So,
you ask, where is this all leading? In this Epiphany season, from now until Ash
Wednesday, let’s look at St. Teresa’s Prayer as a way for us to be a ‘thin
place’, a living manifestation of the intersection of sacred and secular that
is all of creation.
Teresa
of Avila, considered the author of the prayer, was born in 1515 in
Gotarrendura, Spain. Her paternal grandfather was a Jewish convert to
Christianity who was condemned by the Inquisition for returning to the Jewish
faith. Her father, however, was a Spanish Christian who purchased a knighthood
for himself. After her mother died, when she was 14, Teresa was sent to be
educated by the Augustinian nuns at Avila. While there she was often ill and in
her sickness experienced her first visions.
She
continued to have mystic visions throughout her life. In her 40s (1556) it was
suggested by ‘friends’ that the visions were diabolical. She began to doubt
herself and tried to rid herself of the visions by flagellation and other
self-tortures. Three years later, reassured by her Jesuit confessor Francis
Borgia, she experienced a series of encounters with Christ where she
experienced ecstatic union. Another of her visions was the basis for Bernini’s famous
statue Ecstacy of St. Teresa at Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.
In
November 1535, the 20 year-old Teresa entered the Carmelite Monastery of the
Incarnation in Avila, Spain. She was appalled by the lax adherence of the nuns to
their vows, esp. that of cloister (removal from the world). This bothered
Teresa and she wanted to do something.
With
the support of her spiritual advisor, the Franciscan Peter of Alcantara, she
resolved to start a reformed Carmelite convent. Teresa’s order was based on the
vow of absolute poverty and added new regulations including ceremonial
flagellation and discalceation (shoeless) of the nuns. A friend, Guimara de
Ulloa, supplied funds for the new monastery of San Jose which was established
in 1562.
With
papal support she founded 17 more monasteries around Spain. She was still
working on establishing more when she died in 1582. She was canonized and made
a saint in 1622 by Pope Gregory the XV.
Teresa’s
life as a cloistered nun with the gift of mystic visions and her ability to
work to establish the many monasteries and reform the Carmelite order represent
the tension and union of working in the secular world while seeking the
spiritual path. Teresa, with her visions and her drive to reform the Order was a thin place through which the Light of Christ was able to shine.
Her
famous prayer, set to music by John Michael Talbot
calls us to consider how we can be the hands, feet, body of Christ in the
world. Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore this prayer.
