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St. Teresa of Avila
The Way of Perfection
IntraText CT - Text
The Way of Perfection
CHAPTER 12 - Teaches that the true lover of God must care little for life and honour.
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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
say
"
long
", 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
, by "
leaving
" 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
person
's
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
?"
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