of other incidents of the Passion, and picture
within ourselves how these things happened. This is something which is
happening now; it is absolutely true; and we have no need to go and seek Him
somewhere a long way off. For we know that, until the accidents of bread
have been consumed by our natural heat, the good Jesus is with us and we
should [not lose so good an opportunity but should] come to Him. If, while
He went about in the world, the sick were healed merely by touching His
clothes, how can we doubt that He will work miracles when He is within us,
if we have faith, or that He will give us what we ask of Him since He is in
our house? His Majesty is not wont to offer us too little payment for His
lodging if we treat Him well.

If you grieve at not seeing Him with the eyes of the body, remember that
that would not be good for us, for it is one thing to see Him glorified and
quite another to see Him as He was when He lived in the world. So weak is
our nature that nobody could endure the sight”in fact, there would be no one
left to endure it, for no one would wish to remain in the world any longer.
Once having seen this Eternal Truth, people would realize that all the
things we prize here are mockery and falsehood. And if such great Majesty
could be seen, how could a miserable sinner like myself, after having so
greatly offended Him, remain so near to Him? Beneath those accidents of
bread, we can approach Him; for, if the King disguises Himself, it would
seem that we need not mind coming to Him without so much circumspection and
ceremony: by disguising Himself, He has, as it were, obliged Himself to
submit to this. Who, otherwise, would dare to approach Him so unworthily,
with so many imperfections and with such lukewarm zeal?

Oh, we know not what we ask! How much better does His Wisdom know what we
need! He reveals Himself to those who He knows will profit by His presence;
though unseen by bodily eyes, He has many ways of revealing Himself to the
soul through deep inward emotions and by various other means. Delight to
remain with Him; do not lose such an excellent time for talking with Him as
the hour after Communion. Remember that this is a very profitable hour for
the soul; if you spend it in the company of the good Jesus, you are doing
Him a great service. Be very careful, then, daughters, not to lose it. If
you are compelled by obedience to do something else, try to leave your soul
with the Lord. For He is your Master, and, though it be in a way you may not
understand, He will not fail to teach you. But if you take your thoughts
elsewhere, and pay no more attention to Him than if you had not received
Him, and care nothing for His being within you, how can He make Himself
known to you? You must complain, not of Him, but of yourself. This, then, is
a good time for our Master to teach us and for us to listen to Him. I do not
tell you to say no prayers at all, for if I did you would take hold of my
words and say I was talking about contemplation, which you need practise
only if the Lord brings you to it. No: you should say the Paternoster,
realize that you are verily and indeed in the company of Him Who taught it
you and kiss His feet in gratitude to Him for having desired to teach you
and beg Him to show you how to pray and never to leave you.

You may be in the habit of praying while looking at a picture of Christ, but
at a time like this it seems foolish to me to turn away from the living
image”the Person Himself”to look at His picture. Would it not be foolish if
we had a portrait of someone whom we dearly loved and, when the person
himself came to see us, we refused to talk with him and carried on our
entire conversation with the portrait? Do you know when I find the use of a
picture an excellent thing, and take great pleasure in it? When the person
is absent and we are made to feel his loss by our great aridity, it is then
that we find it a great comfort to look at the picture of Him Whom we have
such reason to love. This is a great inspiration, and makes us wish that, in
whichever direction we turn our eyes, we could see the picture. What can we
look upon that is better or more attractive to the sight than upon Him Who
so dearly loves us and contains within Himself all good things? Unhappy are
those heretics, who through their own fault have lost this comfort, as well
as others.

When you have received the Lord, and are in His very presence, try to shut
the bodily eyes and to open the eyes of the soul and to look into your own
hearts. I tell you, and tell you again, for I should like to repeat it
often, that if you practise this habit of staying with Him, not just once or
twice, but whenever you communicate, and strive to keep your conscience
clear so that you can often rejoice in this your Good, He will not, as I
have said, come so much disguised as to be unable to make His presence known
to you in many ways, according to the desire which you have of seeing Him.
So great, indeed, may be your longing for Him that He will reveal Himself to
you wholly.

But if we pay no heed to Him save when we have received Him, and go away
from Him in search of other and baser things, what can He do? Will He have
to drag us by force to look at Him and be with Him because He desires to
reveal Himself to us? No; for when He revealed Himself to all men plainly,
and told them clearly who He was, they did not treat Him at all well”very
few of them, indeed, even believed Him. So He grants us an exceeding great
favour when He is pleased to show us that it is He Who is in the Most Holy
Sacrament. But He will not reveal Himself openly and communicate His glories
and bestow His treasures save on those who He knows greatly desire Him, for
these are His true friends. I assure you that anyone who is not a true
friend and does not come to receive Him as such, after doing all in his
power to prepare for Him, must never importune Him to reveal Himself to him.
Hardly is the hour over which such a person has spent in fulfilling the
Churchs commandment than he goes home and tries to drive Christ out of the
house. What with all his other business and occupations and worldly
hindrances, he seems to be making all possible haste to prevent the Lord
from taking possession of the house which is His own.
_________________________________________________________________

[120] Lit.:in service”en servidumbre, a strong word, better rendered,
perhaps,servitude, and not far removed fromslavery.

[121] The whole of this paragraph is lightly crossed out in the manuscript.

[122] Lit.:as if by (someones) hand. St. Teresa is thought here to be
referring to herself.
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CHAPTER 35
Describes the recollection which should be practised after Communion. Concludes
this subject with an exclamatory prayer to the Eternal Father.

I have written at length about this, although, when writing of the Prayer of
Recollection, I spoke of the great importance of our entering into solitude
with God. When you hear Mass without communicating, daughters, you may
communicate spiritually, which is extremely profitable, and afterwards you
may practise inward recollection in exactly the same way, for this impresses
upon us a deep love of the Lord. If we prepare to receive Him, He never
fails to give, and He gives in many ways that we cannot understand. It is as
if we were to approach a fire: it might be a very large one, but, if we
remained a long way from it and covered our hands, we should get little
warmth from it, although we should be warmer than if we were in a place
where there was no fire at all. But when we try to approach the Lord there
is this difference: if the soul is properly disposed, and comes with the
intention of driving out the cold, and stays for some time where it is, it
will retain its warmth for several hours, and if any little spark flies out,
it will set it on fire.

It is of such importance, daughters, for us to prepare ourselves in thy way
that you must not be surprised if I often repeat this counsel. If at first
you do not get on with this practice (which may happen, for the devil will
try to oppress and distress your heart, knowing what great harm he can do in
this way), the devil will make you think that you can find more devotion in
other things and less in this. But [trust me and] do not give up this
method, for the Lord will use it to prove your love for Him. Remember that
there are few souls who stay with Him and follow Him in His trials; let us
endure something for Him and His Majesty will repay us. Remember, too, that
there are actually people who not only have no wish to be with Him but who
insult Him and with great irreverence drive Him away from their homes. We
must endure something, therefore, to show Him that we have the desire to see
Him. In many places He is neglected and ill-treated, but He suffers
everything, and will continue to do so, if He finds but one single soul
which will receive Him and love to have Him as its Guest. [123] Let this
soul be yours, then, for, if there were none, the Eternal Father would
rightly refuse to allow Him to remain with us. Yet the Lord is so good a
Friend to those who are His friends, and so good a Master to those who are
His servants, that, when He knows it to be the will of His Beloved Son, He
will not hinder Him in so excellent a work, in which His Son so fully
reveals the love which He has for His Father, as this wonderful way which He
seeks of showing how much He loves us and of helping us to bear our trials.

Since, then, Holy Father, Who art in the Heavens, Thou dost will and accept
this (and it is clear that Thou couldst not deny us a thing which is so good
for us) there must be someone, as I said at the beginning, who will speak
for Thy Son, for He has never defended Himself. Let this be the task for us,
daughters, though, having regard to what we are, it is presumptuous of us to
undertake it. Let us rely, however, on Our Lords command to us to pray to
Him, and, in fulfilment of our obedience to Him, let us beseech His Majesty,
in the name of the good Jesus, that, as He has left nothing undone that He
could do for us in granting sinners so great a favour, He may be pleased of
His mercy to prevent Him from being so ill-treated. Since His Holy Son has
given us this excellent way in which we can offer Him up frequently as a
sacrifice, let us make use of this precious gift so that it may stay the
advance of such terrible evil and irreverence as in many places is paid to
this Most Holy Sacrament. For these Lutherans seem to want to drive Him out
of the world again: they destroy churches, cause the loss of many priests
and abolish the sacraments. [124] And there is something of this even among
Christians, who sometimes go to church meaning to offend Him rather than to
worship Him.

Why is this, my Lord and my God? Do Thou bring the world to an end or give
us a remedy for such grievous wrongs, which even our wicked hearts cannot
endure. I beseech Thee, Eternal Father, endure it no longer: quench this
fire, Lord, for Thou canst do so if Thou wilt. Remember that Thy Son is
still in the world; may these dreadful things be stopped out of respect for
Him, horrible and abominable and foul as they are. With His beauty and
purity He does not deserve to be in a house where such things happen. Do
this, Lord, not for our sake, for we do not deserve it, but for the sake of
Thy Son. We dare not entreat Thee that He should no longer stay with us, for
Thou hast granted His prayer to Thee to leave Him with us for to-day”that
is, until the end of the world. If He were to go, what would become of us?
It would be the end of everything. If anything can placate Thee it is to
have on earth such a pledge as this. Since some remedy must be found for
this, then, my Lord, I beg Thy Majesty to apply it. For if Thou wilt, Thou
art able.

O my God, if only I could indeed importune Thee! If only I had served Thee
well so that I might be able to beg of Thee this great favour as a reward
for my services, for Thou leavest no service unrewarded! But I have not
served Thee, Lord; indeed, it may perhaps be for my sins, and because I have
so greatly offended Thee, that so many evils come. What, then, can I do, my
Creator, but present to Thee this most holy Bread, which, though Thou gavest
it to us, I return to Thee, beseeching Thee, by the merits of Thy Son, to
grant me this favour, which on so many counts He has merited? Do Thou, Lord,
calm this sea, and no longer allow this ship, which is Thy Church, to endure
so great a tempest. Save us, my Lord, for we perish. [125]
_________________________________________________________________

[123] Lit.:and have him within itself with love.

[124] The sense of the verb here renderedcause the loss of is vague.
Literally the phrase reads:so many priests are lost.

[125] St. Matthew viii, 25.
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CHAPTER 36
Treats of these words in the Paternoster:Dimitte nobis debita nostra. [126]

Our good Master sees that, if we have this heavenly food, everything is easy
for us, except when we are ourselves to blame, and that we are well able to
fulfil our undertaking to the Father that His will shall be done in us. So
He now asks Him to forgive us our debts, as we ourselves forgive others.
Thus, continuing the prayer which He is teaching us, He says these words:
And forgive us, Lord, our debts, even as we forgive them to our debtors.

Notice, sisters, that He does not say:as we shall forgive. We are to
understand that anyone who asks for so great a gift as that just mentioned,
and has already yielded his own will to the will of God, must have done this
already. And so He says:as we forgive our debtors. Anyone, then, who
sincerely repeats this petition,Fiat voluntas tua, must, at least in
intention, have done this already. You see now why the saints rejoiced in
insults and persecutions: it was because these gave them something to
present to the Lord when they prayed to Him. What can a poor creature like
myself do, who has had so little to forgive others and has so much to be
forgiven herself? This, sisters, is something which we should consider
carefully; it is such a serious and important matter that God should pardon
us our sins, which have merited eternal fire, that we must pardon all
trifling things which have been done to us and which are not wrongs at all,
or anything else. For how is it possible, either in word or in deed, to
wrong one who, like myself, has deserved to be plagued by devils for ever?
Is it not only right that I should be plagued [127] in this world too? As I
have so few, Lord, even of these trifling things, to offer Thee, Thy
pardoning of me must be a free gift: there is abundant scope here for Thy
mercy. Thy Son must pardon me, for no one has done me any injustice, and so
there has been nothing that I can pardon for Thy sake. But take my desire to
do so, Lord, for I believe I would forgive any wrong if Thou wouldst forgive
me and I might unconditionally do Thy will. True, if the occasion were to
arise, and I were condemned without cause, I do not know what I should do.
But at this moment I see that I am so guilty in Thy sight that everything I
might have to suffer would fall short of my deserts, though anyone not
knowing, as Thou knowest, what I am, would think I was being wronged.
Blessed be Thou, Who endurest one that is so poor: when Thy most holy Son
makes this petition in the name of all mankind, I cannot be included, being
such as I am and having nothing to give.

And supposing, my Lord, that there are others who are like myself but have
not realized that this is so? If there are any such, I beg them, in Thy
name, to remember this truth, and to pay no heed to little things about
which they think they are being slighted, for, if they insist on these nice
points of honour, they become like children building houses of straw. Oh,
God help me, sisters! If we only knew what honour really is and what is
meant by losing it! I am not speaking now about ourselves, for it would
indeed be a bad business if we did not understand this; I am speaking of
myself as I was when I prided myself on my honour without knowing what
honour meant; I just followed the example of others. Oh, how easily I used
to feel slighted! I am ashamed to think of it now; and I was not one of
those who worried most about such things either. But I never grasped the
essence of the matter, because I neither thought nor troubled about true
honour, which it is good for us to have because it profits the soul. How
truly has someone said:Honour and profit cannot go together. I do not
know if this was what that person was thinking of when he said it; but it is
literally true, for the souls profit and what the world calls honour can
never be reconciled. Really, the topsy-turviness of the world is terrible.
Blessed be the Lord for taking us out of it! May His Majesty grant that this
house shall always be as far from it as it is now! God preserve us from
religious houses where they worry about points of honour! Such places never
do much honour to God.

God help us, how absurd it is for religious to connect their honour with
things so trifling that they amaze me! You know nothing about this, sisters,
but I will tell you about it so that you may be wary. You see, sisters, the
devil has not forgotten us. He has invented honours of his own for religious
houses and has made laws by which we go up and down in rank, as people do in
the world. Learned men have to observe this with regard to their studies (a
matter of which I know nothing): anyone, for example, who has got as far as
reading theology must not descend and read philosophy” that is their kind of
honour, according to which you must always be going up and never going down.
Even if someone were commanded by obedience to take a step down, he would in
his own mind consider himself slighted; and then someone would take his part
[and say] it was an insult; next, the devil would discover reasons for
this”and he seems to be an authority even in Gods own law. Why, among
ourselves, anyone who has been a prioress is thereby incapacitated from
holding any lower office for the rest of her life. We must defer to the
senior among us, and we are not allowed to forget it either: sometimes it
would appear to be a positive merit for us to do this, because it is a rule
of the Order.

The thing is enough to make one laugh”or, it would be more proper to say, to
make one weep. After all, the Order does not command us not to be humble: it
commands us to do everything in due form. And in matters which concern my
own esteem I ought not to be so formal as to insist that this detail of our
Rule shall be kept as strictly as the rest, which we may in fact be
observing very imperfectly. We must not put all our effort into observing
just this one detail: let my interests be looked after by others”I will
forget about myself altogether. The fact is, although we shall never rise as
far as Heaven in this way, we are attracted by the thought of rising higher,
and we dislike climbing down. O, Lord, Lord, art Thou our Example and our
Master? Yes, indeed. And wherein did Thy honour consist, O Lord, Who hast
honoured us? [128] Didst Thou perchance lose it when Thou wert humbled even
to death? No, Lord, rather didst Thou gain it for all.

For the love of God, sisters! We have lost our way; we have taken the wrong
path from the very beginning. God grant that no soul be lost through its
attention to these wretched niceties about honour, when it has no idea
wherein honour consists. We shall get to the point of thinking that we have
done something wonderful because we have forgiven a person for some trifling
thing, which was neither a slight nor an insult nor anything else. Then we
shall ask the Lord to forgive us as people who have done something
important, just because we have forgiven someone. Grant us, my God, to
understand how little we understand ourselves and how empty our hands are
when we come to Thee that Thou, of Thy mercy, mayest forgive us. For in
truth, Lord, since all things have an end and punishment is eternal, I can
see nothing meritorious which I may present to Thee that Thou mayest grant
us so great a favour. Do it, then, for the sake of Him Who asks it of Thee,
and Who may well do so, for He is always being wronged and offended.

How greatly the Lord must esteem this mutual love of ours one for another!
For, having given Him our wills, we have given Him complete rights over us,
and we cannot do that without love. See, then, sisters, how important it is
for us to love one another and to be at peace. The good Jesus might have put
everything else before our love for one another, and said:Forgive us,
Lord, because we are doing a great deal of penance, or because we are
praying often, and fasting, and because we have left all for Thy sake and
love Thee greatly. But He has never said:Because we would lose our lives
for Thy sake; or any of these [numerous] other things which He might have
said. He simply says:Because we forgive. Perhaps the reason He said this
rather than anything else was because He knew that our fondness for this
dreadful honour made mutual love the hardest virtue for us to attain, though
it is the virtue dearest to His Father. Because of its very difficulty He
put it where He did, and after having asked for so many great gifts for us,
He offers it on our behalf to God.

Note particularly, sisters, that He says:As we forgive. As I have said,
He takes this for granted. And observe especially with regard to it that
unless, after experiencing the favours granted by God in the prayer that I
have called perfect contemplation, a person is very resolute, and makes a
point, if the occasion arises, of forgiving, not [only] these mere nothings
which people call wrongs, but any wrong, however grave, you need not think
much of that persons prayer. [129] For wrongs have no effect upon a soul
whom God draws to Himself in such sublime prayer as this, nor does it care
if it is highly esteemed or no. That is not quite correct: it does care, for
honour distresses much more than dishonour and it prefers trials to a great
deal of rest and ease. For anyone to whom the Lord has really given His
Kingdom no longer wants a kingdom in this world, knowing that he is going
the right way to reign in a much more exalted manner, and having already
discovered by experience what great benefits the soul gains and what
progress it makes when it suffers for Gods sake. For only very rarely does
His Majesty grant it such great consolations, and then only to those who
have willingly borne many trials for His sake. For contemplatives, as I have
said elsewhere in this book, have to bear heavy trials, and therefore the
Lord seeks out for Himself souls of great experience.

Understand, then, sisters, that as these persons have already learned to
rate everything at its proper valuation, they pay little attention to things
which pass away. A great wrong, or a great trial, may cause them some
momentary distress, but they will hardly have felt it when reason will
intervene, and will seem to raise its standard aloft, and drive away their
distress by giving them the joy of seeing how God has entrusted them with
the opportunity of gaining, in a single day, more lasting favours and graces
in His Majestys sight than they could gain in ten years by means of trials
which they sought on their own account. This, as I understand (and I have
talked about it with many contemplatives), is quite usual, and I know for a
fact that it happens. Just as other people prize gold and jewels, so these
persons prize and desire trials, for they know quite well that trials will
make them rich.

Such persons would never on any account esteem themselves: they want their
sins to be known and like to speak about them to people who they see have
any esteem for them. The same is true of their descent, which they know
quite well will be of no advantage to them in the kingdom which has no end.
If being of good birth were any satisfaction to them, it would be because
this would enable them to serve God better. If they are not well born, it
distresses them when people think them better than they are, and it causes
them no distress to disabuse them, but only pleasure. The reason for this is
that those to whom God grants the favour of possessing such humility and
great love for Him forget themselves when there is a possibility of
rendering Him greater services, and simply cannot believe that others are
troubled by things which they themselves do not consider as wrongs at all.

These last effects which I have mentioned are produced in persons who have
reached a high degree of perfection and to whom the Lord commonly grants the
favour of uniting them to Himself by perfect contemplation. But the first of
these effects”namely, the determination to suffer wrongs even though such
suffering brings distress”is very quickly seen in anyone to whom the Lord
has granted this grace of prayer as far as the stage of union. If these
effects are not produced in a soul and it is not strengthened by prayer, you
may take it that this was not Divine favour but indulgence and illusion
coming from the devil, which he makes us think to be good, so that we may
attach more importance to our honour.

It may be that, when the Lord first grants these favours, the soul will not
immediately attain this fortitude. But, if He continues to grant them, He
will soon give it fortitude” certainly, at least, as regards forgiveness, if
not in the other virtues as well. I cannot believe that a soul which has
approached so nearly to Mercy Itself, and has learned to know itself and the
greatness of Gods pardon, will not immediately and readily forgive, and be
mollified and remain on good terms with a person who has done it wrong. For
such a soul remembers the consolation and grace which He has shown it, in
which it has recognized the signs of great love, and it is glad that the
occasion presents itself for showing Him some love in return.

I repeat that I know many persons to whom Our Lord has granted the grace of
raising them to supernatural experiences and of giving them this prayer, or
contemplation, which has been described; and although I may notice other
faults and imperfections in them, I have never seen such a person who had
this particular fault, nor do I believe such a person exists, if the favours
he has received are of God. If any one of you receives high favours, let her
look within herself and see if they are producing these effects, and, if
they are not, let her be very fearful, and believe that these consolations
are not of God, Who, as I have said, when He visits the soul, always
enriches it. That is certain; for, although the grace and the consolations
may pass quickly, it can be recognized in due course through the benefits
which it bestows on the soul. And, as the good Jesus knows this well, He
gives a definite assurance to His Holy Father that we are forgiving our
debtors.
_________________________________________________________________

[126]Forgive us our debts.

[127] Lit.:ill-treated. The same verb is used in the following sentence.

[128] Lit.:our Honourer”Honrador nuestro: a rather unusual phrase which
T. changes into the quite conventional honrado Maestro”honoured Master.

[129] St. Teresa left this sentence uncompleted. Luis de Len added:You
need not . . . prayer in his edition, since when it has always been
included. It figures as an anonymous correction in T.
_________________________________________________________________

aHAPTER 37
Describes the excellence of this prayer called the Paternoster, and the many
ways in which we shall find consolation in it.

The sublimity of the perfection of this evangelical prayer is something for
which we should give great praise to the Lord. So well composed by the good
Master was it, daughters, that each of us may use it in her own way. I am
astounded when I consider that in its few words are enshrined all
contemplation and perfection, so that if we study it no other book seems
necessary. For thus far in the Paternoster the Lord has taught us the whole
method of prayer and of high contemplation, from the very beginnings of
mental prayer, to Quiet and Union. With so true a foundation to build upon,
I could write a great book on prayer if only I knew how to express myself.
As you have seen, Our Lord is beginning here to explain to us the effects
which it produces, when the favours come from Him.

I have wondered why His Majesty did not expound such obscure and sublime
subjects in greater detail so that we might all have understood them. It has
occurred to me that, as this prayer was meant to be a general one for the
use of all, so that everyone could interpret it as he thought right, ask for
what he wanted and find comfort in doing so, He left the matter in doubt;
[130] and thus contemplatives, who no longer desire earthly things, and
persons greatly devoted to God, can ask for the heavenly favours which,
through the great goodness of God, may be given to us on earth. Those who
still live on earth, and must conform to the customs of their state, may
also ask for the bread which they need for their own maintenance and for
that of their households, as is perfectly just and right, and they may also
ask for other things according as they need them.

(Blessed be His name for ever and ever. Amen. For His sake I entreat the
Eternal Father to forgive my debts and grievous sins: though no one has
wronged me, and I have therefore no one to forgive, [131] I have myself need
for forgiveness every day. May He give me grace so that every day I may have
some petition to lay before Him.)

The good Jesus, then, has taught us a sublime method of prayer, and begged
that, in this our life of exile, we may be like the angels, if we endeavour,
with our whole might, to make our actions conform to our words”in short, to
be like the children of such a Father, and the brethren of such a Brother.
His Majesty knows that if, as I say, our actions and our words are one, the
Lord will unfailingly fulfil our petitions, give us His kingdom and help us
by means of supernatural gifts, such as the Prayer of Quiet, perfect
contemplation and all the other favours which the Lord bestows on our
trifling efforts”and everything is trifling which we can achieve and gain by
ourselves alone.

It must be realized, however, that these two things” surrendering our will
to God and forgiving others”apply to all. True, some practise them more and
some less, as has been said: those who are perfect will surrender their
wills like the perfect souls they are and will forgive others with the
perfection that has been described. For our own part, sisters, we will do
what we can, and the Lord will accept it all. It is as if He were to make a
kind of agreement on our behalf with His Eternal Father, and to say:Do
this, Lord, and My brethren shall do that. It is certain that He for His
own part will not fail us. Oh, how well He pays us and how limitless are His
rewards!

We may say this prayer only once, and yet in such a way that He will know
that there is no duplicity about us and that we shall do what we say; and so
He will leave us rich. We must never be insincere with Him, for He loves us,
in all our dealings with Him, to be honest, and to treat Him frankly and
openly, never saying one thing and meaning another; and then He will always
give us more than we ask for. Our good Master knows that those who attain
real perfection in their petitions will reach this high degree through the
favours which the Father will grant them, and is aware that those who are
already perfect, or who are on the way to perfection, do not and cannot
fear, for they say they have trampled the world beneath their feet, and the
Lord of the world is pleased with them. They will derive the greatest hope
of His Majestys pleasure from the effects which He produces in their souls;
absorbed in these joys, they wish they were unable to remember that there is
any other world at all, and that they have enemies.

O Eternal Wisdom! O good Teacher! What a wonderful thing it is, daughters,
to have a wise and prudent Master who foresees our perils! This is the
greatest blessing that the spiritual soul still on earth can desire, because
it brings complete security. No words could ever exaggerate the importance
of this. The Lord, then, saw it was necessary to awaken such souls and to
remind them that they have enemies, and how much greater danger they are in
if they are unprepared, and, since if they fall it will be from a greater
height, how much more help they need from the Eternal Father. So, lest they
should fail to realize their danger and suffer deception, He offers these
petitions so necessary to us all while we live in this exile:And lead us
not, Lord, into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
_________________________________________________________________

[130] Lit.:He left it thus confused. Here follows in E., in place of the
rest of this paragraph, a passage which interrupts the trend of the thought,
and therefore, in the text above, is printed in italics and in brackets at
the end of this paragraph.

[131] The wordsthough . . . forgive are crossed out in the manuscript, as
is the following sentenceMay He . . . before Him.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 38
Treats of the great need which we have to beseech the Eternal Father to grant
us what we ask in these words:Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera
nos a malo. [132] Explains certain temptations. This chapter is noteworthy.

There are great things here for us to meditate upon, sisters, and to learn
to understand as we pray. Remember I consider it quite certain that those
who attain perfection do not ask the Lord to deliver them from trials,
temptations, persecutions and conflicts”and that is another sure and
striking sign that these favours and this contemplation which His Majesty
gives them are coming from the Spirit of the Lord and are not illusions.
For, as I said a little way back, perfect souls are in no way repelled by
trials, but rather desire them and pray for them and love them. They are
like soldiers: the more wars there are, the better they are pleased, because
they hope to emerge from them with the greater riches. [133] If there are no
wars, they serve for their pay, but they know they will not get very far on
that.

Believe me, sisters, the soldiers of Christ”namely, those who experience
contemplation and practise prayer”are always ready for the hour of conflict.
They are never very much afraid of their open enemies, for they know who
they are and are sure that their strength can never prevail against the
strength which they themselves have been given by the Lord: they will always
be victorious and gain great riches, so they will never turn their backs on
the battle. Those whom they fear, and fear rightly, and from whom they
always beg the Lord to deliver them, are enemies who are treacherous, devils
who transform themselves and come and visit them in the disguise of angels
of light. The soul fails to recognize them until they have done it a great
deal of harm; they suck our life-blood and put an end to our virtues and we
go on yielding to temptation without knowing it. From these enemies let us
pray the Lord often, in the Paternoster, to deliver us: may He not allow us
to run into temptations which deceive us; may their poison be detected; and
may light and truth not be hidden from us. How rightly does our good Master
teach us to pray for this and pray for it in our name!

Consider, daughters, in how many ways these enemies do us harm. Do not
suppose that the sole danger lies in their making us believe that the
consolations and the favours which they can counterfeit to us come from God.
This, I think, in a way, is the least harmful thing they can do; it may even
help some whom this sensible devotion entices to spend more time in prayer
and thus to make greater progress. Being ignorant that these consolations
come from the devil, and knowing themselves to be unworthy of such favours,
they will never cease to give thanks to God and will feel the greater
obligation to serve Him; further, they will strive to prepare themselves for
more favours which the Lord may grant them, since they believe them to come
from His hand.

Always strive after humility, sisters, and try to realize that you are not
worthy of these graces, and do not seek them. It is because many souls do
this, I feel sure, that the devil loses them: he thinks that he has caused
their ruin, but out of the evil which he has been trying to do the Lord
brings good. For His Majesty regards our intention, which is to please Him
and serve Him and keep near to Him in prayer, and the Lord is faithful. We
shall do well to be cautious, and not to let our humility break down or to
become in any way vainglorious. Entreat the Lord to deliver you from this,
daughters, and you need then have no fear that His Majesty will allow you to
be comforted much by anyone but Himself.

Where the devil can do great harm without our realizing it is in making us
believe that we possess virtues which we do not: that is pestilential. For,
when consolations and favours come to us, we feel that we are doing nothing
but receive, and have the greater obligation to serve; but when we suffer
from this other delusion we think that we are giving and serving, and that
the Lord will be obliged to reward us; and this, little by little, does us a
great deal of harm. On the one hand, our humility is weakened, while, on the
other, we neglect to cultivate that virtue, believing we have already
acquired it. We think we are walking safely, when, without realizing it, we
stumble, and fall into a pit from which we cannot escape. Though we may not
consciously have committed any mortal sin which would have sent us
infallibly to hell, we have sprained our ankles and cannot continue on that
road which I began to speak about and which I have not forgotten. You can
imagine how much progress will be made by anyone who is at the bottom of a
huge pit: it will be the end of him altogether and he will be lucky if he
escapes falling right down to hell: at best, he will never get on with his
journey. This being so, he will be unable to help either himself or others.
It will be a bad thing for others, too, for, once the pit has been dug, a
great many passers-by may fall into it. Only if the person who has fallen in
gets out of it and fills it up with earth will further harm to himself and
others be prevented. But I warn you that this temptation is full of peril. I
know a great deal about it from experience, so I can describe it to you,
though not as well as I should like. What can we do about it, sisters? To me
the best thing seems to be what our Master teaches us: to pray, and to
beseech the Eternal Father not to allow us to fall into temptation.

There is something else, too, which I want to tell you. If we think the Lord
has given us a certain grace, we must understand that it is a blessing which
we have received but which He may take away from us again, as indeed, in the
great providence of God, often happens. Have you never observed this
yourselves, sisters? I certainly have: sometimes I think I am extremely
detached, and, in fact, when it comes to the test, I am; yet at other times
I find I have such attachment to things which the day before I should
perhaps have scoffed at that I hardly know myself. At some other time I seem
to have so much courage that I should not quail at anything I was asked to
do in order to serve God, and, when I am tested, I find that I really can do
these things. And then on the next day I discover that I should not have the
courage to kill an ant for Gods sake if I were to meet with any opposition
about it. Sometimes it seems not to matter in the least if people complain
or speak ill of me, and, when the test comes, I still feel like this”indeed,
I even get pleasure from it. And then there come days when a single word
distresses me and I long to leave the world altogether, for everything in it
seems to weary me. And I am not the only person to be like this, for I have
noticed the same thing in many people better than myself, so I know it can
happen.

That being so, who can say that he possesses any virtue, or that he is rich,
if at the time when he most needs this virtue he finds himself devoid of it?
No, sisters: let us rather think of ourselves as lacking it and not run into
debt without having the means of repayment. Our treasure must come from
elsewhere and we never know when God will leave us in this prison of our
misery without giving us any. If others, thinking we are good, bestow
favours and honours upon us, both they and we shall look foolish when, as I
say, it becomes clear that our virtues are only lent us. The truth is that,
if we serve the Lord with humility, He will sooner or later succour us in
our needs. But, if we are not strong in this virtue, the Lord will leave us
to ourselves, as they say, at every step. This is a great favour on His
part, for it helps us to realize fully that we have nothing which has not
been given us.

And now you must take note of this other piece of advice. The devil makes us
believe that we have some virtue”patience, let us say”because we have
determination and make continual resolutions to suffer a great deal for
Gods sake. We really and truly believe that we would suffer all this, and
the devil encourages us in the belief, and so we are very pleased. I advise
you to place no reliance on these virtues: we ought not to think that we
know anything about them beyond their names, or to imagine that the Lord has
given them to us, until we come to the test. For it may be that at the first
annoying word which people say to you your patience will fall to the ground.
Whenever you have frequently to suffer, praise God for beginning to teach
you this virtue, and force yourself to suffer patiently, for this is a sign
that He wants you to repay Him for the virtue which He is giving you, and
you must think of it only as a deposit, as has already been said.

The devil has yet another temptation, which is to make us appear very poor
in spirit: we are in the habit of saying that we want nothing and care
nothing about anything: but as soon as the chance comes of our being given
something, even though we do not in the least need it, all our poverty of
spirit disappears. Accustoming ourselves to saying this goes far towards
making us think it true. It is very important always to be on the watch and
to realize that this is a temptation, both in the things I have referred to
and in many others. For when the Lord really gives one of these solid
virtues, it seems to bring all the rest in its train: that is a very
well-known fact. But I advise you once more, even if you think you possess
it, to suspect that you may be mistaken; for the person who is truly humble
is always doubtful about his own virtues; very often they seem more genuine
and of greater worth when he sees them in his neighbours.

The devil makes you think you are poor, and he has some reason for doing so,
because you have made (with the lips, of course) a vow of poverty, as have
some other people who practise prayer. I saywith the lips because, if
before making the vow we really meant in our hearts what we were going to
say, the devil could not possibly lead us into that temptation”not even in
twenty years, or in our entire lifetime”for we should see that we were
deceiving the whole world, and ourselves into the bargain. Well, we make our
vow of poverty, and then one of us, believing herself all the time to be
keeping it, says:I do not want anything, but I am having this because I
cannot do without it: after all, if I am to serve God, I must live, and He
wants us to keep these bodies of ours alive. So the devil, in his angelic
disguise, suggests to her that there are a thousand different things which
she needs and that they are all good for her. And all the time he is
persuading her to believe that she is still being true to her vow and
possesses the virtue of poverty and that what she has done is no more than
her duty.

And now let us take a test case, for we can only get to the truth of this by
keeping a continual watch on ourselves: then, if there is any cause for
anxiety on our part, we shall at once recognize the symptoms. Here is
someone who has a larger income than he needs”I mean, needs for the
necessaries of life”and, though he could do with a single manservant, he
keeps three. Yet, when he is sued in the courts in connection with a part of
his property, or some poor peasant omits to pay him his dues, he gets as
upset and excited about it as if his life were at stake. He says he must
look after his property or he will lose it, and considers that that
justifies him. I do not suggest that he ought to neglect his property:
whether or no things go well with him, he should look after it. But a person
whose profession of poverty is a genuine one makes so little account of
these things that, although for various reasons he attends to his own
interests, he never worries about them, because he never supposes he will
lose everything he has; and, even if he should do so, he would consider it
of no great moment, for the matter is one of secondary importance to him and
not his principal concern. His thoughts rise high above it and he has to
make an effort to occupy himself with it at all.

Now monks and nuns are demonstrably poor”they must be so, for they possess
nothing: sometimes because there is nothing for them to possess. But if a
religious of the type just mentioned is given anything, it is most unlikely
that he will think it superfluous. He always likes to have something laid
by; if he can get a habit of good cloth, he will not ask for one of coarse
material. He likes to have some trifle, if only books, which he can pawn or
sell, for if he falls ill he will need extra comforts. Sinner that I am! Is
this the vow of poverty that you took? Stop worrying about yourself and
leave God to provide for you, come what may. If you are going about trying
to provide for your own future, it would be less trouble for you to have a
fixed income. This may not involve any sin, but it is as well that we should
learn to recognize our imperfections, so that we can see how far we are from
possessing the virtue of poverty, which we must beg and obtain from God. If
we think we already possess it, we shall grow careless, and, what is worse,
we shall be deceiving ourselves.

The same thing happens with regard to humility. [134] We think that we have
no desire for honour and that we care nothing about anything; but as soon as
our honour comes to be slighted in some detail our feelings and actions at
once show that we are not humble at all. If an opportunity occurs for us to
gain more honour, we do not reject it; even those who are poor, and to whom
I have just referred, are anxious to have as much profit as possible”God
grant we may not go so far as actually to seek it! We always have phrases on
our lips about wanting nothing, and caring nothing about anything, and we
honestly think them to be true, and get so used to repeating them that we
come to believe them more and more firmly. But when, as I say, we keep on
the watch, we realize that this is a temptation, as regards both the virtue
I have spoken of and all the rest; for when we really have one of these
solid virtues, it brings all the rest in its train: that is a very
well-known fact.
_________________________________________________________________

[132]And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[133] Lit.:gains, as also in the next paragraph. E. has:because they
have hopes of becoming rich. The reference in both manuscripts is, of
course, to the spoils and booty of war.

[134] It will be noticed that this paragraph is similar to the last
paragraph in the text of V. (p. 254, above). The differences, however, are
so wide that each of the two is given as it stands.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 39
Continues the same subject and gives counsels concerning different kinds of
temptation. Suggests two remedies by which we may be freed from temptations.
[135]

Beware also, daughters, of certain kinds of humility which the devil
inculcates in us and which make us very uneasy about the gravity of our past
sins. There are many ways in which he is accustomed to depress us so that in
time we withdraw from Communion and give up our private prayer, because the
devil suggests to us that we are not worthy to engage in it. When we come to
the Most Holy Sacrament, we spend the time during which we ought to be
receiving grace in wondering whether we are properly prepared or no. The
thing gets to such a pass that a soul can be made to believe that, through
being what it is, it has been forsaken by God, and thus it almost doubts His
mercy. Everything such a person does appears to her to be dangerous, and all
the service she renders, however good it may be, seems to her fruitless. She
loses confidence and sits with her hands in her lap because she thinks she
can do nothing well and that what is good in others is wrong in herself.

Pay great attention, daughters, to this point which I shall now make,
because sometimes thinking yourselves so wicked may be humility and virtue
and at other times a very great temptation. I have had experience of this,
so I know it is true. Humility, however deep it be, neither disquiets nor
troubles nor disturbs the soul; it is accompanied by peace, joy and
tranquillity. Although, on realizing how wicked we are, we can see clearly
that we deserve to be in hell, and are distressed by our sinfulness, and
rightly think that everyone should hate us, yet, if our humility is true,
this distress is accompanied by an interior peace and joy of which we should
not like to be deprived. Far from disturbing or depressing the soul, it
enlarges it and makes it fit to serve God better. The other kind of distress
only disturbs and upsets the mind and troubles the soul, so grievous is it.
I think the devil is anxious for us to believe that we are humble, and, if
he can, to lead us to distrust God.

When you find yourselves in this state, cease thinking, so far as you can,
of your own wretchedness, and think of the mercy of God and of His love and
His sufferings for us. If your state of mind is the result of temptation,
you will be unable to do even this, for it will not allow you to quiet your
thoughts or to fix them on anything but will only weary you the more: it
will be a great thing if you can recognize it as a temptation. This is what
happens when we perform excessive penances in order to make ourselves
believe that, because of what we are doing, we are more penitent than
others. If we conceal our penances from our confessor or superior, or if we
are told to give them up and do not obey, that is a clear case of
temptation. Always try to obey, however much it may hurt you to do so, for
that is the greatest possible perfection.

There is another very dangerous kind of temptation: a feeling of security
caused by the belief that we shall never again return to our past faults and
to the pleasures of the world.I know all about these things now, we say,
and I realize that they all come to an end and I get more pleasure from the
things of God. If this temptation comes to beginners it is very serious;
for, having this sense of security, they think nothing of running once more
into occasions of sin. They soon come up against these”and then God preserve
them from falling back farther than before! The devil, seeing that here are
souls which may do him harm and be of great help to others, does all in his
power to prevent them from rising again. However many consolations and
pledges of love the Lord may give you, therefore, you must never be so sure
of yourselves that you cease to be afraid of falling back again, and you
must keep yourselves from occasions of sin.

Do all you can to discuss these graces and favours with someone who can give
you light and have no secrets from him. However sublime your contemplation
may be, take great care both to begin and to end every period of prayer with
self-examination. If these favours come from God, you will do this more
frequently, without either taking or needing any advice from me, for such
favours bring humility with them and always leave us with more light by
which we may see our own unworthiness. I will say no more here, for you will
find many books which give this kind of advice. I have said all this because
I have had experience of the matter and have sometimes found myself in
difficulties of this nature. Nothing that can be said about it, however,
will give us complete security.

What, then, Eternal Father, can we do but flee to Thee and beg Thee not to
allow these enemies of ours to lead us into temptations? If attacks are made
upon us publicly, we shall easily surmount them, with Thy help. But how can
we be ready for these treacherous assaults, [136] my God? We need constantly
to pray for Thy help. Show us, Lord, some way of recognizing them and
guarding against them. Thou knowest that there are not many who walk along
this road, and if so many fears are to beset them, there will be far fewer.

What a strange thing it is! You might suppose that the devil never tempted
those who do not walk along the road of prayer! People get a greater shock
when deception overtakes a single one of the many persons who are striving
to be perfect than when a hundred thousand others are deceived and fall into
open sin, whom there is no need to look at in order to see if they are good
or evil, for Satan can be seen at their side a thousand leagues away. But as
a matter of fact people are right about this, for very few who say the
Paternoster in the way that has been described are deceived by the devil, so
that, if the deception of one of them causes surprise, that is because it is
a new and an unusual thing. For human nature is such that we scarcely notice
what we see frequently but are astounded at what we see seldom or hardly at
all. And the devils themselves encourage this astonishment, for if a single
soul attains perfection it robs them of many others.

It is so strange, I repeat, that I am not surprised if people are amazed at
it; for, unless they are altogether at fault, they are much safer on this
road than on any other, just as people who watch a bull-fight from the
grand-stand are safer than the men who expose themselves to a thrust from
the bulls horns. This comparison, which I heard somewhere, seems to me very
exact. Do not be afraid to walk on these roads, sisters, for there are many
of them in the life of prayer”and some people get most help by using one of
them and others by using another, as I have said. This road is a safe one
and you will the more readily escape from temptation if you are near the
Lord than if you are far away from Him. Beseech and entreat this of Him, as
you do so many times each day in the Paternoster.
_________________________________________________________________

[135] A marginal addition made, in the autograph, to the title by another
hand reads:This chapter is very noteworthy, both for those tempted by
false kinds of humility and for confessors. This is found in T. and in most
of the editions.

[136] Lit.:these treasons.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 40
Describes how, by striving always to walk in the love and fear of God, we shall
travel safely amid all these temptations.

Show us, then, O our good Master, some way in which we may live through this
most dangerous warfare without frequent surprise. The best way that we can
do this, daughters, is to use the love and fear given us by His Majesty. For
love will make us quicken our steps, while fear will make us look where we
are setting our feet so that we shall not fall on a road where there are so
many obstacles. Along that road all living creatures must pass, and if we
have these two things we shall certainly not be deceived.

You will ask me how you can tell if you really have these two very, very
great virtues. [137] You are right to ask, for we can never be quite
definite and certain about it; if we were sure that we possessed love, we
should be sure that we were in a state of grace. But you know, sisters,
there are some indications which are in no way secret but so evident that
even a blind man, as people say, could see them. You may not wish to heed
them, but they cry so loud for notice that they make quite an uproar, for
there are not many who possess them to the point of perfection and thus they
are the more readily noticed. Love and fear of God! These are two strong
castles whence we can wage war on the world and on the devils.

Those who really love God love all good, seek all good, help forward all
good, praise all good, and invariably join forces with good men and help and
defend them. They love only truth and things worthy of love. Do you think it
possible that anyone who really and truly loves God can love vanities,
riches, worldly pleasures or honours? Can he engage in strife or feel envy?
No; for his only desire is to please the Beloved. Such persons die with
longing for Him to love them and so they will give their lives to learn how
they may please Him better. Will they hide their love? No: if their love for
God is genuine love they cannot. Why, think of Saint Paul or the Magdalen.
One of these”Saint Paul”found in three days that he was sick with love. The
Magdalen discovered this on the very first day. And how certain of it they
were! For there are degrees of love for God, which shows itself in
proportion to its strength. If there is little of it, it shows itself but
little; if there is much, it shows itself a great deal. But it always shows
itself, whether little or much, provided it is real love for God.

But to come to what we are chiefly treating of now”the deceptions and
illusions practised against contemplatives by the devil”such souls have no
little love; for had they not a great deal they would not be contemplatives,
and so their love shows itself plainly and in many ways. Being a great fire,
it cannot fail to give out a very bright light. If they have not much love,
they should proceed with many misgivings and realize that they have great
cause for fear; and they should try to find out what is wrong with them, say
their prayers, walk in humility and beseech the Lord not to lead them into
temptation, into which, I fear, they will certainly fall unless they bear
this sign. But if they walk humbly and strive to discover the truth and do
as their confessor bids them and tell him the plain truth, then the Lord is
faithful, and, as has been said, by using the very means with which he had
thought to give them death, the devil will give them life, with however many
fantasies and illusions he tries to deceive them. If they submit to the
teaching of the Church, they need not fear; whatever fantasies and illusions
the devil may invent, he will at once betray his presence.

But if you feel this love for God which I have spoken of, and the fear which
I shall now describe, you may go on your way with happiness and
tranquillity. In order to disturb the soul and keep it from enjoying these
great blessings, the devil will suggest to it a thousand false fears and
will persuade other people to do the same; for if he cannot win souls he
will at least try to make them lose something, and among the losers will be
those who might have gained greatly had they believed that such great
favours, bestowed upon so miserable a creature, come from God, and that it
is possible for them to be thus bestowed, for sometimes we seem to forget
His past mercies.

Do you suppose that it is of little use to the devil to suggest these fears?
No, it is most useful to him, for there are two well-known ways in which he
can make use of this means to harm us, to say nothing of others. First, he
can make those who listen to him fearful of engaging in prayer, because they
think that they will be deceived. Secondly, he can dissuade many from
approaching God who, as I have said, see that He is so good that He will
hold intimate converse with sinners. Many such souls think that He will
treat them in the same way, and they are right: I myself know certain
persons inspired in this way who began the habit of prayer and in a short
time became truly devout and received great favours from the Lord.

Therefore, sisters, when you see someone to whom the Lord is granting these
favours, praise Him fervently, yet do not imagine that she is safe, but aid
her with more prayer, for no one can be safe in this life amid the engulfing
dangers of this stormy sea. Wherever this love is, then, you will not fail
to recognize it; I do not know how it could be concealed. For they say that
it is impossible for us to hide our love even for creatures, and that, the
more we try to conceal it, the more clearly is it revealed. And yet this is
so worthless that it hardly deserves the name of love, for it is founded
upon nothing at all: it is loathsome, indeed, to make this comparison. How,
then, could a love like Gods be concealed”so strong, so righteous,
continually increasing, never seeing cause for ceasing to manifest itself,
and resting upon the firm foundation of the love which is its reward? As to
the reality of this reward there can be no doubt, for it is manifest in Our
Lords great sorrows, His trials, the shedding of His blood and even the
loss of His life. Certainly, then, there is no doubt as to this love. It is
indeed love, and deserves that name, of which worldly vanities have robbed
it. God help me! How different must the one love be from the other to those
who have experience of both!

May His Majesty be pleased to grant us to experience this before He takes us
from this life, for it will be a great thing at the hour of death, when we
are going we know not whither, to realize that we shall be judged by One
Whom we have loved above all things, and with a passion that makes us
entirely forget ourselves. Once our debts have been paid we shall be able to
walls in safety. We shall not be going into a foreign land, but into our own
country, for it belongs to Him Whom we have loved so truly and Who Himself
loves us. For this love of His, besides its other properties, is better than
all earthly affection in that, if we love Him, we are quite sure that He
loves us too. Remember, my daughters, the greatness of the gain which comes
from this love, and of our loss if we do not possess it, for in that case we
shall be delivered into the hands of the tempter, hands so cruel and so
hostile to all that is good, and so friendly to all that is evil.

What will become of the poor soul when it falls into these hands after
emerging from all the pains and trials of death? How little rest it will
have! How it will be torn as it goes down to hell! What swarms and varieties
of serpents it will meet! How dreadful is that place! How miserable that
lodging! Why, a pampered person (and most of those who go to hell are that)
can hardly bear to spend a single night in a bad inn: what, then, will be
the feelings of that wretched soul when it is condemned to such an inn as
this and has to spend eternity there? [138] Let us not try to pamper
ourselves, daughters. We are quite well off here: there is only a single
night for us to spend in this bad inn. Let us praise God and strive to do
penance in this life. How sweet will be the death of those who have done
penance for all their sins and have not to go to purgatory! It may be that
they will begin to enjoy glory even in this world, and will know no fear,
but only peace.

Even if we do not attain to this, sisters, let us beseech God that, if in
due course we must suffer these pains, it may be with a hope of emerging
from them. Then we shall suffer them willingly and lose neither the
friendship nor the grace of God. May He grant us these in this life so that
we may not unwittingly fall into temptation.
_________________________________________________________________

[137] Lit.:these two virtues, so great, so great.

[138] Lit.:to an inn for ever, ever, for eternity. The repetition of
ever (siempre) reminds one of the famous reminiscence of St. Teresas
childhood, to be found in her Life, Chap. I.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 41
Speaks of the fear of God and of how we must keep ourselves from venial sins.

How I have enlarged on this subject! Yet I have not said as much about it as
I should like; for it is a delightful thing to talk about this love of God.
What, then, must it be to possess it? May the Lord, for His own sake, give
it me! May I not depart from this life till there is nothing in it that I
desire, till I have forgotten what it is to love anything but Thee and till
I deny the name of love to any other kind of affection”for all love is false
but love of Thee, and, unless the foundations of a building are true, the
building itself will not endure. I do not know why it surprises us to hear
people say:So-and-so has made me a poor return for something.Someone
else does not like me. I laugh to myself when I hear that. What other sort
of return do you expect him to make you? And why do you expect anyone to
like you? These things will show you what the world is; your love itself
becomes your punishment, and the reason why you are so upset about it is
that your will strongly resents your involving it in such childish pastimes.

Let us now come to the fear of God”though I am sorry not to be able to say a
little about this worldly love, which, for my sins, I know well and should
like to acquaint you with, so that you may free yourself from it for ever.
But I am straying from my subject and shall have to pass on.

This fear of God is another thing with which those who possess it and those
who have to do with them are very familiar. But I should like you to realize
that at first it is not very deep, save in a few people, to whom, as I have
said, the Lord grants such great favours as to make them rich in virtues and
to raise them, in a very short time, to great heights of prayer. It is not
recognizable, therefore, at first, in everyone. As it increases, it grows
stronger each day, and then, of course, it can be recognized, for those who
possess it forsake sin, and occasions of sin, and bad company, and other
signs of it are visible in them. When at last the soul attains to
contemplation, of which we are chiefly treating at the moment, its fear of
God is plainly revealed, and its love is not dissembled even outwardly.
However narrowly we watch such persons, we shall not find them growing
careless; for, close as our watch on them may be, the Lord so preserves them
that they would not knowingly commit one venial sin even to further their
own interests, and, as for mortal sin, they fear it like fire. These are the
illusions, sisters, which I should like you always to fear; let us always
beseech God that temptation may not be strong enough for us to offend Him
but that He may send it to us in proportion to the strength which He gives
us to conquer it. If we keep a pure conscience, we can suffer little or no
harm. That is the important point; and that is the fear which I hope will
never be taken from us, for it is that fear which will stand us in good
stead.

Oh, what a great thing it is not to have offended the Lord, so that the
servants and slaves of hell [139] may be kept under control! In the end,
whether willingly or no, we shall all serve Him”they by compulsion and we
with our whole heart. So that, if we please Him, they will be kept at bay
and will do nothing that can harm us, however much they lead us into
temptation and lay secret snares for us.

Keep this in mind, for it is very important advice, so do not neglect it
until you find you have such a fixed determination not to offend the Lord
that you would rather lose a thousand lives and be persecuted by the whole
world, than commit one mortal sin, and until you are most careful not to
commit venial sins. I am referring now to sins committed knowingly: as far
as those of the other kind are concerned, who can fail to commit them
frequently? But it is one thing to commit a sin knowingly and after long
deliberation, and quite another to do it so suddenly that the knowledge of
its being a venial sin and its commission are one and the same thing, and we
hardly realize what we have done, although we do to some extent realize it.
From any sin, however small, committed with full knowledge, may God deliver
us, especially since we are sinning against so great a Sovereign and
realizing that He is watching us! That seems to me to be a sin committed of
malice aforethought; it is as though one were to say:Lord, although this
displeases Thee, I shall do it. I know that Thou seest it and I know that
Thou wouldst not have me do it; but, though I understand this, I would
rather follow my own whim and desire than Thy will. If we commit a sin in
this way, however slight, it seems to me that our offence is not small but
very, very great.

For the love of God, sisters, never be careless about this”and, glory be to
the Lord, you are not so at present. If you would gain this fear of God,
remember the importance of habit and of starting to realize what a serious
thing it is to offend Him. Do your utmost to learn this and to turn it over
in your minds; for our life, and much more than our life, depends upon this
virtue being firmly planted in our souls. Until you are conscious within
your soul of possessing it, you need always to exercise very great care and
to avoid all occasions of sin and any kind of company which will not help
you to get nearer to God. Be most careful, in all that you do, to bend your
will to it; see that all you say tends to edification; flee from all places
where there is conversation which is not pleasing to God. Much care is
needed if this fear of God is to be thoroughly impressed upon the soul;
though, if one has true love, it is quickly acquired. Even when the soul has
that firm inward determination which I have described, not to offend God for
the sake of any creature, or from fear of a thousand deaths, it may
subsequently fall from time to time, for we are weak and cannot trust
ourselves, and, the more determined we are, the less self-confidence we
should have, for confidence must come from God. But, when we find ourselves
in this state, we need not feel constrained or depressed, for the Lord will
help us and the habits we have formed will be of assistance to us so that we
shall not offend Him; we shall be able to walk in holy freedom, and
associate with anyone, as seems right to us, even with dissolute people.
These will do you no harm, if you hate sin. Before we had this true fear of
God worldly people would have been poisonous to us and would have helped to
ruin our souls; but now they will often help us to love God more and to
praise Him for having delivered us from what we see to be a notorious
danger. And whereas we for our part may previously have helped to foster
their weaknesses, we shall now be helping to repress them, because they will
restrain themselves in our presence, and this is a compliment which they
will pay us without our desiring it.

I often praise the Lord (though I also wonder why it should be so) that
merely by his presence, and without saying a word, a servant of God should
frequently prevent people from speaking against Him. It may be as it is in
worldly intercourse: a person is always spoken of with respect, even in his
absence, before those who are known to be his friends, lest they should be
offended. Since this servant of God is in a state of grace, this grace must
cause him to be respected, however lowly his station, for people will not
distress him in a matter about which they know him to feel so strongly as
giving offence to God. I really do not know the reason for this but I do
know that it very commonly happens. Do not be too strict with yourselves,
then, for, if your spirit begins to quail, it will do great harm to what is
good in you and may sometimes lead to scrupulosity, which is a hindrance to
progress both in yourselves and in others. Even if things are not as bad as
this, a person, however good in herself, will not lead many souls to God if
they see that she is so strict and timorous. Human nature is such that these
characteristics will frighten and oppress it and lead people to avoid the
road you are taking, even if they are quite clear it is the best one.

Another source of harm is this: we may judge others unfavourably, though
they may be holier than ourselves, because they do not walk as we do, but,
in order to profit their neighbours, talk freely and without restraint. You
think such people are imperfect; and if they are good and yet at the same
time of a lively disposition, you think them dissolute. This is especially
true of those of us who are unlearned and are not sure what we can speak
about without committing sin. It is a very dangerous state of mind, leading
to great uneasiness and to continual temptation, because it is unfair to our
neighbour. It is very wrong to think that everyone who does not follow in
your own timorous footsteps has something the matter with her. Another
danger is that, when it is your duty to speak, and right that you should
speak, you may not dare to do so lest you say too much and may perhaps speak
well of things that you ought to hate.

Try, then, sisters, to be as pleasant as you can, without offending God, and
to get on as well as you can with those you have to deal with, so that they
may like talking to you and want to follow your way of life and
conversation, and not be frightened and put off by virtue. This is very
important for nuns: the holier they are, the more sociable they should be
with their sisters. Although you may be very sorry if all your sisters
conversation is not just as you would like it to be, never keep aloof from
them if you wish to help them and to have their love. We must try hard to be
pleasant, and to humour the people we deal with and make them like us,
especially our sisters.

So try, my daughters, to bear in mind that God does not pay great attention
to all the trifling matters which occupy you, and do not allow these things
to make your spirit quail and your courage fade, for if you do that you may
lose many blessings. As I have said, let your intention be upright and your
will determined not to offend God. But do not let your soul dwell in
seclusion, or, instead of acquiring holiness, you will develop many
imperfections, which the devil will implant in you in other ways, in which
case, as I have said, you will not do the good that you might, either to
yourselves or to others.

You see that, with these two things”love and fear of God” we can travel
along this road in peace and quietness, and not think at every step that we
can see some pitfall, and that we shall never reach our goal. [140] Yet we
cannot be sure of reaching it, so fear will always lead the way, and then we
shall not grow careless, for, as long as we live, we must never feel
completely safe or we shall be in great danger. And that was our Teachers
meaning when at the end of this prayer He said these words to His Father,
knowing how necessary they were:But deliver us from evil. Amen.
_________________________________________________________________

[139] Lit.:the infernal slaves.

[140] Orfor [if we do this] we shall never reach our goal.
_________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 42
Treats of these last words of the Paternoster:Sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
But deliver us from evil. Amen.

I think the good Jesus was right to ask this for Himself, for we know how
weary of this life He was when at the Supper He said to His Apostles:With
desire I have desired to sup with you [141]”and that was the last supper
of His life. From this it can be seen how weary He must have been of living;
yet nowadays people are not weary even at a hundred years o