The St. Teresa of Avila Prayer Book

By Vinita Hampton Wright

Teresa of Avila articulated for all of us the wondrous interior landscape of prayer. Journey with her through a week of prayer and meditation. Pray the psalms and confessions Teresa prayed. Use her words for meditation, and become acquainted with the wisdom of the saints who made such an impact on Teresa's spiritual growth and practice. Each day of the week includes morning and evening prayer, and there is a topic for every day, based on themes that emerge from Teresa's life and work.

"It is love alone that gives worth to all things." —Teresa of Avila

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paraclete Press
• Release date: Nov 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781612617480

Book preview

THE ST. TERESA OF AVILA

PRAYER BOOK

THE

St. Teresa

of Avila

Prayer Book

BY

VINITA HAMPTON WRIGHT

2015 First printing

The St. Teresa of Avila Prayer Book

Copyright © 2015 by Vinita Hampton Wright

ISBN 978-1-61261-660-5

Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Paraclete Press name and logo (dove on cross) are trademarks of Paraclete Press, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wright, Vinita Hampton, 1958-

The St. Teresa of Avila prayer book / Vinita Hampton Wright.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61261-660-5

1.   Teresa, of Avila, Saint, 1515-1582. 2.   Catholic Church—Prayers and devotions.   I. Title.

BX4700.T4W75 2015

242'.802—dc23

2015022795

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Paraclete Press

Brewster, Massachusetts

www.paracletepress.com

Printed in the United States of America

To every person learning to trust

God’s intimate conversation with

the human heart.

CONTENTS

Introduction

I

THE PRAYER LIFE OF ST. TERESA OF AVILA

Her Early Life as a Carmelite Nun

Her Years of Illness, Struggle, and Opposition

II

PRAYING ALONGSIDE ST. TERESA

Morning and Evening Prayer

AN INTRODUCTION

Themes for Seven Days of Prayer

III

THE DAILY OFFICE FOR SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

IV

ST. TERESA’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF PRAYER

V

SPIRITUAL INFLUENCES ON THE LIFE OF ST. TERESA

Francisco of Osuna: Third Spiritual Alphabet

St. Peter of Alcantara

St. Augustine

St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX OF SUBJECTS

INDEX OF SCRIPTURES

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND SOURCES

INTRODUCTION

Teresa of Avila lived during the long, tumultuous era in which Catholic Spain sought to conquer the world. Monarchs sent armies to claim, for country and for church, lands close by and in the faraway New World. They drove out Muslims, Jews, and others who did not fit in a truly Christian kingdom. Today’s believer cringes to think of those bloody attempts at converting entire populations to the faith.

But while the outward conquest marched across countries, certain pilgrims were traversing a different landscape: interior regions of the human soul. Teresa became one of those pioneers, joining the company of spiritual writers and teachers such as Francisco of Osuna, Peter Alcantara, John of the Cross, and Ignatius of Loyola. For them, the real battles must be waged within, and conversion had to begin, not with a battle between armed troops, but through encounter with a loving and merciful God.

This is not to say that Teresa or others like her were rebels in the church; Teresa was loyal to the faith she had been taught and remained committed to obeying its authorities. She eventually worked diligently to reform the Carmelite order, but it was a reform toward the order’s original calling to a life of solitude, poverty, and prayer, not to any new idea about what it meant to serve God. She did not intend to put herself in opposition to confessors or superiors or her sisters in the faith. She set out only to be the nun she believed she was called to be. She did not know that efforts to fulfill her religious vows would take her beyond her concept of the devoted life and into regions deep and beautiful, mysterious and sometimes frightening. As is the case with so many mystics, Teresa did not think of herself as spiritually gifted. In fact, she had a very low view of her moral state, her spiritual weakness, and what she considered her general stupidity when it came to prayer or any other form of relating to God, her Majesty.

Teresa would say to each of us that not only is it possible to become intimately acquainted with God, but also that God desires our friendship before we even consider or want it. God waits, sometimes decades, for us to reach that point of trust and openness to what holy presence might accomplish in our lives. The saint would also be quick to say that some of our best progress happens when we are troubled, suffering, and battling against our own sinful resistance.

You, my Lord, were prepared to be offended by me for almost twenty years, during which time I made ill use of your favor, so that in the end I might become better. . . . When I look back on these actions of mine, I do not know what my intention could have been. All this, my Spouse, reveals still more clearly the difference between your nature and mine. Certainly distress for my great sins is often tempered by the joy that comes to me when I realize that they were the means of making known the multitude of your mercies.

I

THE PRAYER LIFE

of

St. Teresa of

Avila

HER EARLY LIFE AS A CARMELITE NUN

Teresa’s early years as a Carmelite nun probably did not distinguish her from other young women in Spain who took the veil in the 1530s. Like many who chose a religious vocation, she came from a devout and well-off family. Her mother had died when Teresa was thirteen, and during her teen years her father sent her to Our Lady of Grace, a local convent/boarding school run by Augustinian nuns. She was well educated for her time, having grown up in a home full of books on everything from theology to modern romances. She was acquainted with the prayers that would have been routine in a devout household, but she was also a typical girl of privilege who enjoyed her social life and probably gave little thought to prayer. However, a young woman of the time must choose either marriage or a religious vocation. At age seventeen, Teresa had to return home to recover from illness, and during the next few years she determined to enter the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation, also in Avila. She took her vows in 1536 at age twenty-one.

The convent followed the Rule of St. Albert, which included renunciation of possessions, obedience to a superior, life in one’s own cell but with community meals and reading, and keeping the Divine Hours of prayer, as indicated:

Those who know how to say