St. Teresa of Avila, the First Female Doctor of the Church, and Her Medicinal Gifts for Our Soul

October 15 is the memorial feast of St. Teresa of Avila (who is known as Santa Teresa de Jesus in Spain) , a 16^th century Spanish saint. She is one of the 16^th century Spanish Catholic mystics, often compared to her contemporaries, such as St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. John of the Cross.

St. Teresa of Avila was proclaimed as the first female doctor of the Church by Bl. Pope Paul VI in 1970 for her excellent works on prayers to enrich the spirituality and the theology of the Church. What is important to note is that Teresa’s prayer cannot be reduced to mere academic armchair theology, though it can be studies rigorously through the academic disciplines of theology, as well as psychology and philosophy. No matter which academic approach we take to examine Teresa’s exemplary prayer and her spirituality, it must be a psychospiritually transcendent journey, which leads us into the unshakable intimacy with Christ.

We can learn Teresa’s spiritual life and spiritual growth into the ultimate intimacy with Christ through her writings, La Vida (her autobiography), Camino de Perfection (Way of Pefection), and El Castillo Interior (The Interior Castle).  As St. Ignatius of Loyola wrote Exercitia Spiritualia (Ejercicios Espirituales or Spiritual Exercises) for his fellow Jesuits, based on his own spiritual growth, St. Teresa of Avila  wrote Camino de Perfection, based upon her spiritual growth, for the Carmelite sisters. Both of these spiritual writings are important to understand how St. Teresa of Avila and St. Ignatius of Loyola tried to bring a fresh life into the Church during the time of the Protestant Reformation. In this regard, it makes an interesting theological comparison to study these against writings of Martin Luther and John Calvin.

Certainly, there was no straight and flat path to spiritual perfection, as Teresa’s writings remind. Her path of spiritual perfection (camino de la perfection spiritual), indeed, goes through many obstacles and long distance of the spiritual desert for an extended period of what St. John of the Cross calls La Noche Oscura del Alma (The Dark Night of the Soul). In this regard, Teresa’s spiritual path of perfection is like that of St. Ignatius of Loyola, as both of these Spanish mystic saints found themselves in deeper conversion which brought much more closer to Christ during their extended periods of physical, emotional, and spiritual sufferings.

When she was young, she contracted malaria, which brought her high fever, and plunged into coma for a few days. Though she came out of it, she suffered from convulsion and paralysis of her legs as sequelae of malaria and poor medical treatment. It was during that time of intense suffering that Teresa met wounded Christ in her prayers and experienced a conversion on an unfathomably deeper and intimate level. Upon this experience, Teresa was miraculously recovered from convulsion and paralysis. This deeper spiritual and mystic experience of conversion of St. Teresa of Avila is comparable to a similar experience of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Manresa.

Because Teresa’s theology of prayer is rooted in her own experience of suffering, it is empirical. It also gives a great clinical wisdom for discerning healing amidst of suffering that may drive us into despair.

According to St. Teresa of Avila, it is about giving up our ego’s control and letting God work on us, to grow more intimate with Christ amidst our suffering. Healing is rather a secondary to this spiritual growth. This is why Teresa emphasizes that prayer is a constant dialogue with God in a way for us to gradually abandon our ego and let God work on us through the Holy Spirit, in Camino de Perfection. As a result of this, we can attain peace in Christ.

St. Teresa of Avila understands that it is not easy to overcome ego. This is why ‘camino de perfection” is rather an extended journey with gradual progression. It is like a marathon or a long voyage.  Just as there are mile markers to help runners know how far they have run and how many more to run to the finish line on the parathion course, she helps puts seven “stations” to cross the “finish line” on our “camino spiritual hacia la perfection” in El Castillo Interior. In this book, St. Teresa of Avila describes seven mansions, which guide us step-by-step closer to and into Christ – for us to cross the “finish line” of our “spiritual marathon” for perfection. As many marathon runners experience and overcome series of physical and mental pains throughout the course, we, too, experience and overcome various forms of sufferings – physical, mental, and spiritual.

As the first female doctor of the Church, St. Teresa of Avila has “prescribed” and “dispensed” excellent medicinal gifts to us so that we, too, may grow into sainthood, which is spiritual perfection. It is the path into the fullness of the mystery of the risen Christ.  We shall complete this “spiritual marathon” before parousia.

Ash Wednesday – The Beginning of Lenten Journey – God’s invitation for “pagbabalik-loob patungo sa Dyios”

The Lent has started!  For the next 40 days, we make a spiritual journey of purification through penance, accompanied with prayer, almsgiving and fasting. 

Just as our physiological system produces body wastes as byproducts of life-sustaining metabolism, our psychospiritual aspect of life also creates undesired emotions, thoughts, memories, and moods. 

 Anger, resentments, hatred, depression, and envy are just to name some.  As Jesus has taught us in the 7^th Sunday Gospel reading (Matthew 5:38-48), we are to take care of such harmful psychospiritual byproducts of life in order to maintain the health of our hearts and souls, by transforming these harmful emotions, thoughts, memories, and moods. Certainly, Lent provides an ample amount of time for us to engage in this psychospiritual cleansing of ourselves. 

As long as we retain these unwanted and rather harmful psychospiritual byproducts, including anger and resentment, then, we will become more prone to evil beings’ attacks, consequently sinning even more. This leads us to psychospiritual sickness, similar to how not eliminating body wastes can destroy our physiological, as well as psychological, health. 

The psychospiritual wastes accumulated in our hearts and souls first must be recognized in order to be cleansed. For this, yes, your own will power can help – if you have a very strong will. But, there is a danger in solely relying on your own power, as our own wills are subject to what Yogacara psychology calls “manas-vijnaana”. Thus, we all need a reliable external power to ensure that we do find what really needs to be cleansed out of our hearts and souls during this Lenten season.

Imagine how well you can perform your own colonoscopy to yourself by your own will, even you happened to be one of the best GI physicians. Imagine how better it is to let your colleague does it for you. Which option do you think problems can be recognized and eliminated more accurately?

Just as our own vision is not free from a blind spot, our own mind cannot recognize the reality objectively because of the ego’s narcissistic disposition or due to “manas-vijnaana”.

For this reason, the Catholics need a guidance from God, who is the shepherd (Psalm 23:1) and light (Psalm 27:1), as the Mahayana Buddhists need the immeasurable light of Amitabha Buddha.Guided by and fortified by the great guiding light of God, we are better able to find what needs to be cleansed out in our hearts and souls so that our humble plea to be created in clean and pure hearts (Psalm 51:10) can be heard by God.  This shepherding light enables us to be enlightened about our own inner problems and to make a correct turn from a path of deviation and sins back to God .

Making such a turn is an indispensable part of Lent, as it is about conversion, as the opening sentence of the first reading on Ash Wednesday says:

“Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning” (Joel 2:12).

These are words of God in His oracles, spoken to Prophet Joel out of His shepherdly love.

In the theological context for Lent, God’s invitation to “return to” means conversion. Conversion literally means to turn around on our path of sin and return to God, the source of abundant grace, mercy, and love.

The word, “conversion” stems from the Latin roots of  “con” – (together) and “vertere” – (turn). Thus, conversion literally means “to turn around”.  Thus, when God is calling us, the sinners who have drifted away from God, to return to Him, God is calling for our conversion of hearts.

No matter how far we have come away from God on our sinning path, God have given us 40 days of Lenten period to make a turn and return to God for reconciliation. 

A Filipino Catholic theologian, Jose DeMesa describes “conversion” with the Tagalog world, “pagbabalik-loob”. “Pagbabalik” indicates “returning” and “loob” means “inner self”. So, “pagbabalik-loob” means returning our inner selves – to God, “pagbabalik-loob patungo sa Dyios”.

A good image for our Lenten journey is a turning around of the Prodigal Son, from a life of persistent sins back to his father (Luke 15;11-32). Jesus uses this parable of the Prodigal Son’s return as a metaphor for our journey of conversion (turning around and back to God), as the father in the parable is a metaphor for God. And, the mercy of the father in the parable, forgiving his son, who offended him so greatly, symbolizes the immeasurable mercy of God, while the union of the prodigal son and the father in joy is a beautiful metaphor of our reconciliation with God, the essence of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. 

The prodigal son journeyed away as far from his father as he could go. But, he came to a point that he needed to return to his father, with humility and, of course, with a sense of remorse (though it is not clearly written), by overcoming his own ego’s forces (narcissistic tendency or manas-vijnaana).

So, in order for us not only to recognize our own problems inside but also to make a sound turn on our path of deviation and embark on the right path returning to God (“pagbabalik-loob patungo sa Dyios”) we must overcome our own ego, making ourselves truly humble. 

Upon recognizing our problems, our cleaning journey back to God, returning to God, “pagbabalik-loob patungo sa Dyios”, must be characterized by humility. And, this humility is the key for the three pillars of Lent: prayer, almsgiving, and fasting, as Jesus emphasized in the Ash Wednesday Gospel reading (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18). In practicing these three Lenten virtues, we cannot let our narcissistic disposition or manas-vijnaana influences. That is why we must always seek and  journey in God’s light, as the Mahayana Buddhists always seek Amtabha Buddha’s immeasurable light to overcome inherent problems with the defilement disposition (kleshas).

After all, God is calling us to return to Him with humility:

“Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in punishment” (Joel 2:13).

In order for us to rend our hearts, we cannot remain ego-centric, as our narcissistic or manas-vijnaana-infected ego cannot be rendered. 

There is no need to sweat. No need to come up with something impressive to give up on Lent. There is no need to make an appointment with a priest for a confession. First, we need to spend some quiet time to dig deeper and examine our own hearts and souls. Let’s perform a spiritual “colonoscopy”, with the help of God’s shepharding light. If you have a spiritual director, he or she can help.  For performing an effective “spiritual colonoscopy”, a great tool is the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. If you have a Jesuit spiritual director, he can certainly guide your Lenten “spiritual colonoscopy” through the Spiritual Exercises, as effectively helps us to identify our hidden psychospiritual problems and cleans them just in time. 

How the Spiritual Exercises can be applied for your Lenten purification needs depends on your unique sins and their psychospiritual byproducts accumulated deep in your hearts and soul. Thus, it is best that you consult a Jesuit or Jesuit-trained spiritual director or pastoral psychologist. But, a Jesuit priest, Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., has graciously provided a great general resource, based on the Spiritual Exercise: “An Ignatian Prayer Adventure” – an 8-week purification and transformation program. You can access this resource by clicking:

 An Ignatian Prayer Adventure

http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-spiritual-exercises/an-ignatian-prayer-adventure/

So, let’s begin our spiritual exploratory examination – our Lenten spiritual “colonoscopy”, guided by the shepharding light of God. Let’s not be fooled by righteous-looking external images that our narcissistic ego has put. We must get under this “skin”.  God has spoken to us through Prophet Jeremiah:

“Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskins of your heart”(Jeremiah 4:4).

According to Yogacare psychology, manas-vijnaana deep within the subconscious part of our mind tends to create what God calls here “foreskin” of our heart, covering it nicely, hiding filthy psychospiritual stuff beneath it. In this regard, our Lenten examination and cleansing journey can be more like a circumcision, rather than a colonoscopy. 

Either way, hidden problems beneath and under righteous outlooks must be uncovered and removed before they will lead to more problems, keeping further distance away from God. 

In the Ash Wednesday Mass and Ash distribution homily at Madonna Della Strada Chapel on the Loyola University Campus, Fr. Mark Bosco, S.J., applied a metaphoric image of beautiful fresh snow covering up filthy litters on the ground. This metaphor was just so suitable as Chicago was covered with fresh snow on Ash Wednesday this year. 

According to Fr. Bosco, through his poetic and visually metaphoric homily, the period of Lent was also compared to this season of time, especially for those who live in Chicago, longing for warm spring’s arrival after a long period of bitter cold weather. Thus, our Lenten examination of our deep hearts and souls for cleansing (spiritual circumcism – removal of the foreskin, or spiritual colonoscopy) is like thawing the snow that covers the filth on the ground. Yes, in Chicago, we get quite a snow accumulation. Thus, it takes a while to let the snow cover melt. 

There, we begin to recognize our sins – what has been defiling us…or as Buddhist teaching puts it, we start to see our kleshas. We become more able to realize all these negative psychospiritual factors, including angers, resentments, hatred, and so forth, not to be repressed or to rationalized, but to be transformed or, as Freud would put it, to be sublimated into meaningful and constructive ways. This cleansing transformation takes place, motivated by our desire to return to God,  our need for “pagbabalik-loob patungo sa Dyios”, and guided by God’s shepherding light, as covering snow gradually thaws. And, this is how the Chicago Catholics are getting ready to welcome warm spring – Easter, as Fr. Bosco’s homily alludes to. 

May your Lenten journey be always guided by the lantern of God’s shepherding light.

May your snow-covered hearts and souls be thawed with the warms of God’s grace and mercy as Lent will give its way to Easter through the Passion Week.