Interpreting St Teresa of Avila (XI)

Patrick Burke, O.Carm.

Her Four Degrees of Praying

Fr Garcia de Toledo, the most important of St. Teresa’s spiritual directors, had been given the manuscript of her autobiography in order to check it and counsel her on its contents. He recognised that the value of writing her story was to explain the work of God in her and in her own growth towards God as a consequence. The actual success of her prayer life was the result of a spirituality, which she believed the Lord wished her to follow. Fr. Garcia insisted that she insert an account of this in the manuscript, explaining all that she undertook, the nature of the progress made and her own response at the different stages.

She readily set about this task and the result is the series of chapters from 11 to 22 which were inserted into the manuscript of her life, It diverts from the account of what had happened to her in order to explain mental prayer and its different degrees, necessary for a better understanding of what she described in the remainder of her story.

“Let us speak now of those who are beginning to be servants of love”. For Teresa to be such a servant is to follow by a path of prayer Him who has loved us so much. She stresses that we must desire to attain this “perfect love”, but too often “we desire it with our hands folded, as they say.” She is forthright in speaking of the initial stages of those who are determined to seek out this good, stressing that it involves a lot of hard work. “It is the beginner who works while the Lord gives the increase” (L. 11, 5). While in all of the degrees of prayer, the enjoyment is most sustaining, yet “all bear their crosses.” Teresa sought to get a simple model or allegory to describe the development of a prayer life and observed that “beginners must realise that in order to give delight to the Lord they are starting to cultivate a garden on very barren soil, full of abominable weeds” ( L. 11, 6). She adds “with the help of God we must strive like good gardeners to get the plants to grow and take pains to water them so that they don’t wither but come to bud and flower and give forth a most pleasant fragrance to provide refreshment for this Lord of ours” (L. 11, 6).

So Teresa sees that the garden can be watered in four ways. “You may draw water from a well”. If the well is deep, it is hard work and tiring. The second method is by a water wheel, a large mechanical device used in Teresa’s time, made with small tilting buckets attached on the rim. As the wheel rotated, the buckets in turn filled with water, were carried to the apex at which the buckets in turn tilted and emptied into a channel or reservoir. The third method is to tap the water from a stream where there is plenty in supply. It can easily be distributed throughout the garden in a controlled way without too much labour of the gardener. The fourth way, the simplest and most effective, is to use the rainfall. “The Lord waters the garden without any work on our part.” Here God freely empowers the soul through the gift of prayer.

Gardening involves a lot of hard work, firstly in conditioning ourselves. Teresa recognises that most of us are easily distracted, and tire ourselves in trying to control our feelings and senses. We are to recollect constantly on the purpose of our labours and of the owner of the garden, the Lord Jesus Christ. To help us overcome the many distractions, beginners have to discipline themselves by thinking of Jesus, of his life, actions and instructions so that with God’s help they can succeed in developing their awareness and devotion. As in the case of an actual gardener, the watering of the soil and the flowers brings its own satisfaction and encouragement - and an encouragement to keep going. These are the things we can do of ourselves, with the understanding that we do so by the help of God, for without “this help as we know well we cannot have so much as a good thought”, Teresa says. At least we are already doing our part -watering the garden.

But what happens when the well goes dry? The sheer effort to get water becomes useless - and in the spiritual sense, one feels nothing but dryness, disappointment, anxiety, even the sense of giving up. Teresa points out that sometimes for reasons known only to God when “we, like good gardeners, do what lies in our power, He sustains the garden without water and makes the virtues grow” (L. 11, 9). She also warns that if the gardener doesn’t keep in mind that his work serves the Lord (owner of the garden) and gives Him pleasure (this tedious and monotonous letting the bucket down to the bottom of the well and drawing it up empty) he will give up trying the impossible as he sees it. Teresa is stressing all the time that our effort at prayer, symbolised by the carrying of water from the bottom to water the garden, pleases the Lord and gives Him praise. “The gardener helps Christ carry the cross and reflects that the Lord lived with it all during His life” (L. 11, 10). He is so determined, even though this dryness lasts a long time, not to let Christ fall with the cross. The seemingly fruitless effort is not wasted because he works for the good Lord and the gardener knows he is satisfying Him. Teresa adds, “He doesn’t fear that the work is being wasted. He is serving a good Master whose eyes are upon him.”

In this first way of praying, Teresa is saying that it is not enough just to recite prayers. The essence consists of establishing or fostering some consciousness of the person of Jesus Christ and a stronger relationship with Him which will help us to overcome periods of dryness as well as distractions and even sickness. In modern times this form of prayer is encouraged by centring ourselves in God, by bringing order and peace in the midst of the intense bustle of human life.

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