The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of the Order of Our Lady of CarmelTeresa, of Avila, Saint
Religion
The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel
Teresa, of Avila, Saint
Avila (Spain) -- Biography; Christian saints -- Spain -- Avila -- Biography; Teresa, of Avila, Saint, 1515-1582
11. I wish also to relate what follows, for I was greatly alarmed
at it: on Trinity Sunday, in the choir of a certain monastery,
and in a trance, I saw a great fight between evil spirits and the
angels. I could not make out what the vision meant. In less
than a fortnight, it was explained clearly enough by the dispute
that took place between persons given to prayer and many who were
not, which did great harm to that house; for it was a dispute
that lasted long and caused much trouble. On another occasion, I
saw a great multitude of evil spirits round about me, and, at the
same time, a great light, in which I was enveloped, which kept
them from coming near me. I understood it to mean that God was
watching over me, that they might not approach me so as to make
me offend Him. I knew the vision was real by what I saw
occasionally in myself. The fact is, I know now how little power
the evil spirits have, provided I am not out of the grace of God;
I have scarcely any fear of them at all, for their strength is as
nothing, if they do not find the souls they assail give up the
contest, and become cowards; it is in this case that they show
their power.
12. Now and then, during the temptations I am speaking of, it
seemed to me as if all my vanity and weakness in times past had
become alive again within me; so I had reason enough to commit
myself into the hands of God. Then I was tormented by the
thought that, as these things came back to my memory, I must be
utterly in the power of Satan, until my confessor consoled me;
for I imagined that even the first movement towards an evil
thought ought not to have come near one who had received from our
Lord such great graces as I had.
13. At other times, I was much tormented--and even now I am
tormented--when I saw people make much of me, particularly great
people, and when they spake well of me. I have suffered, and
still suffer, much in this way. I think at once of the life of
Christ and of the Saints, and then my life seems the reverse of
theirs, for they received nothing but contempt and ill-treatment.
All this makes me afraid; I dare not lift up my head, and I wish
nobody saw me at all. It is not thus with me when I am
persecuted; then my soul is so conscious of strength, though the
body suffers, and though I am in other ways afflicted, that I do
not know how this can be; but so it is,--and my soul seems then
to be a queen in its kingdom, having everything under its feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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