Flora Cantábrica

Saint Teresa of Avila.English.24.5,23.

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Saint Teresa of Avila.
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The saint was more attracted to the bloody Christs and manifesting deep agony. On one occasion, when he stopped before a very bleeding crucifix, he asked him: «Lord, who put you like that?» Teresa». She began to cry and was terribly impressed. But from that day on she no longer wastes time on useless chatter and on friendships that do not lead to holiness
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visions and communications
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Once Teresa withdrew from the conversations in the hall and from other occasions of dissipation and faults (the saints are capable of seeing her faults), God began to favor her frequently with the prayer of stillness and union. Her union prayer occupied a long period of her life, with her joy and her love characteristic of her, and God began to visit her with visions and inner communications. He was disturbed by it, because she had often heard of certain women whom the devil had miserably deceived with imaginary visions. Although she was persuaded that her visions were from God, her perplexity led her to consult the matter with various persons; Unfortunately, not all of these people kept the secret they were bound to, and the news of Teresa’s visions began to spread, much to their confusion.

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One of the people Teresa consulted was Francisco de Salcedo, a married man who was a paragon of virtue. He presented her to Father Daza, a doctor considered very virtuous, who ruled that Teresa was a victim of the devil’s tricks, since it was impossible for God to grant such extraordinary favors to a nun as imperfect as she claimed to be. Teresa was alarmed and dissatisfied. Francisco de Salcedo, to whom the saint herself affirms that she owed her salvation to her, encouraged her in her moments of discouragement and advised her to go to one of the fathers of the recently founded Company of Jesus.
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The saint made a general confession with a Jesuit, to whom she explained her way of praying and the favors she had received from her. The Jesuit assured her that it was God’s grace, but he urged her not to neglect the true foundation of her interior life. Although Teresa’s confessor was convinced that her visions came from God, he ordered her to try to resist those graces for two months. The saint’s resistance was in vain.

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Another Jesuit, Fr. Baltasar Alvarez, advised her to ask God for help to always do what was most pleasing in her eyes and, to that end, recite the «Veni Creator Spiritus» daily. That’s what Teresa did. One day, precisely when she was repeating her hymn, she was carried away in ecstasy and she heard these words inside her soul: «I do not want you to converse with men but with angels.»
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Ecstasy
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In some of her ecstasies, of which the saint left us a detailed description, she rose up to a meter. After one of those visions, she wrote the beautiful poetry that says: «I hope that I die so high life because I don’t die». In this regard, Teresa comments: God «does not seem content with snatching the soul back to Himself, but also lifts up this mortal body, stained with the disgusting mud of our sins»
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In those ecstasies the greatness and goodness of God, the excess of his love and the sweetness of his service were manifested in a sensitive way, and Teresa’s soul understood it clearly, although she was unable to express it. The desire for heaven that visions of her left in her soul was ineffable. «Since then, I stopped being afraid of death, something that tormented me a lot before.» The saint’s mystical experiences reached the heights of spiritual betrothal, mystical marriage, and transverberation.
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Saint Teresa left us the following story about the phenomenon of transverberation: «I saw an angel by my side who was to my left, in human form. I confess that I am not used to seeing such things, except on very rare occasions. Although It often happens to me that I see angels, they are intellectual visions, like the ones I have referred to above… The angel was short and very beautiful, his face was ablaze as if he were one of the tallest angels that are all fire. It must have been one of those we call cherubim…

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He carried in his hand a long golden sword, the tip of which looked like a burning ember. It seemed to me that at times the sword plunged into my heart and pierced my entrails and, when I drew the sword, it seemed to me that my entrails escaped with it and I felt myself burn with the greatest love of God. The pain was so intense that it made me moan, but at the same time, the sweetness of that excessive grief was so extraordinary that I would not have wanted to be free of it.

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In some of his ecstasies, of which the saint left us a detailed description, he rose up to one meter. After one of those visions, he wrote the beautiful poetry that says: «I hope that I die so high life because I don’t die.» In this regard, Teresa comments: God «does not seem content to snatch the soul away from Himself, but also raises this body mortal, stained with the foul mud of our sins