THE WAY OF PERFECTION (Richard Nsubuga)

My love for prayer and formation

NSUBUGA RICHARD 11036T

THE WAY OF PERFECTION

BY St. Teresa of Avila.

THE WAY OF PERFECTION was written by St. Teresa of Avila, the founder
of the Carmelite Nuns, at Avila.
As the introduction of the Book makes, the author desired to teach her
daughters to love prayer, as the most effective means to attain
virtue.
In this book, the Saint, explains why she was moved to found the first
Reformed Carmelite Convent of St. Joseph at Avila. In the proceding
chapters, the Saint, expounds on community and religious experience.

THE MOTIVATION TO READ THIS CLASSICAL BOOK

I was moved by the original desire of the Author to address her
religious daughters - Nuns, instructing them on prayer so that they
can love it as a sure way to virtuous life. This is very important for
me as a young religious and as a person in formation, I need to
understand the imprortance of prayer and love prayer.
On a similar note, she addresses the Nuns about the community and
religious experiences, this will certainly, positively impact my life
as a person struggling to get conformed to community Spirit.

Reflection (14th October 2012)

St Teresa founded a group of Nuns purposely to support the teachers of the Church, through constant prayers for them. According to her, they needed prayers because their task and the environment in which they worked was challenging.

·        They are ordinary human beings who are striving for the truth but they live amidst evil world, which struggles, for imperfect things. St Teresa prays for them that they may grow in knowledge, and the Lord may prepare well those who are still underway.

·        These men despite the environment they are supposed to live their lives like angels in the world, to guide their lives like strangers to this world, (cf. 46-48).

·        St Teresa also emphasises simplicity of the sisters, they should not construct buildings using poor man’s money.

This touches me as a young man in formation, discerning my vocation to understand the task ahead of me - what religious leadership demands. It also calls me to take my intellectual formation very serious, because by the virtue of the office of priesthood, one is a teacher.  I am called to cultivate a Spirit of humility in my life as a servant.

Summary and Reflection

Introduction

In this paper, I will present a brief summary and personal reflection on the book of St Teresa of Avila: The Way of Perfection.                                                                                                       St Teresa of Avila, she is the founder of the Order of the Carmelite nuns. In her book: The Way of Perfection, she addresses the Nuns in the St Joseph’s convent. Her exhortation is grounded on three pillars: Love of one another – fraternal love or mutual love, detachment from all created things, but embrace the creator, and prayer.     Briefly, this book is about the daily or the community life of the nuns in the convent of St. Joseph. She deals with what she thinks is the foundation of religious life of a nun.                                                                         St Teresa founded a group of Nuns purposely to support the teachers of the Church, through constant prayers for them. According to her, they needed prayers because their task and the environment in which they worked were challenging; they are ordinary human beings who are striving for the truth but they live amidst evil world, which struggles, for imperfect things. St Teresa prays for them that they may grow in knowledge, and that the Lord may prepare well those who are still underway. These men despite the environment they are supposed to live their lives like angels in the world, to guide their lives like strangers to this world.[1]

St Teresa also emphasises simplicity of the sisters, they should not construct buildings using poor man’s money.                                                                                                                        St. Teresa talking about prayer in the life of the nuns, she outlines three things, which are very important for a religious person who needs to walk this life: Love of each of each other; detachment from all created things and humility; and Prayer.

About love of each other, the Saint exhorts the nuns to love each other, to be fond of each other, be friends of each other and support each other in a way, which strengthens their love of God. In this Love, St Teresa points out two kinds of love: a purely spiritual love, which does not tend to sensuality and weakness, and the other which is spiritual but mingled with sensuality, say love of love relatives and friends.[2] In the treatment of love, St Teresa points out some elements of authoritative love in the community. According to her, love between friends is not exclusive and is open to the truth.[3]                                                                 Self-detachment: the kind of detachment exhorted by St. Teresa includes everything else, detachment from all created things, but embraces the creator; it calls each one of us to give ourselves wholly to God.[4]                                                                                           Expounding on detachment, she challenges the nuns about the love of the relatives. A nun should not derive pleasure in seeing her relatives and if she fails to give them up, she should consider herself unworthy for the life.[5]  In their vow of detachment from everything, the nuns should let go everything including their relatives. In serving God with all sincerity, and commitment, the sisters will find everything including relatives – the people sent to them by the Lord: “Just as we find everything in him, so for His sake we forget everything”.[6]                     Not only detachment from all created things, including relatives, St Teresa stretches the list to include detachment from the individual self and worldly wisdom.[7] St Teresa also teaches that authentic wisdom is founded on humility like of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She challenges the worldly wisdom by letting us to reflect on the suffering of Jesus; the question posed to us is, whether Jesus deserved to undergo the sufferings, as we know.[8]                           The third point St Teresa address is prayer: In her explanation, she uses analogy of water. According to her, water has three properties: the first, extinguishing fire no matter how strong, it is, except when it has tar in it, which will make it burn the more. Secondly, water quenches and satisfies the thirsty, using this property, the Saint says that the love of God quenches and satisfies the most important things in our lives. Thirdly, water cleanses. Just imagine a world without water. From this perspective, water has both spiritual and physical cleansing.[9] Briefly, prayer is seen as a duty of a religious, and resolution in prayer life is held important.

Personal Reflection

There are a number of insights, which I have drawn in the book: The Way of Perfection.

 As a young man in formation, discerning my vocation I need to understand the task ahead of me - what religious leadership demands. It also calls me to take my intellectual formation very serious, because by the virtue of the office of priesthood, one is a teacher.  I find it very serious to cultivate a Spirit of humility in my life as a servant.

We live in what we call a community, but reflecting on what St. Teresa teaches her fellow nuns, there is a lot we/I need to work on to merit our groups to be called a community. It is no doubt many a time we have not loved each other, fond of each other, supported each other and expressed the truth to each other. Rumours, malicious talks, gossips have damaged our communities, but as St. Teresa challenges her fellow nuns, whatever the case, their relationship should be for the strengthening of the love of God. It is also unfortunate; many times, we have preferred to console our confreres with lies to the truth.

Life of detachment, St. Teresa’s exhortations have taken me to what Jesus tells us in Mathew about detachment “Happy are the poor in Spirit” (Matt. 5:3). It is said this beatitude means a conversion in life, which helps someone to realize his total dependence on God, the creator, and sustains life, because the Spirit is the principle of life. Sincerely, paying close attention to the teachings of St. Teresa, it is still a challenge in my own life. The words of St. Teresa have challenged me to pose for a moment to ask myself about the things which tend to give me security.

Detachment from everything including my family, but embrace the Creator, this is a call to each person. As we see today, many of us have divided commitment to God’s call; we have given our lives to possessions, power, and influence in the society, money among the many things. Personally, I would not take the words of the Saint the way they are: that if a nun holds onto her relatives she should consider herself unworthy for religious life. What I draw from this exhortation is that a religious person who has vowed to detachment from all things should practically transcend the family boundaries. As Jesus says, my mother, my brothers and sisters are those who do the will of God (cf. Mk. 3:31-35). The Saint tells us that the vows we make should helps to go beyond to an extent of seeing our relatives in the people we serve.

Detachment is serious point to pay attention to otherwise; we shall not be deferent from any person without vows. My conviction is that detachment is an overnight achievement; it is a journey of conversion of our habits, which can be attained by help of God’s grace.  In religious life, we have seen missionaries who find it very difficult to go beyond their mother countries, even accepting ordinary transfers within the same country, probably because they have accumulated many things, involved in businesses, which demand their availability. Some have left religious life because of forced transfers.

Prayer as emphasised by the saint reminded me about one of the lectures in Tangaza, it was observed in that many Roman Catholic Pastors have the power of the word – knowledge of the word of God but have no power of deeds. It applies to us men in formation, there is a temptation to devout time on intellectual formation, do Theology and Philosophy but do little on spiritual life. Prayer as the saint underlines it is the foundation of religious life. St. Teresa says it thorough prayer that the religious gets strength to walk the religious life journey. It is prayers, which makes us authentic the ministry, or else we shall lack what to give.

Conclusion

St Teresa in this book: The Way of Perfection addresses what is fundamental for religious life. She challenges us to have our lives be built on the three pillars: Love of each other – mutual love, detachment from everything, which might be an obstacle in our devotion to God through religious life, and prayer as the foundation of religious life.  I would in few words sum up my reflection on this book saying, Religious life a journey which should lead us to total conversion, conformity to Christ; a journey to help us lead a life of true disciple of Jesus.

Bibliography

Allison E.P., ed., The Way of Perfection, St Teresa of Avila, New York: Image Books 1964.

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[1]  Cf. E.P. Allison, The Way of Perfection, 46-48.            

[2] Cf. E.P. Allison, The Way of Perfection, 55-58.

[3] Cf. E.P. Allison, The Way of Perfection, 62-63.

[4] Cf. E.P. Allison, The Way of Perfection, 81.

[5] Cf. E.P. Allison, The Way of Perfection, 83.

[6]  E.P. Allison, The Way of Perfection, 87.                 

[7] Cf. E.P. Allison, The Way of Perfection, 89.

[8] Cf. E.P. Allison, The Way of Perfection, 104-105.

[9] Cf. E.P. Allison, The Way of Perfection, 136-140.