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St. Teresa of Avila
Autobiography
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LETTER WRITTEN BY THE SAINT TO FATHER GARCIA DE TOLEDO WHEN SENDING HIM HER "LIFE"369
I. H. S.

May the Holy Spirit be ever with Your Reverence. Amen. It would not be a bad idea if I were to exaggerate the importance of this task of mine to Your Reverence so as to impose upon you the obligation to commend me earnestly to Our Lord, as well I might after what I have suffered through finding that I have written about so many of my miserable deeds and have thus called attention to them; though I can truly say I have felt more keenly having to write of the favours which the Lord has bestowed upon me than of the offenses which I have committed against His Majesty. I have done what Your Reverence commanded me, and written at length, on the condition that Your Reverence will do as you promised me and tear up anything that seems to you wrong. I had not finished reading through what I had written when Your Reverence sent for it. Some things in it may be badly explained and others set down twice, for I have had so little time that I have been unable to re-read all that I have written. I beseech Your Reverence to amend it, and, if it is to be sent to Father-Master Avila, to have it copied, for otherwise someone might recognize the handwriting.

I am most anxious that the order shall be given for him to see it, as it was with this intention that I began to write it and, if he thinks I am on the right road, this will be a great comfort to me, for I can only do what lies in my power. Your Reverence must act in everything as you think best and realize your obligations to one who thus entrusts you with her soul.

I shall commend Your Reverence's soul to Our Lord all my life long. Be assiduous, therefore, in serving His Majesty, so as to help me, for Your Reverence will see from what I have written here how well we use our time if we do as Your Reverence has begun to do and give ourselves wholly to Him Who gives Himself to us without measure.

May He be blessed for ever, and I trust in His mercy that Your Reverence and I shall see each other in a place where we shall realize more clearly what great things He has done for us and praise Him for ever and-ever. Amen.

This book was ended in June of the year MDLXII.370






369 This letter is found in the autograph, at the end of the last chapter. It was probably written to P. Garc'a de Toledo. (The heading is not, of course, in the original.)



370 P. B‡-ez appends the following note: "This date is to be understood as referring to the first draft of the Life, before it was rewritten and divided into chapters. To this version Mother Teresa of Jesus added many things which happened after this date, such as the foundation of the convent of St. Joseph, Avila. . . ."



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