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
28. Also, when I see any one who knows anything about me, I wish
to let him know my whole life, [14] because my honour seems to me
to consist in the honour of our Lord, and I care for nothing
else. This He knows well, or I am very blind; for neither
honour, nor life, nor praise, nor good either of body or of soul,
can interest me, nor do I seek or desire any advantage, only His
glory. I cannot believe that Satan has sought so many means of
making my soul advance, in order to lose it after all. I do not
hold him to be so foolish. Nor can I believe it of God, though I
have deserved to fall into delusions because of my sins, that He
has left unheeded so many prayers of so many good people for two
years, and I do nothing else but ask everybody to pray to our
Lord that He would show me if this be for His glory, or lead me
by another way. [15] I do not believe that these things would
have been permitted by His Majesty to be always going on if they
were not His work. These considerations, and the reasons of so
many saintly men, give me courage when I am under the pressure of
fear that they are not from God, I being so wicked myself.
But when I am in prayer, and during those days when I am in
repose, and my thoughts fixed on God, if all the learned and holy
men in the world came together and put me to, all conceivable
tortures, and I, too, desirous of agreeing with them, they could
not make me believe that this is the work of Satan, for I cannot.
And when they would have had me believe it, I was afraid, seeing
who it was that said so; and I thought that they must be saying
what was true, and that I, being what I was, must have been
deluded. But all they had said to me was destroyed by the first
word, or recollection, or vision that came, and I was able to
resist no longer, and believed it was from God. [16]
29. However, I can think that Satan now and then may intermeddle
here, and so it is, as I have seen and said; but he produces
different results, nor can he, as it seems to me, deceive any one
possessed of any experience. Nevertheless, I say that, though I
do certainly believe this to be from God, I would never do
anything, for any consideration whatever, that is not judged by
him who has the charge of my soul to be for the better service of
our Lord, and I never had any intention but to obey without
concealing anything, for that is my duty. I am very often
rebuked for my faults, and that in such a way as to pierce me to
the very quick; and I am warned when there is, or when there may
be, any danger in what I am doing. These rebukes and warnings
have done me much good, in often reminding me of my former sins,
which make me exceedingly sorry.
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