Session IV – The Teresian Mansions – III through VII

Session IV: Teresian Mansions III – VII

1. Why study stages (FW: 74-3 ff) (This was unintentionally left out of lecture III)
   • Five Reasons from Teresa
     • Knowing the destination (seventh mansions) of the spiritual life, and knowing it is for everyone, is a strong motivational factor for putting forth the effort to arrive at that destination.
     • Knowing the difficulties before embarking on the journey helps to prepare one for those difficulties.
     • Knowing what happens in the “transition stage” prepares one for the eventual need to leave meditation behind, rather than clinging to a former good that would otherwise be a hindrance.
     • One operates in prayer differently according to the stage one is in. Knowing the stages enables one to cooperate with what God is trying to accomplish.
     • A traveler on a long journey is encouraged by seeing progress toward the destination. Knowing the stages enables one to measure progress.
   • Two Additional Reasons from Fr. Dubay
     • To appreciate the early stages of living things it is useful to have knowledge of their mature states. Knowledge of the splendor of seventh mansions (the transforming union) helps us to appreciate the stages of prayer that lead to it.
     • Glimpsing the splendor of the transforming union is a strong spur toward making all the sacrifices necessary to reach the summit.
2. Third Mansions
   • A Great Favor
     • Teresa calls third mansions a great favor:
       • “Concerning souls that have entered the third dwelling places . . . the Lord has done them no small favor, but a very great one, in letting them get through the first difficulties. . . . I believe that . . . there are many of these souls in the world” (IC III:1, 5).
   • Traits (IC III:1, 5, 9):
     • “They long not to offend His Majesty, even guarding themselves against venial sins.”
       • Both feet are now planted in the Kingdom
     • “They are fond of doing penance and setting aside periods for recollection.”
       • Note, this recollection is the practice of meditation and being in the Lord’s presence . It is not the prayer of recollection found in the fourth mansions.
     • “They spend their time well, practicing works of charity toward their neighbors.”
     • “They are very balanced in their use of speech and dress and in the governing of their households.”
     • Spiritual joys are few: “I don’t think He gives much spiritual delight unless sometimes in order to invite souls by the sight of what takes place in the remaining dwelling places.”
       • That is, occasionally, a glimpse of that which typically occurs in a later mansion is given for the soul’s encouragement.
       • These glimpses are not a reward for a job well done. Rather, they are given because we are weak and need encouragement to keep moving forward.
   • Duration That One Remains in Third Mansions:
     • Regarding duration, in her description of fourth mansions, Teresa states:
       • “It will seem that to reach these [i.e., fourth] dwelling places one will have had to live in the others a long while. Although . . . there is no certain rule” (IC, IV:1, 2).
     • Similarly, the author of the Cloud of Unknowing writes:
       • “Anyone who expects to advance [to mystical prayer] without having meditated often on his own sinfulness, the Passion of Christ, and the kindness, goodness, and dignity of God, will most certainly go astray and fail in his purpose. But a person who has long pondered these things must eventually leave them behind” (C, ch. 7, pg. 56).
         • Note: They are to be left behind only when God indicates the time is right, as will be discussed in fourth mansions.
   • Program:
     • In third mansions, prayer is still modo humano, still somewhat discursive. “An active focusing on the indwelling presence is the best way to prepare for . . . the prayer of quiet [in fourth mansions]” (FW 85-5).
3. Fourth Mansions (Second Water: Prayer of Quiet)
   • Many Enter, Few Move On
     • Having spent some number of years, perhaps as little as one, perhaps five or six, working to develop a serious prayer life, one will advance to the beginnings of mystical prayer, which marks entry into fourth mansions.
       • Remember that there is not a hard cut-off from one mansion to the next.
     • “God begins to give the new, dry, nondiscursive type of prayer . . . very soon after a person begins to take the Gospel seriously, to live it generously and to give adequate time to mental prayer” (FW, 162-4).
       • Note: “There may be an actual conflict of view between Teresa (“ordinarily people remain for a long time in the first three mansions”) and John (“sincere people given to prayer ‘very soon’ enter the first night of sense”) only if we suppose that this first dark purification is the same as her first prayer of recollection and the prayer of quiet. It seems to me, however, that while these three types of initial infused prayer are closely related, they are not identical” (FW 85-4).
     • “Initial infused prayer is so ordinary and unspectacular in the early stages that many fail to recognize it for what it is. Yet, with generous people, that is, with those who try to live the whole Gospel wholeheartedly and who engage in an earnest prayer life, [mystical prayer] is common” (FW 57-3, 58-1).
     • “‘The greatest number of souls’ enter these beginnings of infused prayer” (FW 86-2).
       • That is, the greatest number relative to the later mansions:
     • “I know many souls that reach this stage, but to me it is a terrible pity that those [who] pass beyond, as they should, are so few I am ashamed to mention it” (Life 15, 5).
       • “Most people strongly resist growing from ordinary to heroic sanctity” (SSD, p. 268).
       • “However, we encounter at this juncture a sobering fact: comparatively few of those who reach the first night grow beyond it” (FW 162-5; see also Life 15, 5).
   • Transition from the Human Mode to the Divine Mode
     • At this stage of prayer development, “‘the natural is united with the supernatural” and a great deal of harm can be done’ (FW 86-2).
       • There are those who, filled with themselves, “believe that the excitement they feel is the fire of love kindled in their breasts by the Holy Spirit. From this deception and the like spring evils of every kind . . . For this sort of pseudo-experience brings with it the false knowledge of the fiend’s school just as an authentic experience brings with it understanding of the truth taught by God. Believe me when I say that the devil has his contemplatives as surely as God has his” (Cloud of Unknowing, ch. 45).
     • In this transition stage, which can last “perhaps for two months, or perhaps for two years” (Dubay, CVS), there is a back and forth between meditation and the delicate and difficult to notice beginnings of infused prayer. The procedure to follow is that when [one] can meditate discursively, that is what . . . should [be done] (Dubay, CVS).
       • Recall the quotation from John of the Cross: “Many individuals think they are not praying, when, indeed, their prayer is intense. Others place high value on their prayer, while it is little more than nonexistent” (Ascent, Prologue, 6).
   • The Three Signs of the Transition State (Dubay, CVS)
     • Since the beginnings of infused prayer are delicate and difficult to recognize, how does one know if he is at this stage of prayer growth? There are three signs:
       • First, you are no longer able to meditate discursively without forcing it unnaturally. If you force it, you will not get any appreciable benefit from it.
         • You will find a kind of attention to God either delightful or a dry yearning. It is not something you have produced, it is given by God.
         • This is the beginning of infused prayer and it is very delicate. Unless you are well instructed, you will probably not notice it is there. You will experience it, but you will think it is just about nothing, yet it is something very good and important.
         • You will also experience many distractions. After experiencing a distraction, you will notice God is drawing you back to wanting Himself.
       • Second, you feel within yourself, at prayer, an emptiness, a vast void. It seems that nothing much is there anymore.
         • The occasional inner glow which accompanies discursive meditation is not there anymore. The images and concepts are no longer there because you are getting a better knowledge of God which is beyond images and concepts.
         • You are empty of human thoughts and ideas. Something much better than that is filling you, but you don’t feel that very much, if at all.
       • Third, an ill-defined concern that one is not giving God enough.
         • There is a desire to give God more, but one is unsure as to what else could be given, because it seems as though nothing is being held back from God, though there is much more to give Him.
       • When you have these three traits together, you are in the transitional stage. You are growing into infused prayer.
   • The Back and Forth of the Transition State (Dubay, CVS)
     • In the transitional stage of prayer, one must be at peace. This is really good prayer.
       • The theological virtues (faith, hope and charity) are being purified of secondary supports.
       • You are being stripped of many imperfections, thus growing in the virtues of patience, humility, love etc., even when you are not thinking about the virtue.
       • When you are praying, even though you don’t feel like praying, you are doing God’s will, and that has to be growth.
     • Realize that there will be this transition time where sometimes you will be able to meditate and sometimes you will not. It is a time of mingling . . . When you can meditate discursively, that is what you should do.
   • Characteristics of infused prayer at this stage (FW 87-2):
     • “Infused contemplation [i.e., mystical prayer] is a divinely given, general, nonconceptual, loving awareness of God.”
     • “There are no images, no concepts, no ideas, no visions.”
     • “Sometimes this awareness of God takes the form of a loving attention, sometimes of a dry desire, sometimes of a strong thirsting”
     • “[The infusion] can be delicate and brief, or in advanced stages burning, powerful, absorbing, prolonged.”
     • “Always it is transformative of the person, usually imperceptibly and gradually but on occasion obviously and suddenly”
   • The Capturing of the Will in Fourth Mansions
     • As one grows in this stage of prayer, “God progressively takes over the will and then the intellect and imagination [but only briefly – see below]. He occupies and absorbs them by what He gives” (FW 86-3).
       • “Taking it upon oneself to stop and suspend thought is what I mean should not be done; nor should we cease to work with the intellect, because otherwise we would be left like cold simpletons and be doing neither one thing nor the other” (Life, 12, 5).
   • Signs that one has moved beyond the transition stage (FW 164-2).
     • “There is an absence of ‘satisfaction or consolation’ in either things of heaven or of earth.”
     • “There is a concern for and a habitual turning to God, even though there may be little pleasurable taste for Him.”
     • “There is an inability to meditate discursively.”
   • Prayer of Recollection
     • There are two kinds of infused prayer in fourth mansions, the prayer of recollection and the prayer of quiet.
     • While speaking of the Prayer of Quiet, she describes the Prayer of Recollections, which precedes it:
       • “I want to mention another kind of prayer [infused recollection] that almost always begins before this one [i.e., spiritual delight – the prayer of quiet] . . . It is a recollection that also seems to me to be supernatural . . . since without first wanting to do so, one does close one’s eyes and desire solitude . . . Like a good shepherd, with a whistle so gentle that even they themselves almost fail to hear it, He makes them recognize His voice and stops them from going so far astray so that they will return to their dwelling place” (IC, IV:3, #1, 2).
     • “A person . . . is ‘almost invariably’ introduced to contemplative prayer in this manner” (FW 87-4).
     • “Let the soul enjoy [this recollection] without any endeavors other than some loving words, for even though we may not try in this prayer to go without thinking of anything, I know that often the intellect will be suspended, even though for only a very brief moment” (IC, IV:3, #7).
     • “Whatever activity is called for during the prayer in the fourth mansions, one should proceed ‘gently and noiselessly’” (FW 92-3).
       • “In the prayer of recollection, meditation, or the work of the intellect, must not be set aside” (IC, IV:3, #8). However, this is a simple form of meditation:
         • “One should . . . humbly say: ‘Lord, what am I capable of here? What has the servant to do with the Lord – or earth with heaven?’” (Life 15, 6).
     • “The beginner needs to be well instructed, or he is likely to miss what is given at this point, so gentle and delicate is it” (FW 87-4).
   • Prayer of Quiet
     • “Key to St. Teresa’s explanation of the fourth mansions is the occupation of the will with God. At the moment when this prayer is given, the soul is captive [i.e., the will] . . . and is not free to love anything but God” (FW 88-3).
     • The prayer of quiet “may last for a long while, even for a day or two. . . even though engaged in exterior activities that require the attention of the mind” (FW 88-5).
   • Benefits of the Prayer of Quiet (FW 89-3)
     • “The virtues grow incomparably better than in the previous degree of prayer.”
     • “The person begins to lose the craving for worldly things”
     • “All servile fear disappears”
     • “A more lively faith begets a desire for penance and a diminution of fear of suffering”
     • “[The person] now sees earthly things as ‘mere refuse’”
   • Program: How to Proceed in the Prayer of Quiet
     • One must learn receptivity (FW 90-2).
       • “When we notice the infused quiet, we leave aside discursive reasoning, but this does not mean that there is to be in the future no activity of the mind at all” (FW 91-2).
       • “God gave us our minds to be used in their own manner, ‘they must be allowed to perform their office until God gives them a better one’” (FW 91-2).
     • “The excessive multiplication of vocal prayers (even aside from times of mental prayer) can likewise impede growth” (FW 92-3).
       • “There are people who fail to recognize the presence of the delicate beginnings of the new peace and love and light. Thinking that nothing is happening, they proceed to recite vocal prayers or mental words that do nothing but snuff out what God is giving” (FW 93-1).
     • When not to meditate
       • When you are almost completely into infused prayer, that is, you have found out that, for the most part, almost always, you can’t meditate discursively, but God gives you that loving attention, or that dry yearning for Himself, when you run into a difficulty, a distraction or something, you do not go back to discursive prayer then (CVS).
       • The manner of proceeding at this state depends on the type of person one is. There are two types of individuals (CVS).
         • The first type, when quiet and gathered together, notices that loving attention to God or that dry yearning for God. It’s just given. You’ve got it. There is nothing else to do.
         • The second type, when at a quiet place for prayer, is not gathered together sufficiently and therefore, the Divine Presence isn’t noticed. This person might use a Scripture verse, or recall a mystery of God, something very simple, to be gathered together psychologically. When gathered together, the Divine Presence will be noticed.
     • Teresa’s three conditions for growth
       • Never give up the habitual practice of prayer (FW 93-3)
       • Strive to be further detached from everything (FW 93-4)
       • Seek a greater amount of solitude with the Beloved (FW 93-5)
4. Fifth Mansions (Third Water: Prayer of Union)
   • Prayer of Union
     • Teresa calls fifth mansions the prayer of union, for in this stage of prayer “the divine invasion occurring in the fourth mansions now grows to the point where all of one’s inner energies [i.e., faculties] are in union with the [indwelling Trinity]” (FW 94-3).
     • In the prayer of union, “distractions cease during the time of absorption, that is, for five, ten or fifteen minutes at a time” (FW 94-3).
     • In the fourth mansions, the will was taken up in God in the prayer of quiet; in the prayer of union the intellect, memory and imagination are also taken up in God (FW 94-3).
     • The prayer of union “absorbs the soul in a deep delight . . . in which the person is almost beside himself” in the experience of so much joy that it seems as though the soul cannot bear it alone and it would want to be all tongues so as to praise the Lord” (FW 94-4, Life 16:3-4).
     • The prayer of union can be likened to a “courtship” that will blossom into a “spiritual betrothal” in the sixth mansions and then into the “spiritual marriage” of the seventh mansions.
   • Specific Traits
     • In the prayer of union “one understands nothing of the favor being received;” the intellect is in awe, the will loves more than it understands, there is no memory or thought and the senses are asleep (FW 95-4).
       • The trait of the senses being asleep in the prayer of union shows a blending of this stage of prayer with ecstasy of sixth mansions in which this trait becomes more pronounced (FW 95-4).
     • The duration of the prayer of union is “comparatively brief, never as long as a half hour” (FW 95-5).
     • In this prayer, the experience of the divine presence is so intense that it is “indelible and cannot be forgotten” (FW 95-5).
   • Benefits
     • “The results of this prayer of full union . . . are intensification and developments of the already wonderful effects of the prayer of quiet in mansions four . . . The person here continues to be ‘transformed from one glory to another’” (FW 96-2).
       • Continues to be . . . whereas in seventh mansions “has been xformed”
     • “One emerges [from this prayer] with a consuming desire to praise God and to die a thousand deaths for His sake. There are likewise vehement yearnings for penance and solitude” (FW 96-2).
       • Example: John de Brebeuf’s desire for martyrdom (Dubay, Saints: A Closer Look, p. 24).
     • “Even severe trials . . . bring serenity and contentment” to the soul, yet “this person feels acutely the he cannot serve God well enough, and he is pained that there are so few men and women in the world who care much about the Lord and so many who offend Him freely and often” (FW 96-2).
       • “[This grief] reaches so deeply into one’s being that it ‘seems to tear it to pieces and grind it to power’” (FW 96-2).
5. Sixth Mansions (Fourth Water: Prayer of )
   • The deepening of one’s prayer life continues unabated in sixth mansions where there is “inestimably more” growth than what occurred in the fifth mansions (FW 97-1).
   • In sixth mansions we find ecstasy, rapture, transport, flight of the spirit, all of which are variations of the same experience. These four “differ only accidentally.” Also found here are the wounds of love, the spiritual betrothal and levitation (FW 97-1, 100-2).
   • Ecstasy/Rapture (“rapture is the same as ecstasy” – FW 100-2).
     • In ecstatic prayer one’s inner life of knowing and loving is so intensely increased that the sense perception of the outer would is proportionately lessened, even to the point of disappearance” (FW 97-3).
     • There is an experience of deep union with God (FW 98-2).
     • “Ecstatic experiences of the indwelling Trinity are often if not always indelible” (FW 98-2).
     • “Complete ecstasy, that is, suspension of all the faculties, is very short, for the intellect and the memory soon return. But then they are absorbed again [along] with the will. A person can spend several hours in this type of fluctuating prayer” (FW 98-2).
       • Example of Dominic Savio (Lappin, Dominic Savio, p. 87).
     • “Raptures occur often, even continually, since they are readily triggered by the mere thought of God or the mention of His name” (FW 99-1).
       • This occurs because “souls in the sixth mansions are so obviously head over heels in love, a love of which the world has no cognizance or experience” (FW 99-1).
     • Despite the frequency of raptures, one also finds episodes of dry emptiness in sixth mansions. This sort of fluctuation is characteristic of infused prayer short of seventh mansions (FW 99-2).
     • A sense of time is lost in raptures. “St. Teresa observes of one of her raptures that it seemed to have lasted only for a short time and yet had actually been of considerable duration. ‘I was amazed,’ she added, ‘when the clock struck and I found I had been in that rapture and glory for two hours’” (FW 99-4).
     • In rapture, “one’s joy in God is so profound that it simply suspends the normal operation of the inner and outer senses. Mystics speak of this experience as a sober inebriation: one remains with the use of reason and thus is ‘sober’ but at the same time is quite overcome with delight after drinking deeply of the divine” (FW 99-4).
   • Transport/flight of the spirit (“Transport [is] synonymous with flight of the spirit” – FW 100-2).
     • “In a sudden transport the soul really seems to have left the body; on the other hand, it is clear that the person is not dead, though for a few moments he cannot even himself be sure if the soul is in the body or no. He feels as though he has been in another world” (FW 100-2).
       • Fr. Dubay implies that transport could be an out of body experience when he writes that levitation is “closely allied with the transport of the soul, for it sometimes happens that God takes the body along as well” (FW 102-2).
   • Impulse
     • Impulse is “a desire, frequent and even habitual, that comes upon the soul suddenly and without any preceding prayer. It involves a keen remembrance that one is separated from God” (FW 100-34).
     • “Nothing in this world can comfort or console the person in this state, and it ‘dies with the longing to die’ that it might be immersed in the Trinity through facial vision” (FW 100-4).
     • “So keen and absorbing is this experience that Teresa thinks one would not feel bodily torments were they inflicted” (FW 100-4).
       • Example of Catherine of Siena
   • Wounding
     • In the experience of wounding “‘it seems as though an arrow is thrust into the heart, or into the soul itself. Thus the wound causes a severe pain,’ but it is a wondrously delightful pain” and the recipient would like for it never to leave (FW 101-2).
     • “The suffering is entirely spiritual and has no connection with the senses of the physical body” (FW 101-3).
     • “It passes quickly as a flash of lightning and leaves everything in our nature that is earthly reduced to power” (FW 101-3).
   • Betrothal
     • Betrothal is a prelude to the spiritual marriage of seventh mansions, in which “God and the soul are so united that they cannot be separated anymore, whereas in [betrothal] they are frequently separated in one’s conscious experience” (FW 102-1).
   • Levitation
     • “Some moderns would probably term [levitation] . . . beyond the normal, usual working of the grace life” (FW 100-2).
     • Levitation is “closely allied with the transport of the soul, for it sometimes happens that God takes the body along as well” (FW 102-2).
       • This implies that transport can be an out of body experience.
     • Teresa, regarding an experience of levitation:
       • “I was conscious in such a way that I could understand I was being elevated. There is revealed a majesty about the One who can do this that makes a person’s hair stand on end, and there remains a strong fear of offending so awesome a God. Yet such fear is accompanied by a very great love for Him” (FW 102-3).
     • “The soul’s situation is much like that of a man madly in love with the woman of his dreams. He finds burdensome, even frustrating, the mundane daily duties that keep him from her. The soul in the sixth mansions is this man (woman) in love: its consciousness and speech are completely centered on the Beloved. There are ardent and permanent desires to be used in any way for the promotion of the divine kingdom” (FW 102-6).
6. Seventh Mansions
   • The Mature Soul (Seed on Good Soil)
     • Seventh mansions, the transforming union, is the culmination of contemplation on earth. But even in seventh mansions the soul is still susceptible to growth (FW 103-4).
       • The imperfections found in the earlier mansions are gone; hence, the soul is mature, though still capable of growth in knowledge and love of the infinite.
   • Entry via Vision of the Trinity:
     • St. Teresa teaches that the person is brought into the seventh mansions by an intellectual vision of the Blessed Trinity:
       • “[The soul] sees these three Persons, individually, and yet, by a wonderful kind of knowledge which is given to it, the soul realizes that most certainly and truly all these three Persons are one Substance and one Power and one Knowledge and one God alone . . . although nothing is seen by the eyes, either of the body or of the soul, for it is no ordinary vision” (FW 104-2).
   • Full Union – Spiritual Marriage
     • The full union, spiritual marriage, of seventh mansions is entirely of the spirit. “It is a ‘secret union’ that takes place in one’s deepest soul center, and it begins with Jesus appearing through an intellectual vision in this center ‘just as He appeared to the Apostles’ after the Resurrection through closed doors” (FW 104-5).
       • “This instantaneous communication of God is so sublime a favor and causes such delight that Teresa cannot think of any comparison worthy of it” (FW 104-5).
     • Once the union has taken place, God incarnate and the human person are inseparably united (FW 104-5).
       • “But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” (1 Cor 6:17).
     • “Deep streams of life and love flow from this Lord, so that ‘Christ is now its life’” (FW 105-1).
       • “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
   • Experience of Union (Not the Prayer of Union of Fifth Mansions)
     • St. Teresa expresses the experience of union in various ways: “The soul is almost continuously near His Majesty . . . the presence of the three Persons is so impossible to doubt . . . this presence is almost continual . . . the three Persons are very habitually present in my soul” (FW 105-3).
     • The experience of union actually has two different aspects. “(1) The person perceives in his profound center a peaceful, gentle awareness that the Trinity is continually present” while “(2) on a more surface level he experiences bursts of light and/or love, enkindling and absorptions, but these are intermittent” (FW 106-4).
       • Hence, “a person is able to attend to the indwelling Trinity and yet carry on the ordinary business of daily life” (FW 106-2).
   • Perfection of Christian Life: The Seed on Good Soil
     • “In this final development of prayer we find the relative perfection of Christian life that the Gospel lays upon us as both privilege and precept: we are to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul and mind, nothing less” (FW 106-4).
     • “The person in the transforming union has indeed been transformed from one glory to another into the image the he reflects” (FW 106-4).
       • “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3:18).
   • Traits
     • “There is a complete self-forgetfulness, an entire seeking after God for whom she would gladly lay down her life” (FW 106-4).
     • “While she does not neglect to sleep and eat, there are as nothing to her” (FW 107-1).
     • “The desire for the will of God to be done is extreme” (FW 107-1).
     • “Persecution itself brings great interior joy with no enmity toward those who treat her with ill-will” (FW 107-1).
     • “She experiences no aridities and inner trials and [has] no fear that this sublime prayer may be counterfeited by the devil” (FW 107-1).
       • Recall the concern expressed in fourth mansions by the author of the Cloud of Unknowing: The Devil has his contemplatives.
     • The spiritual favors a person in seventh mansions receives “leave him overwhelmed, and afraid lest they be like an overladen ship sinking to the bottom of the sea” (FW 107-1).
     • Despite the joys of seventh mansions, “one can suffer intensely from human sins and ignorance and ineptitudes, but there remains down deep in the soul a great calm. On the sense and emotional levels there may be little or no peace, but in the center of the soul . . . there are stability and serenity” (FW 107-2).
     • “One of the rare differences between the two Carmelite Doctors occurs at this point. St. John of the Cross held that a person in the transforming union is confirmed in grace” whereas “St. Teresa insists that even in these seventh mansions one is not sure of his salvation or free from the danger of backsliding” (FW 107-3).
7. Additional notes related to the Teresian mansions
   • Other forms of prayer not incompatible with mystical prayer: FW 76-2
   • Vocal prayer is verbalized mental prayer: FW 76-3
   • How to improve vocal prayer: FW 77-1
   • Soul’s capacity: FW 79-2
   • There is a blending of the neighboring mansions: FW: 80-2