#intellectualvision — Public Fediverse posts

Quote of the day, 25 May: St. Teresa of Avila

In this seventh dwelling place, the union comes about in a different way: our good God now desires to remove the scales from the soul’s eyes and let it see and understand, although in a strange way, something of the favor He grants it.

When the soul is brought into that dwelling place, the Most Blessed Trinity, all three Persons, through an intellectual vision, is revealed to it through a certain representation of the truth.

First, there comes an enkindling in the spirit in the manner of a cloud of magnificent splendor; and these Persons are distinct, and through an admirable knowledge, the soul understands as a most profound truth that all three Persons are one substance and one power and one knowledge and one God alone.

It knows in such a way that what we hold by faith, it understands, we can say, through sight—although the sight is not with the bodily eyes nor with the eyes of the soul, because we are not dealing with an imaginative vision.

Here all three Persons communicate themselves to it, speak to it, and explain those words of the Lord in the Gospel: that He and the Father and the Holy Spirit will come to dwell with the soul that loves Him and keeps His commandments [cf. Jn 14:23].

Saint Teresa of Avila

The Interior Castle, VII, chap. 1, no. 6

Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Our featured image is an early portrait of St. Teresa of Avila by an unknown artist that prominently features the traditional banner bearing these words from Psalm 89:1, “Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo” (I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever). Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (Public domain)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Do I live as someone in whom God truly dwells—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#dwellingPlace #faith #HolyTrinity #indwelling #intellectualVision #mysticalExperience #StTeresaOfAvila #unionWithGod

On the eve of the feast of St. Sebastian, the first year in which I was prioress at the Incarnation, at the beginning of the Salve Regina, I saw the Mother of God descend with a great multitude of angels and sit in the prioress’s choir stall where there was a statue of our Lady. In my opinion, I didn’t then see the statue but our Lady herself. It seemed to me she looked something like she does in the painting the countess gave me; 1 although the power to discern this was quickly taken away, for my faculties were soon held in great suspension. It seemed to me there were angels above the canopies of the stalls in the back and above the front stalls; although they were not in corporeal form, for this was an intellectual vision.

She remained for the whole of the Salve, and she told me: “You were indeed right in placing me here; 2 I shall be present in the praises they give my Son, and I shall offer these praises to Him.”

After this, I remained in the kind of prayer I now have, that of keeping my soul present with the Blessed Trinity. And it seemed to me that the Person of the Father drew me to Himself and spoke very pleasant words. Among them, while showing me what He wanted, He told me: “I gave you My Son, and the Holy Spirit, and this Blessed Virgin. What can you give Me?”

Saint Teresa of Avila

Spiritual Testimonies, 21
19 January 1572

Notes:
1 Teresa is speaking of a painting given to her by the Countess of Osorno, Doña María de Velasco, a friend of hers who lived in Valladolid. The painting is still preserved at St. Joseph’s of Avila.

2 When Teresa took possession of her office as the appointed prioress of her former Monastery of the Incarnation on October 14, 1571, she placed a statue of Our Lady of Clemency in the prioress’ stall with the keys to the monastery in the Virgin’s hands.

Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: This engraving shows the nuns’ choir in the Carmelite Monastery of Incarnation in Avila. It was produced for a pilgrim’s guidebook for the third centenary of the death of St. Teresa in 1882. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/05/02/mdj2024-ep003/

#BlessedTrinity #Carmelite #choirStalls #inspiration #intellectualVision #MonasteryOfTheIncarnation #monasticLife #MotherOfGod #praise #SalveRegina #StTeresaOfAvila