Conceptions of the Love of God Chapter 3 S. Teresa of Jesus of the Order of our Lady of Carmel St. Teresa of Avila From the Book, "Minor Works Of St. Teresa Conceptions Of The Love Of God Exclamations, Maxims And Poems" |
Conceptions of The Love of God On Some Verses Of The Canticle. Chapter 3 Chapter Contents Of the ● genuine peace, ● oneness with Christ, and ● love for God which spring from the Prayer of Union, called by the Bride, "the kiss", from the divine "mouth." ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 1. Fervour produced by the 'kiss'. 2. Signs that a soul has received it. 3. Comparison of the slave's ransom. 4. St. Paulinus of Nola. 5. Diffidence and contrition. 6. Holy confidence. 7. Friar Juan of Cordobilla. 8. Graces left by the 'kiss'. 9. The flesh wars against the spirit. 10. This appears in the Passion. 11. Strength won by determination. 12. Our blindness to divine love. 13. A prayer for peace. |
Chapter 3 CHAPTER III.
"LET HIM KISS ME
WITH THE KISS OF HIS MOUTH."
1. Fervour produced by the 'kiss'.
1.
O holy Bride !
Let us now ponder over the kiss
you ask for,
which is that sacred peace
that encourages the soul
to wage war with the world,
while yet preserving
perfect confidence and calm within itself.
What a happy lot for us to win this grace !
It consists in so close
a union with God's will
that He and the soul are no longer divided,
but their will is one [ 1 ]
— not in words and wishes only,
but in deeds as well.
When the Bride sees
that she can serve the Bridegroom better
in any way,
so ardent are her love and desires
that she
discusses no difficulties
raised by her mind
nor listens to the fears
which it suggests,
but allows faith to act,
seeking no profit or comfort of her own,
having learnt at last
that her welfare consists entirely in this.
2. Signs that a soul has received it.
2.
This may not seem right to you, daughters,
for prudence is always commendable,
but the point to consider is,
as far as you can tell,
whether God has
granted your petition and
kissed you with "the kiss of His mouth."
If the effects prove
that He has done so,
you should
- no longer curb your zeal in any way,
- but forget self altogether
in order to please so gentle a Bridegroom.
His Majesty reveals Himself
by many signs to the soul
which enjoys this favour. [ 2 ]
You must examine this point for yourselves
— at least as far as the thing is possible —
by noticing the effects produced in the soul.
Evidently we cannot know for certain,
for it
- concerns a state superior
to the state of grace
and
- resulting from a very special aid from God.
I say that we can,
to a certain degree,
ascertain by the effects
whether His Majesty has bestowed
this favour on us,
because God grants so high a blessing
to the soul
in proportion to the strength of its virtue.
Such a soul,
while recognising by its interior light
that the Lord has given it the peace
craved for by the Bride,
cannot but doubt the fact at times
on realising its own miseries.
When you are aware, sisters,
that you have received such a grace,
- let nothing daunt you,
- but forget self entirely
in order to please so tender a Spouse.
Perhaps you will ask me
to explain myself more fully,
and
to tell you which virtues I allude to;
and you will be right,
for there are divers kinds of virtue.
I will mention some.
One is
a contempt for all earthly things,
a contempt for all earthly things,
which the mind rates at their true price,
no longer caring for worldly possessions
as it realises their futility.
Such a person
- takes no pleasure in the society of those
who do not love God,
and
- is weary of life,
- holding riches at the esteem they deserve,
and
- showing other sentiments
of the same kind,
taught by God to those
whom He has led so far.
Once raised to this state
the soul has nothing to fear,
except that it may fail to deserve
that God should make use of it
by sending it crosses and occasions
of serving Him
at however dear a cost to itself.
Here, I repeat,
love and faith take control,
and
the soul does not choose to take counsel
from reason.
For the union
between the Bridegroom and His Bride
has taught her things
to which the mind cannot attain,
so to say,
so that she holds it subject beneath her feet.
3. Comparison of the slave's ransom.
3.
Let me explain this by a comparison.
Captors hold captive in their land
a man
a man
whose only hope of rescue
lies in being redeemed
by his father or an intimate friend [3]
who is so poor
that all his belongings would not suffice
to emancipate the slave,
so that this could only be done
by the ransomer exchanging places
with the prisoner.
The strong affection of the former
prompts him to prefer his friend's freedom
to his own.
Then discretion steps in with its many pleas,
declaring:
"You are bound to care
for your own interests first;
perhaps you are weaker than he
and
you might deny your faith;
it is wrong to run into danger,"
with many other objections of the kind.
Oh, powerful love of God !
Nothing seems impossible to one who loves!
Happy the soul that has won this peace
from its God !
It holds sway over all the trials and dangers
of the world, and
fears nothing when there is a question
of rendering any service
to its faithful Spouse and Lord.
Well may it be thus confident,
for even the father or friend
of whom I spoke
felt such love !
4. St. Paulinus of Nola.
4.
You have read, daughters,
of a certain Saint [4]
who,
not for the sake of a son or a friend,
but because he must have won
the happiness of having received
this divine grace,
desired
to please His Majesty
and
to imitate, in some degree,
the many sufferings
He bore for us.
He bore for us.
This holy man
went into the country
of the Peoples of foreign lands,
and
exchanged places with the son
of a poor widow
who had come to him in great distress
about her child.
You know of the success and the reward
with which he met. [5]
Doubtless his mind presented to him
many more objections
than those I enumerated,
for he was a bishop and had to leave his flock
Indeed, he was probably beset
by great misgivings.
5. Diffidence and contrition.
5.
I must mention something
which applies to those
who are naturally timid
and wanting in courage,
as are most women constitutionally,
so that, though their souls have genuinely
been raised to this state,
nature takes alarm.
We must be on our guard,
lest through our inborn frailty,
we lose a priceless crown.
we lose a priceless crown.
When these fears assault you,
have recourse to faith and humility,
and
proceed to act with the confidence
that God can do all things now,
as when, in the past,
He enabled many noble maidens
to suffer the grievous torments
they had resolved to undergo for His sake.
What He wishes for
is the resolution
which makes Him
Master of your free will,
Master of your free will,
for He needs no strength of ours.
Indeed, His Majesty prefers
to manifest His power in feeble souls,
where it has more scope for work,
and
where He can better bestow the graces
He longs to give.
Profit, then,
by the virtues He has implanted in you,
to act with determination
and
to despise the obstacles raised
by your reason
and
by your natural weakness,
which will increase
if you stop to wonder
"whether you had better venture
upon this course or no,
for perhaps you are too sinful
to deserve the same aid from God
that He gives to others " !
6. Holy Confidence.
6.
This is not the time to think about your sins;
Such humility is out of time and place.
When some great honour is offered you
or
the devil tempts you to a self-indulgent life,
or other things of the same sort,
then fear
that your misdeeds would prevent
your doing so with rectitude.
But when it is a question of suffering,
either for your God
or your neighbour,
feel no misgivings because of your sins.
Perhaps you may perform this action
with such charity
that God will forgive you all your bad deeds,
and
this is what Satan fears,
and
therefore reminds you
of all your former wrongdoings.
You may be sure
that God will never desert those
who love Him,
when they incur danger
solely for His sake.
solely for His sake.
But let them examine
whether they are influenced
by selfish motives:
I speak only of those
who seek to please God more perfectly.
7. Friar Juan of Cordobilla.
7.
I knew a man in our own times,
Fray Juan of Cordobilla, [ 6 ]
whom you saw
when he came to visit me,
who was inspired by our Lord
with such charity
that he was bitterly grieved
at not being allowed
to go and exchange places with some captive.
Juan was a lay-brother
of the Barefooted Franciscans
reformed by St. Peter de Alcantara,
and told me himself all about it.
After a great many appeals,
he obtained leave from his General,
but at about fifteen miles from Algiers,
while on his way to accomplish
his good purpose,
God took him to Himself.
Doubtless,
Fray Juan was generously rewarded.
How many prudent people
must have told him
that he was very foolish,
and
we, who do not share his love for our Lord,
agree with them,
yet what could be more unwise
than to end our life's dream
with such prudence ?
God grant that we may deserve
even to enter heaven,
not to speak of ranking with souls
so far advanced in their love for God !
8. Graces left by the 'kiss'.
8.
I realise the need
of strong help from Him
that we may perform such deeds,
therefore I advise you, my daughters,
to persevere in begging from Him
this delightful peace,
which dominates the silly fears of the world,
peacefully and quietly making war on it.
Is it not evident
that God has endowed with great graces
the soul which He has favoured so highly
as to unite it to Himself
in this close friendship ?
For, most certainly,
this is not our own doing:
We can only pray and long for this mercy,
and
we need His help even for that.
As for the rest,
what power has a worm
whose sins make it so cowardly and mean
that we fancy all the virtues
must be measured
by the baseness of our human nature ?
What can be done, daughters ?
Pray with the Bride :
"Let Him kiss me
with the kiss of His mouth."
9. The flesh wars against the spirit.
9.
If a poor little peasant wench
were to marry the king,
would not her children be of royal blood ?
Then, if our Lord favours a soul
by uniting it thus absolutely with Himself,
what desires,
what deeds,
what heroic virtues will be the children
born of the union,
unless the soul put obstacles in the way ?
'Therefore I repeat it: [ 7 ]
If God shows you the grace
of giving you
an occasion of performing such actions
for Him,
do not recall to mind your past sins.
Here faith must overcome our misery.
Do not be alarmed
- if you are nervous and timid
when first you determine
to undertake such deeds,
or even
- if these feelings should last,
take no notice of them
except to be on your guard more watchfully
— let the flesh have its say.
Remember the prayer
of the good Jesus in the garden:
"The flesh is weak," [ 8 ]
and
think of His wonderful and grievous sweat.
If, as His Majesty said,
His divine and sinless flesh was weak,
how can our flesh be so strong,
while we live in this world,
as not to dread the persecutions and trials
that menace it ?
When they come,
the flesh will become subject to the spirit;
For after our will has become united
to the will of God,
it will lament no more.
10. This appears in the Passion.
10.
It has just occurred to me
that although our good Jesus
showed human weakness
before His sufferings,
yet He was intrepid
when plunged into the midst of them,
for not only did He utter no complaint,
but He showed no weakness
in the way He bore them.
On entering the garden He said:
"My soul is sorrowful even unto death,"
[ 9 ]
yet while dying on the cross,
He never murmured.
He went to wake His Apostles
during the prayer in the garden,
but He had better cause to speak
of His pain to His Mother
while she watched at the foot of the cross,
for she did not sleep
— her soul suffered and died a bitter death.
Yet the greatest consolation
is to be found in seeking sympathy
from those we know
share our sorrows
and
love us most deeply.
11. Strength won by determination.
11.
Let us
not trouble about our fears
nor lose heart at the sight of our frailty,
but strive to
fortify our humility
and
be clearly convinced
of how little we can do for ourselves,
for without the grace of God,
we are nothing.
Let us
confide in His mercy
and
distrust our own strength in every way,
because reliance on this
is the root of all our weakness.
It was not without strong reason
that our Lord showed weakness,
for it is plain that He Who is power itself
could never feel fear.
He acted thus
- to comfort us,
- to show that good desires
must be carried out in deeds,
and
- to make us recognise
that when the soul
first begins mortifying itself,
it finds everything painful.
It is
- a pain to give up pleasures;
- a torment to forgo honour;
- an intolerable trial
to bear a hard word;
— in short, nothing but mortal sufferings.
But when once determined
to die to this world,
it is freed from all these ills,
and
no trials can make it complain.
Now it has found the peace
for which the Bride petitions.
12. Our blindness to divine love.
12.
The " kiss of His mouth."
Undoubtedly we should be enriched
if we approached the most Holy Sacrament
but once
with great faith and love;
How much more as we receive it so often ?
Apparently we frequent it only out of custom,
and
therefore gain but little light.
O wretched world,
who dost obstruct from thy dwellers
the sight of the treasures
by which they might purchase eternal wealth !
Ah, Lord of heaven and earth,
is it then possible,
during this mortal life,
to enjoy such close friendship with Thee ?
Clearly as the Holy Spirit states it
in these words,
the meaning in the Canticle of Canticles
of the caresses, the wooing, and the delights
Thou dost bestow upon the soul.
(But) we do not even wish to understand.
Thou dost bestow upon the soul.
(But) we do not even wish to understand.
13. A prayer for peace.
13.
One speech of this sort should suffice
to make us all Thine own.
Blessed be Thou, O Lord,
for nothing is wanting on Thy part !
In how many ways,
by how many means and manners
dost Thou show Thy love !
By Thy labours,
by Thy bitter death,
by the tortures and insults,
Thou didst bear,
by the pardon
Thou dost grant us,
— and not by these alone,
but by the words,
Thou dost utter and teach us
to utter in these Canticles,
which so pierce the soul that loves Thee,
that I know not
how it could endure them
unless Thou didst afford it succour,
not according to its merits,
but as its weakness needs.
I ask, then, O Lord, no more of Thee
in this life
except that Thou
"Kiss me with the kiss of Thy mouth,"
in such a way
that, even if I wished,
I could not separate myself
from union and friendship with Thee.
Grant that my will
may be subject to
and
may never swerve from Thine,
leaving nothing to prevent my saying
with truth, O my God and my Glory,
that "Thy breasts are better"
and more delicious " than wine."
Foot Notes: [1] Life, ch. xviii. 4 sqq. Castle, M. v. ch. ii. 4-6 ; ch. iii. 6 sqq. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blog Addition: Regarding Paragraph #1's Footnote reference #1 "It consists in so close a union with God's will that He and the soul are no longer divided, but their will is one [ 1 ] — not in words and wishes only, but in deeds as well. " Life, ch. xviii. 4 sqq. What I undertake to explain is that - which the soul feels when it is in the divine union. It is plain enough what union is-- - two distinct things becoming one. [ Life: Ch. 18: #5 ] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Castle, M. v. ch. ii. 4-6 ; As soon as, by means of this prayer, the soul has become entirely dead to the world, it comes forth like a lovely little white butterfly! ... How beautiful is the soul after having been immersed in God's grandeur and united closely to Him for but a short time! ... Truly, the spirit does not recognize itself, being as different from what it was as is the white butterfly from the repulsive caterpillar. ... The soul ▪ desires to praise our Lord God and ▪ longs to ▫ sacrifice itself and ▫ die a thousand deaths for Him. It feels an unconquerable desire for great crosses and would like to perform the most severe penances; [ Interior Castle: Mansion 5: Ch. 2: # 4-6 ] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Castle, M. v. ch. iii. 6 sqq. What do you think, daughters, is His will? That we may become quite perfect and so be made one with Him and with His Father as He prayed we might be. Observe, then, what is wanting in us to obtain this. There is no need for us to receive special consolations from God in order to arrive at conformity with His will; He has done enough in giving us His Son to teach the way. Our Lord asks but two things of us: • love, for Him and for our neighbour: These are what we must strive to obtain. If we practise both these virtues perfectly we shall be doing His will and so shall be united to Him. [ Interior Castle: Mansion 5: Ch. 3: # 7 ] _____________________ [2] The following passage, till " I will mention some " — is only in the manuscripts of Las Nieves and Consuegra. ____________________ [3] This comparison must have had a much greater force in the days of St. Teresa than it can have at present. Father Gratian, who first published the Conceptions, fell himself into slavery among the Peoples of foreign lands, and the picture he draws in his Peregrinaciones de Anastasio makes one realise the horror of the situation, the barbarous treatment of the captives, the dangers to life, limb and faith, the difficulties of ransom. The church of San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo contains an object lesson: Its walls are hung with thousands of heavy chains offered up in thanksgiving by ransomed captives. ________________________ [4] St. Gregory the Great narrates that St. Paulinus of Nola, having spent all the money he could raise in ransoming other captives, sold himself to the Vandals to redeem the son of a poor widow, and that he laboured as a slave, working in a garden until his master, discovering his merits and the spirit of prophecy with which he was endowed, set him at liberty [ Dialogues, bk. iii. ch. i.]. ____________________ [5] The passage beginning " Doubtless his mind," to the end of paragraph 6, is only in the manuscripts of Las Nieves and Consuegra. _____________________ [6] The chronicle of the Friars of St. Peter de Alcantara says that Juan de Cordobilla (near Merida), who after the death of his wife had become a lay-brother, asked for leave to offer himself as a ransom for some Christian captive among the Peoples of foreign lands. The superiors at first demurred, thinking him mad, but finally consented. His ship, having come within sight of the African coast, was driven back by a gale, and Juan, who was seized with fever, was landed at Gibraltar, where he died, October 28, 1566. As some of the nuns at Segovia had come from Avila, St. Teresa could well say: "You saw him when he came to visit me" ________________ [7 ] The passage beginning "Therefore I repeat it," to the end of paragraph 11, is only in the manuscripts of Las Nieves and Consuegra. _____________________ [8] St Matt. xxvi. 41: 'Caro autem infirma.' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blog Addition: Regarding Paragraph #9's Footnote reference #8 "Remember the prayer of the good Jesus in the garden: 'The flesh is weak' [ 8 ] " _____________________ [9] St. Matt. xxvi. 38: 'Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem.' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blog Addition: Regarding Paragraph #10's Footnote reference #9 On entering the garden He said: "My soul is sorrowful even unto death," [ 9 ] |
End of Chapter 3 of the Conceptions of the Love of God S. Teresa of Jesus of the Order of our Lady of Carmel St. Teresa of Avila From the Book, "Minor Works Of St. Teresa Conceptions Of The Love Of God Exclamations, Maxims And Poems" |
Note: Attempt was made to display the quotes of the other books being cited by the editor's foot notes. But, they may not be the actual intended passages that were cited by the editor since the editions/translations used by the editor may have different paragraph numbering than those available to this blog. |
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