The choice The Raptures of St. Avila that appears here concerns St. Teresa’s visions of Jesus and angels. She describes her visions really carefully in this chapter, stating that at first she was able to see merely the custodies of Jesus, than subsequently his face, and finally his organic structure. She goes into great item that she saw his human signifier as resurrected and that sometimes Jesus showed her his lesions. Sometimes she saw Jesus looking with a Crown of irritants and sometimes bearing the cross. These visions usually disturbed her confessors, some of whom were convinced that she was being deceived by the Satan.
Part of the instruction of the Carmelites insisted on the brotherhood of the person with God. The visions of St. Teresa strengthened this instruction, emphasizing her direct contact with Jesus. But the particular qualities of her visions emphasize a personal ecstasy and rapture that seem to transcend normal human feelings. Teresa points them with particular attention, reminding her readers that she realizes that no 1 who has non experienced the visions could of all time understand what they are like or follow the significance they have in spiritual life.
At the terminal of this chapter Teresa strongly negotiations of the enraptured feelings that escort one of her most profound experiences with the reaching of an angel. The result is to pass on the expansivity of the spiritual familiarity instead than to restrict her to discoursing the advantages of subject entirely.
Additionally, St. Teresa discusses the visions she had and the jobs that are associated with them. She explains that she believed of such a possibility right off but that it is hopeless. Teresa besides solves how her confessors taught her to face the vision of Jesus, to find whether it is a demonic fraud. When she uncovers her conflicted emoti ons as she snaps her fingers at Jesus, one might understand how she feels even though one has ne’er had her visions. She is able to assist us understand even the most inexplicable of human experiences by virtuousness of her straightness and modestness.
In this transition, St. Teresa analyzes and dissects cryptic experiences the manner a scientist would. She ne’er saw these gifts as wagess from God but the manner he chastised her. The more love she felt the harder it was to pique God. She besides felt that the best grounds that her delectations came from God was that the experiences gave her peace, inspiration, and encouragement. She one time said, If these effects are non present I would greatly doubt that the ecstasies come from God ; on the contrary I would fear lest they be caused by hydrophobias. May God protect me from glooming saints, Teresa said, and that’s how she ran her convent. To her, religious life was an attitude of love, non a regulation. Although she proclaimed poorness, she believed in work, non in imploring. I personally feel that she held in obeisance to God more than repentance.
Teresa’s simpleness and straightness display the deepness of her religion in the goodness of the visions she has received. She is strongly influenced by Jesus that she feels she is in his presence. Her religion is in her brotherhood with God, and the ecstasies that are connected with this religion are clearly communicated in this choice.
In decision, I feel that St. Teresa was really involved with her Hagiographas and was really dedicated to do them heard from all over the universe. I learned what a singular, giving individual she was. She was wholly devoted to God, and distributing his word and goodness. In today’s society, many people are missing a basic foundation of being able to open their Black Marias to the love of God. When you feel the love of God it enables one to give that love to others around you.
