Second part:
Updated reading of the writings of St. Teresa of Jesus
I. Approaching the context of our time based on Teresa's experience
23. The charisma that arises from the life and writings of Mother Teresa has spread and enriched over the centuries thanks to a deeper understanding of her works and her charismatic experience, adopted by the Statutes of both the brothers and the nuns, as well as the Secular Order of the Teresian Carmel. Thanks to this renewed awareness: "we have today, or at least we can have, such knowledge of our charisma as perhaps never before in our history. Today, more than ever, our saints and the spirituality that characterizes our religious family are of interest to various readers both inside and outside the church, who justly ask us to share this wealth.
Nevertheless, we must ask ourselves how we can [today] respond to the demands of the signs of the times in the church and in the world, and to the great and legitimate human and religious aspirations of new generations, so that we can fulfill the mission of the Teresian Carmel more effectively and relevantly in the third millennium."1
In other words: "It is therefore necessary to know and understand the world in which we live, its expectations, desires, and often the drama characteristic of it,"2 and to have no doubt that the highest foundation of human dignity is the calling of man to communion with God (cf. GS 19).3 The Teresian charisma, as already mentioned, was shaped by an intense mystical experience of prayer and reached its full development in the light of the social and religious events of Teresa's time, to which this nun seeks to respond with her own life, depicted in her writings, and her founding work. It is a mysticism embodied in historical reality, sensitive to events and engaged in service.
24. The attitude of Mother Teresa requires from us the ability to recognize and discern what happens around us, in a world marked by secularization and postmodernism, atheism and disbelief, perceived especially in the Western world as a globalizing culture that spreads to other geographical areas. Yet paradoxically, there are still increasingly visible signs of religious awakening and the search for a spirituality that responds to the deepest uncertainties of human existence. There are voices suggesting that for the 21st century to continue to be Christian, a mysticism, a rediscovery of the experience of faith is necessary. At the same time, we uncover a crisis of identity of man as such, who would like to define himself without any reference to God, which attacks his dignity and the transcendent values inscribed in his being, for man is an "open I," opened – as if wounded – by a passion for transcendence. Teresian spirituality, centered on man as God's dwelling, open to communion with God and capable of receiving Him in the innermost part of the Castle, helps us become aware of the human dignity that contemporary culture threatens. Educating a person to the Teresian contemplative attitude thus also means helping them discover their true identity.
25. Along with the crisis of man and the fact of atheism, attention must also be given to unjust conditions, poverty, and exclusion from society [in today's world]. This situation is also related to God's revelation and the possibility of such a human response to it, which would be inspired by the Teresian experience. Christian spirituality, which aims to fruitfully accept the challenges of the 21st century, must inevitably face the reality of poverty. Concern for the poor is a clearly present element in the very sources of Christian revelation. The experience of God cannot take place in isolation, in disinterest and lack of attention to the suffering of people. Contemplation that does not take into account this painful reality of our society is biblically condemnable, just as is worship that ignores the suffering of the poor and defenseless, as already denounced by the prophets.
26. One of the signs of renewal of religious life and contemporary Christianity is their deep rooting in the gospel. This is what the Second Vatican Council referred to as: "a continuous return to the sources of all Christian life," and the following of Christ called: "the highest rule" of life according to the gospel (cf. PC 2), with fidelity to "the charisma of the founders," considered as "the fruit of the Holy Spirit, who continues to act in the church" (ET 11). Each charisma, as "the experience" of the Spirit, represents a renewed way of receiving the gospel,4 a new spirituality that expresses the gospel and remains open throughout history, in order to be constantly deepened and developed through the special gifts of those who participate in it (cf. MR 11). Christ is the embodied gospel, the center and the final norm of every consecrated life, the origin and the goal of every charisma. The Teresian charisma represents an original way of reading the gospel, contemplating Christ, and becoming similar to Him in one aspect of his mystery.
27. Teresa's originality, her charisma in the church, arises from the fact that Teresa becomes similar to Christ through the knowledge gained through experience, that is, through her Christocentric mystical experience (cf. 1 Kings 9:1–3; 26:6; 27:2–8 etc.). In this sense, her charisma is authentic and truly new within the framework of the spiritual life of the church (cf. MR 12). Its novelty and effect, which it has achieved in terms of the qualitative growth of Christian spirituality, is rightly explained as an offer of a new way of living the gospel, which was a response to the restlessness of her time and, in a sense, the needs of all times.
The birth of her work, although rooted in the old Carmelite tradition, appears closely connected with how her inner spiritual journey unfolded: profoundly inspired by the spirit of the gospel and the Carmelite ideal of solitude and contemplation, it led to a new creative and founding venture: the Teresian Carmel. This is the significance of Teresa's charisma as "the experience" of the Spirit. Her spiritual experience is the soul and motor of the new Carmel, the driving force that propels its [rapid] expansion into [other] European countries, to France, Italy, into Flanders. The same reason also explains the great dissemination of her writings. They provide an introduction to the Christian experience.
From this arises the mission of the Discalced Carmel today: to live the Teresian charisma intensively, to introduce today's person to the Teresian contemplative experience, to understand the signs of the times and to assist in the dissemination of Teresa's writings. All this in the spirit of Teresa's fundamental conviction that without experience, true knowledge cannot be attained. Experience is the key to all understanding, even to the knowledge of God, because God Himself is the object of experience to the extent that He is the object of faith, which alone unites man with God (M 1, 1,4) and in which the reality of God is more perceived [indirectly] (the state of theopathy) than known.
II. Some basic life-giving elements of Teresa's experience and teaching
28. In accordance with the religious sensitivity and way of experiencing Christian faith today, Teresa's experience, unlike other mystical currents of a metaphysical and neoplatonic nature, is primarily personal and Christocentric. It all takes place through the irreplaceable mediation of Jesus Christ: "I saw clearly that through these doors we must enter if we want the supreme Majesty to reveal great mysteries to us" (Ž 22,6). Essential to Teresian mysticism is the perception of Christ's glorified humanity. This is the pillar that supports us, and the life of our life (cf. 7H 2,6). This has been the case from Teresa's conversion (cf. Ž 9,1) until the discovery of Christ as the living book, in which "truths can be seen" and which "leaves so well imprinted what is to be read and done, in a way that cannot be forgotten!" (Ž 26,6).
29. If Christ is the foundation and content of Teresian mysticism, then the theological experience of prayer is the most personal characteristic of the Teresian charisma, clarifying the meaning of the new Carmel and the teaching role of Teresa's writings. Teresa – as Paul VI reminds us on the occasion of her declaration as a Doctor of the Church – applied it "in her religious family, in the church, and in the world through her lasting and current message: the message of prayer."
Teresa rediscovered contemplation. This brought with it the offer of her specific forms and practices accessible to Christians of all states (cf. CV 19,15; 23,5), the establishment of a new pedagogy [regarding prayer], the offer to introduce people into prayer and methods for its development. Thanks to the pedagogical impulse of Teresa's writings, the Teresian charisma of contemplation transforms within the womb of the church into something obvious, so much so that today it is impossible to strive for a Christian life without living this theological dimension, even mysticism. In this context, it is necessary to read the important text Catechism of the Catholic Church about the fact that mysticism represents the fullness of Christian life, understood as an ever-deeper union with Christ (cf. KKC 2014), and about the pedagogy of contemplation (cf. ibid. 2709–2719).
30. Teresa's charisma, her mystical experience of Christ, and the contemplative ideal in the service of the church are visibly embodied in what she later presents as "our style of mortification, sisterhood, and recreation" (cf. Z 13,5).
Her ideal of community life is formed from this trio of elements:
- the community is primarily "the body of Christ" (CE 20,11) according to the radical example of the first church, for He is present in the midst of the community (cf. Ž 32,11), He is "the Lord of the house" (CV 17,7) and "the one who has gathered us here" (CV 1,5; 3,1);
- the community lives by the demands of consistent equality and genuine love (cf. CV 4,7; 7,9), everything in it obediently follows effective, freely given, and selfless love (CV 4,11; 6–7; 5H 3,7–12), with the commitment to work manually (cf. St 28);
- the community is characterized by humanity, which is characterized by unique and, for that time, unusual traits: education, human virtues, gentleness, foresight and discernment; simplicity, kindness, and joy (cf. CV 41,7–8; VC 42; NMI 43).
31. The founding intention of Carmel has a clear Marian character (cf. Ž 33,14). Therefore, Teresa of Jesus, who very early in her life experienced the power of Mary's intercession (cf. Ž 1,7), presents (to her community) the Holy Virgin as the Mother and Lady of the Order (cf. Z 29,23; 3H 1,3), as an example of prayer and self-denial on the path of faith (cf. 6H 7,13n.), as a woman devoted in body and soul to listening and contemplating God's word (cf. M 5,2; 6,7), always receptive to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and united with Christ's paschal mystery in love, pain, and joy (cf. 7H 4,5).
From this it follows that the community with Mary penetrates and marks with a Marian seal all elements of our life: brotherly life, the spirit of prayer and contemplation, the apostolate in all its forms, and the very evangelical self-denial (cf. St 47–52). The evangelical figure of the Virgin Mary is not only a model of our life, but also invites us to follow in her footsteps and, as true “poor of the Lord” "to make our lives resemble the life of our Lady through constant, faith-derived reflection on God's word and various expressions of love" (St 49). Led by Mary by the hand, we enter into the mystery of Christ and the church and become, like her, bearers of Jesus and the joyful message of his kingdom. Therefore, the Marian dimension, along with the Christocentric dimension, is undoubtedly one of the fundamental keys to reading Teresa.
And in Mary's closeness, Saint Joseph, the humble servant of Christ and His Mother, is for us a living example of a life permeated by prayerful communion with Jesus (cf. St 52).
