Relation V

Relation 5

            or

Manifestations of her Spiritual State

   which St. Teresa Submitted

       to Her Confessors

           or

Spiritual Testimonies

            or

Relations of the Spirit

Chapter Topic      Observations on     Certain Points of Spirituality                   .

Discussion Topics / Questions       to keep in mind        as we read along   1).  What did  Our Lord say to St. Teresa         regarding the fear of wondering             if one is in grace          and true Humility?                [ Relations 5: # 1   ] 2).  What did St. Teresa say               regarding Union?           [ Relations 5: #  2,3  ] 3). What did St. Teresa say         regarding the use          of holy pictures           as an aid to prayer ?           [ Relations 5: #  5  ]                     .

                   Relation  5

1. "What is it

that distresses thee, little sinner?

Am I not thy God?

Dost thou not see

   how ill I am treated here?

If thou lovest Me,

  why art thou not sorry for Me?

( On the fear of wondering              if one is in grace)                This subtitle is found            in Peer's translation                   It is numbered Relation 3- XXVII                  in that version )

Daughter,

 light is very different from darkness.

I am faithful;

no one will be lost

   without knowing it.

He must be deceiving himself

who relies on spiritual sweetnesses;

the true safety lies in the witness

   of a good conscience. [667]

But let no one think

  that of himself

       he can abide in the light,

any more than

       he can hinder the natural night

         from coming on;

for that depends on My grace.

The best means he can have

   for retaining the light

is the conviction in his soul

  that he can do nothing of himself, and

  that it comes from Me;

for, even if he were in the light,

  the instant I withdraw,

night will come.

True humility is this:

  the soul's knowing

       what itself can do, and

       what I can do.

Do not neglect to write down

    the counsels I give thee,

that thou mayest not forget them.

Thou seekest to have

    the counsels of men in writing;

why, then, thinkest thou

   that thou art wasting time

in writing down

   those I give thee?

The time will come

when thou shalt require them all."

On Union.

2. "Do not suppose, My daughter,

that to be near to Me

   is union;

for they who sin against Me

   are near Me,

though they do not wish it.

Nor is union

      the joys and comforts of union, [668]

   though they be

      of the very highest kind, and

   though they come from Me.

These very often

   are means of winning souls,

even if they are not in a state of grace."

When I heard this,

  I was in a high degree lifted up in spirit.

Our Lord showed me

   what the spirit was, and

   what the state of the soul was then, and

    the meaning of those words

         of the Magnificat,

         "Exultavit spiritus meus."

He showed me

   that the spirit was

the  higher part of the will.

3. To return to union;

I understood it (union)

   to be a spirit,

         pure and raised up above

              all the things of earth,

         with nothing remaining in it

              that would swerve

          from the will of God,

   being

          a spirit and

          a will

             resigned to His will, and

          in detachment from all things,

          occupied in God in such a way

             as to leave no trace

                of any love

                    of self, or

                    of any created thing   

                whatever. [669]

Thereupon, I considered that,

if this be union,

   it comes to this,

     that, as my soul is always abiding

          in this resolution,

     we can say of it

          that it is always

               in this prayer of union: and

     yet it is true

          that the union lasts

               but a very short time.

It was suggested to me

that, as to

       living in justice,

       meriting and

       making progress,

  it will be so;

  but it cannot be said

       that the soul is in union

  as it is when in contemplation;

  and I thought I understood,

        yet not by words heard,

   that the dust of our  wretchedness,

         faults, and imperfections,

   wherein we bury ourselves,

      is so great,

    that it is not possible

       to live in such pureness

     as the spirit is in

       when

           in union with God,

           raised up and

           out of our wretched misery.

And I think,

if it be union to have

     our will and spirit

         in union with

     the will and Spirit of God,

 that it is not possible for any one

     not in a state of grace

          to attain thereto;

      and I have been told so.

Accordingly, I believe

it is very difficult to know

  when the soul is in union;

   to have that knowledge

       is a special grace of God,

   because nobody can tell

    whether he is

          in a state of grace

          or not. [670]

4. You will show me in writing,

my father,

  what you think of this, and

   how I am in the wrong, and

   send me this paper back.

5. I had read in a book

 that it was an imperfection

    to possess pictures well painted,

    - and I would not, therefore,

      retain in my cell

           one that I had;

and also, before I had read this,

  I thought

that it was poverty to possess none,

   except those made of paper,

          - and, as I read this afterwards,

   I would not have any

       of any other material.

I learnt from our Lord,

        - when I was not thinking

        at all about this, -

what I am going to say:

"that this mortification was not right.

Which is better, poverty or charity?

  But as love was the better,

whatever kindled love in me,

    that I must not give up,

    nor take away from my nuns;

          ( If love was better,

             I must not give up anything

             that awakened love in me

              - Peer's translation

             Relations 3: # XXX )

     for the book spoke of much

    adorning and curious devices

    - not of pictures. [671]

What Satan was doing

    among (those
         who removed or shunned
            holy pictures or objects
         which directed thoughts to God and
           awakened love of Him )
was the taking away from them

   all those means

by which their love might be

   the more quickened;

and thus they were going to perdition.

Those who are loyal to Me,

My daughter,

   must now,

         more than ever,

   do the very reverse of what they do."

I understood that I was

   under great obligations

      to serve our Lady and St. Joseph,

because, when I was utterly lost,

     God, through their prayers,

               came and saved me.

6. One day,

     after the feast of St. Matthew, [672]

I was

      as is usual with me,

  after seeing

      in a vision  the most Holy Trinity, and

      how It is present in a soul

          in a state of grace. [673]

I understood the mystery most clearly,

    in such a way

that,

    after a certain fashion and comparisons,

          I saw It in an imaginary vision.

And though at other times

  I have seen the most Holy Trinity

    in an intellectual vision,

for some days after

   the truth of it did not rest with me,

            - as it does now, --

I mean,

   so that I could dwell upon it.

I see now

  that it is just as learned men told me;

    and I did not understand it

           as I do now,

    though I believed them

           without the least hesitation;

for I never had any temptations

    against the faith.

7. It seems

  to us ignorant women

that the Persons of the most Holy Trinity

     are all Three,

  as we see Them painted,

     in one Person,

after the manner of those pictures,

   which represent a body

        with three faces;

and thus

  it causes such astonishment in us

that we look on it as impossible,

and so there is nobody

  who dares to think of it;

for the understanding

   is perplexed,

   is afraid it may come

         to doubt the truth,

and that robs us of a great blessing.

8. What I have seen is this:

Three distinct Persons

    each one

      by Himself visible, and

      by Himself speaking. [674]

And afterwards I have been thinking

    that the Son alone took human flesh,
whereby this truth is known.

The Persons

          love,

          communicate, and

          know

      Themselves.

Then,

if each one is by Himself,

  how can we say

that the Three are one Essence,

  and so believe?

That is a most deep truth,

and I would die for it a thousand times.

In the Three Persons

   there is but

           one will and

           one power and

           one might;

    neither can One be without Another:

so that of all created things

  there is but one sole Creator.

  Could the Son create an ant

      without the Father?

  No; because the power is all one.

  The same is to be said

        of the Holy Ghost.

Thus, there is one God Almighty, and

the Three Persons are one Majesty.

Is it possible

    to love the Father

   without loving

      the Son and the Holy Ghost?

   No;

   for he who shall

          please One of the Three

          pleases the Three Persons;

   and he who shall offend One

             offends All.

Can the Father be

       without the Son and

       without the Holy Ghost?

   No;

    for They are one substance, and

      where One is

              there are the Three;

      for they cannot be divided.

How, then, is it

     that we see

            the Three Persons distinct? and

how is it that the Son,

        not the Father,

        nor the Holy Ghost,

   took human flesh?

This is what I have never understood;     

    theologians know it.

I know well

  that the Three were there

when that marvellous work was done,

and I do not busy myself

   with much thinking thereon.

All my thinking thereon

   comes at once to this:

    that I see God is almighty,

    that He has done

        what He would,

    and so

         can do what He will.  

The less I understand it,

  the more I believe it, and

  the greater the devotion

         it excites in me.

May He be blessed for ever!

Amen.

9. If our Lord had not been

       so gracious with me

    as He has been,

I do not think

    I should have had

        the courage to do

              what has been done,

        nor strength to undergo

               the labours endured,

        with the contradictions

        and the opinions of men.

And accordingly,

since the beginning of the foundations,

  - I have lost the fears

         I formerly had,

      thinking

          that I was under delusions, and

  - I had a conviction

          that it was the work of God:

     having this,

          I ventured upon difficult things,

    though always

          with advice and

           under obedience.

I see in this

that when our Lord willed

    to make a beginning of the Order,
and of His mercy

    made use of me,

   His Majesty had to supply

      all that I was deficient in,

         which was everything,

   in order

     that the work might be effected, and

     that His greatness might be

         the more clearly revealed

                in one so wicked.

10. Antiochus was unendurable

         to himself, and

         to those who were about him,

  because of the stench

          of his many sins. [675]

11. Confession is

    for faults and sins, and

    not for virtues,

    nor for anything of the kind

            relating to prayer.

These things are to be treated of

   out of confession

with one who understands the matter,

   - and let the prioress see to this;

      and the nun must explain

           the straits she is in,

       in order that the proper helps

            may be found for her;

for Cassian says

  that he

        who does not know the fact,

                as well as he

         who has never seen or learnt,

                 that men can swim,

   will think,

         when he sees people

             throw themselves into the river,

    that they will all be drowned. [676]

12. Our Lord would

   have Joseph tell the vision

        to his brethren, and

   have it known,

         though it was

              to cost Joseph so much.

13. How the soul

     has a sense of fear

when God is about to bestow

    any great grace upon it;

that sense

     is the worship of the spirit,

as that of the four [677] elders

    spoken of in Scripture.

14. How, when the faculties

       are suspended,

it is to be understood

   that certain matters are suggested

         to the soul,

               to be by it recommended to God;

   that an angel suggests them,

         of whom it is said in the Scriptures

    that he was burning incense

         and offering up the prayers

               of the saints. [678]

15. How there are no sins

    where there is no knowledge;

and thus our Lord

   did not permit the king

     to sin with the wife of Abraham,

  for he thought

      that she was his sister,

   not his wife.

___________________________________________

Foot Notes: [667] 2 Cor. i. 12: "Gloria nostra haec est, testimonium conscientiae nostrae" [668] See St. John of the Cross,               [488]Mount Carmel, bk. ii. ch. v. [669] See Foundations, ch. v. § 10. [670] Eccl. ix. 1: "Nescit homo utrum amore an odio dignus sit." [671] See St. John of the Cross,           [489]Mount Carmel,            bk. iii. ch. xxxiv. [672] The §§ 6, 7, and 8 are the thirteenth letter of the second volume, ed. Doblado. [673] See [490]Relation iii. § 13. [674] Anton. a Sancto Joseph, in his notes on this passage, is anxious to save the Thomist doctrine that one of the Divine Persons cannot be seen without the other, and so he says that the Saint speaks of the Three Persons as she saw Them  -not as They are in Themselves. [675] 2 Maccab. ix. 10, 12: "Eum nemo poterat propter intolerantiam foetoris portare, .  . . . nec ipse jam foetorem suum ferre posset." ( 10 And the man that thought a little to before         he could reach the stars of heaven,         no man could endure to carry,            for the intolerable stench. 11 And by this means,      being brought from his great pride,      he began      to come to the knowledge of himself,      being admonished by the scourge of God,      his pains increasing every moment 12 And when he himself could not now      abide his own stench, he spoke thus:      It is just to be subject to God, and      that a mortal man should        not equal himself to God.) [676] Cassian, Collat. vii. cap. iv. p. 311: "Nec enim si quis ignarus natandi, sciens pondus corporis sui ferre aquarum liquorem non posse, experimento suae voluerit imperitiae   definire, neminem penitus posse liquidis elementis solida carne circumdatum sustineri." [677] Anton. a Sancto Joseph says  that the Saint meant to write four-and-twenty, in allusion to Apoc. iv. 4. [678] Apoc. viii. 4.

 

~   End of  Relation V   ~