Take Refuge: A Contemporary View of the Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Ávila

By Patricia Greene

Take Refuge: A Contemporary View of The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of vila takes to heart the classical Christian calling to care for the outsider, the individuals who dwell on the margins. Recognizing todays complex cultural context, in which refugees worldwide present pervasive humanitarian challenges, Patricia Greene seeksin the most revered work of a sixteenth-century Carmelite nunthe guidance for Christians who desire to respond to those challenges.

By treating the spiritual territory explored by St. Teresa as a place, Take Refuge presents exploration as a kind of travelogue journey where the reader accompanies the author. She entwines her experiences with the outsider, her perceptions of the contemporary world, and her descriptions and explanations of The Interior Castle to create a work that spans five centuries and derives its power from the depths of the tradition it embraces.

Take Refuge: A Contemporary View of The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of vila shares a compelling and powerful vision for how to live out the Christian faith, discover ways to welcome the outsider, and draw strength along the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Aug 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504303484

Patricia Greene

Patricia Greene nourishes her soul with contemplative prayer through the spiritual discipline of Lectio Divina. She is a member of the ‘Monasteries of the Heart’ led by Sr. Joan Chittister. This initiative of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania: supports the practice of Benedictine spirituality in the secular world – indeed throughout the world. As a good work, this book intends to promote a better understanding of those regarded to be ‘the other.’

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Copyright © 2016 Patricia Greene.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

The cover image of refugees fleeing across the countryside

is the work of WA Bridgetown artist, Wayne Shalders ©2016.

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, by The Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S. A., and are used with permission. All rights reserved.

The text herein referred from which commentary is made on The Interior Castle is adapted from The Interior Castle - Teresa of `Avila: (Fount Classics) Robert Van de Weyer. 1995. Fount Paperbacks: Great Britain.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-0347-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-0348-4 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 10/07/2016

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Preface

A Year of Mercy

PART ONE - LET NOTHING DISTURB YOU

Introduction

ALL THINGS PASS

Impermanence – desire – illusion

The challenge

Teresa de Ahumuda y Cepeda

Finding the Beloved

DECISIONS – AT THE THRESHOLD

What matters now?

The threshold

Life’s meaning

To know oneself

Imagining

Humanitarian Issues

The awakening

A change of heart

Let’s stretch a little

Facing the ‘Other’

MANSIONS ONE – TRANSITIONS

Awareness – self knowledge

The ego-consciousness

Obstacles

The keys to enter

Crossing the threshold

Emptying ourselves

Glorifying God

MANSIONS TWO – THE SPIRITUAL PATH

Relationship with God

Perseverance

Insight and humility

Living waters

Consolation

A struggle

PART TWO - PATIENCE ATTAINS ALL THINGS

MANSIONS THREE – DESIRE TO BE SINCERE

Surrendering

‘Who’ – is our neighbour?

Sincerity

Development of prayer

The practice of meditation

Frustration

The final test

MANSIONS FOUR – COMMUNITY AND PRAYER

The life of prayer

God’s consolation

The heart enlarges

With forbearance

The face of the ‘Other’

Who is a ‘Person’

Love and empathy

Distractions

Development as community

Discipline

Special Graces

PART THREE - GOD ALONE SUFFICES

MANSIONS FIVE – BETROTHAL

Metamorphosis

A final surrender

Silence

Prayer of union

A final preparation

A wedding invitation

The face of Christ

‘All’ – are to be loved

MANSIONS SIX – TRANSFORMATION

Locution

Transformation

Human suffering

Hope

Despair

Transcendence

Explanation on transformation

Spiritual growth

Faith

Our Inner Being

Three special graces

MANSIONS SEVEN – A SACRED MARRAIAGE

Divine Union

God’s Presence

God’s consolation through us

A little Jerusalem

The world as sacrament

Epilogue

Appendix 1 - Lectio Divina (Guigo 11)

Notes

The ageless imagery of Teresa of Avila

Bibliography

Glossary

This book is dedicated to the Teresan Carmelites.

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the people of the journey!

The idea for this book grew from an inspiration after I attended a Conference in May 2015 – ‘A Woman for Our Times.’ Bishop David Walker described the spiritual journey and Fr. Greg Burke, the practicality of Teresa and her wisdom. It was the practicality that drew my attention.

Fr. Greg Burke OCD

For the Foreword in The Soul’s Journey

&

Fr. Tadgh Tierney OCD

The Carmelite Community - St Therese of The Infant Jesus

Morley, Perth Western Australia

Tadgh gave much appreciated support with the manuscript in different stages and read the script several times to suggest where improvement could be made which I attended to. Considerable material has since been added therefore any weakness in the written word is entirely my responsibility.

Thanks to: Vivienne Litson, Sue Truell and Stephen Crabbe

for their support during 2015-16 through the early stages

of the manuscript’s writing, and who listened with patience

to my endless chatter and read.

WA Bridgetown artist Wayne Shalders

whose work is featured on the front cover.

Thanks to: the publishing team at Balboa Press a Division of Hay House; Alex Codia, Anne Barcelona and thanks Anne for your patience, Adie Lines, Nancy Acevedo and Eric Saxon

Bowing to everyone with great joy for

the birth of this new book!

In memory of

Sr Mary Keely RSM

Mary gave with great love to the refugees,

who became her family and friends.

Acknowledgement is made of the good work of the former ‘Hospitality House’ Carlisle organised by Sr Maureen McCarthy RSM. Her ‘jolly’ band of volunteers from several church groups and elsewhere, helped their ‘new neighbours’ to adapt to the Australian way of living; with shopping expeditions, food preparation where new cooking skills were demonstrated, and acquainted with microwaves, ovens and some learnt how to sew. They and their children; attended English classes, were taught basic survival swimming skills and treated to picnics with Ozzie BBQ’s and so on. What a fond memory it is now to reflect on that mixed swag of happy and sad days, as people readjusted to a new way of life. They importantly helped us, to view our world differently, as we walked along with them.

To the ‘people of the journey’ from whom I have been blessed with my new vision! Who came from faraway places to touch my life; The Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

For my friends, Alice, Philip and Rose of Southern Sudan

Dedication

The Discalced (Teresian) Carmelites

In the eremitical tradition of the desert fathers and mothers

With respect

Order of Carmelites

Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites

With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts

To commemorate the first 500 years

1515 – 2015

Preface

At a community health centre where I once worked in the early 1970’s, an elderly man was referred to the mental health team through the local council. Their health officer was unable to gain access to a property that had been reported by a neighbour as a health issue. The council were informed, ‘it was a haven for cockroaches and rats!’ We went and were invited in. Inside it was suffocating, rotting refuse lay around. We learnt from our man he had been a political refugee and had fled from Russia when the Bolsheviks led by Lenin, overthrew the monarch, Tsar Nicholas 11. Many years ago!

When I met him he was then in his late seventies and he continued to live out that earlier time of his life – 58 years later. He had not transcended those earlier difficulties of life to transform and was held bound to the era of 1917-18 of the Russian Revolution.

He would scavenge through the local galvanized bins [as they were then] outside shops and take whatever loot which was transferred into a shopping trolley and then dragged home. At home all would be put out in an orderly fashion in stock piles and a narrow track from the front door into the kitchen led through pilings, of newspapers, up to ceiling height! On shorter piles between, were assorted plastic fruit containers in which were vast quantities of mouldy bread and rotten fruit. The bedrooms were in a similar state. He had no family and lived alone. It was deeply disturbing as he lived in such awful conditions – beyond anything imaginable!

His stockpile was his supply for the next Russian Revolution! Each day became a quest for survival, just as refugees do now in modern times. During the Russian Revolution people starved. We cannot imagine the terror associated with the overthrow of the monarchy, then later the eruption of civil war between the Bolsheviks and non-Bolsheviks. Of course he had a mental health problem – from what did it arise? His mind remained fixated on those past experiences from his youth as now in his aged years – he was driven by those past memories.

A brief look at the natural world – reveals nothing is safe there either. A pair of Bronze Winged pigeons built a nest on a limb of a tree out of reach of feral cats close to my front door, so near they must have felt safe. One afternoon a Wedge Tail eagle flew down. It had landed on the limb next to the nest and was eating the chicks who had been almost ready to fly and possibly the mother. A brave magpie strengthened by the presence of two large Wattle birds took turns to dive bomb the eagle – to no avail! Later the Bronze Wing male returned to the desecrated nest. He came to the front garden of my house where he had courted his bride in the little rose garden that early spring and stood with his head hung deep down over his chest in shock. So being close to a doorway is no assurance of security or protection. We must enter the castle.

Hence a refuge is to enter into a place of safety and love where God is found present with us. Many of the world’s people continue to dwell in darkness; there is a need to have a change of heart, for our hearts to soften towards those in need. The plight of the refugee is referred to, to draw attention for the need of compassion and a change of heart in all people throughout our world for the sake of ‘the other.’

A brief reference to history reveals there is a relentless repetition of atrocity and violence that occur without remorse for that time and is only found in retrospect. In the twentieth century The Holocaust rendered a horrific loss of life in the tortuous death camps notably; Ravensbruck and Auschwitz-Birkenau; incomprehensible places of death where respect for human life was rendered zero by the perpetration of evil by the Nazis! Some thousands were given refuge in private homes. Many millions found their last place was one of torture where they were stripped of any worldly possessions before the final ignominy of ‘taking a shower’ in a gas chamber! A final indignity the complete removal of personhood when the gold fillings in the teeth of corpses were removed!

In our twenty first century, there have been many civil uprisings that are worrisome for the world – from the ongoing conflicts of the Arab Spring and the civil war in Syria. We are unable to comprehend the struggle of another, unless seen through our own eyes as we try to understand the political debates – as we look beyond the borders with compassionate eyes at the urgent humanitarian issues at stake. Indeed we need to rise above our feeble jurisdictions that hem people in. For that we are required to transcend ideas limited by our beliefs so we can relate to others with love. Our personal transformation begins when we enter the mansions and an ongoing process as we seek divine love. Our refuge lies in God alone.

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The search for God is a central theme of this book – described by Teresa – who illustrated the need for the interior pilgrimage and transcends any boundary of time, whether we are in the 16th or 21st C! To find; the one; who is at the soul’s centre where we are drawn into a life of prayer! St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein] once said, "Prayer is the highest achievement of which the human person is capable." After her conversion from Judaism, Edith became a Carmelite nun and died at Auschwitz in 1942.

There were many times in the 20th C when deception altered the way people thought: good people who would have otherwise spoken out against world regimes that perpetrated evil. We now have an opportunity to respond to the urgent needs of others in our times. There must be no room for apathy towards those less fortunate who become refugee – at the hands of cruel regimes! As people of the world we must not let our capacity to fail us in how we respond to urgent global needs or fall into the same error as others did in the twentieth century. Indeed in any other time of history. Look at the Spanish Inquisition during Teresa of `Avila’s time! So, let our hearts soften towards those in dire needs who seek refuge so we can respond with compassion to those who suffer through no fault of their own – a separation from all that is non-life giving.

A Year of Mercy

Pope Francis announced a surprise Holy Year of Mercy in 2015 beginning December 8th until November 20th, 2016. In regard to mercy Francis said,

"It is a journey which begins with spiritual conversion."

Merkel, Chancellor for Germany, has shown a great compassion when she let political barriers down with the result that possibly not hundreds of thousands but possibly more have made their way into the heart of that country. How long Germany can absorb the influx remains to be seen before there is a spillover that needs to be absorbed by all countries.

One day while shopping in a little country town 300 kilometres south of Perth WA, some people at the supermarket checkout told me they were tourists from Germany, from Cologne. During the Second World War, Cologne had its population decimated by 95 per cent. It was one of the most heavily bombed cities and housed the oldest and largest Jewish community in Germany at that time. Cologne Cathedral is known as the eternal construction site [die ewige Baustelle] perhaps because it took so long to complete! It sustained a number of 14 hits during the allied bombing but withstood those harsh knocks.

As I continued to chat with the visitors from Cologne at the checkout, we briefly discussed the issue of refugees into their country. They pointed out, "it is a world problem," quite rightly so! The urgency exists for all people throughout the world to have a change of heart. We would not wish in retrospect in fifty years to regret what we might have done more for those seeking refuge throughout our world. The world as it appears to us can never be