The prayer of union

Daily Reading for October 15 • Teresa of Avila, Nun, 1582

In explaining the nature of union to me, He said:

1. “Don’t think, daughter, that union lies in being very close to me. For those, too, who offend me are close, although they may not want to be. Neither does it consist in favors and consolations in prayer, even though these may reach a very sublime degree. Though these favors may come from Me, they are often a means for winning souls, even souls that are not in the state of grace.”

I was experiencing a lofty elevation of the spirit when I heard those words. The Lord gave me understanding of what spirit was and in what state my soul then was and how to understand the words of the Magnificat, Exultavit spiritus meus. I wouldn’t know how to describe this experience. It seems to me I was given an understanding that the spirit is the higher part of the will.

2. Getting back to union, I understood that it consists in the spirit being pure and raised above all earthly things so that there is nothing in the soul that wants to turn aside from God’s will; but there is such conformity with God in spirit and will, and detachment from everything, and involvement with Him, that there is no thought of love of self or of any creature.

A spiritual testimony on the nature of union by Teresa of Avila, quoted in The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Volume 1, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD (Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1976).

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