Handout #162

Teresa of Avila (1515=1582 A.D.)

After a vision of Christ there remained with me an impression of his exceeding great beauty, which I have preserved to this very day. And if one single vision sufficed to effect this, how much greater would be the power of all those which of his favor the Lord has granted me! One very great benefit which I received was this. I had a very serious fault, which led me into great trouble. It was that, if I began to realize that a person liked me, and I took to him myself , I would grow so fond of him that my memory would feel compelled to revert to him and I would always be thinking of him without intentionally giving any offence to God, I would delight in seeing him and think about him and his good qualities. This was such a harmful thing that it was ruining my soul. But once I had seen the great beauty of the Lord, I saw no one who by comparison with him seemed acceptable to me or on whom my thoughts wished to dwell. For if I merely turn the eyes of my mind to the image of him which I have in my soul, I feel I have such freedom that from that time forward everything I see appears nauseating to me by comparison with the excellences and glories which I have seen in the Lord. Nor is there any knowledge of any kind of consolation to which I can attach the slightest esteem by comparison with that which it causes me to hear a single word coming from that divine mouth - and more wonderful still is it when I hear many. And unless for my sins the Lord allows this memory to fade, I consider it impossible for me to lie so deeply absorbed in anything that I do not regain freedom when I run once more in thought, even for a moment, to this Lord. St Teresa of Avila, Life, Chapter 37, in The Complete Works of St Teresa of Jesus, ed.Allison Peers, Sheed and Ward 1946. 

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