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One of the most beautiful definitions of faith that I came across is that of Tagore. He says; Faith is a bird that feels dawn breaking and sings while it is still dark. If the birds and the bees feel the breaking of the dawn and the rising of the sun in their interior while it is still dark, humans should feel much more the stirrings of the God in their sacred interior. Christmas is a time the Mystery of incarnation blossom in our interior most powerfully. The season of advent and the study of the Interior Castle; it is a wonderful combination of interior celebration. My thoughts simply go to St. Teresa of Avila, that bird of paradise who felt the burden and the mystery of the incarnation in the depth of her soul and sang the sweetest song of heaven for you and for me.

If the call of the time is a call to interiority and to behold the Beloved within the depth of one’s being, St. Teresa’s teachings are a beacon to our times. Inherent in the call of the sons and daughters of St. Teresa is the challenge and invitation to sphere head this interior revolution.

Five hundred years ago St. Teresa of Avila has said almost all that we need to know about our Carmelite contemplative call. What we need today is a ruthless honesty and determination to interpret it according to the needs of the time and make it a reality.

God raises up saints in the Church to meet a particular challenge the Church at a time is faced with. St. Teresa was God’s healing balm to soothe the wounds of division caused by the Protestant Movement and its aftermaths (Way1:1). She knew that “human forces are not sufficient to stop this fire” (Way 3:1). Stirred by these events, “she gave her life and the new family of Carmel an apostolic sense. She directed the prayer, retirement, and the entire life of the Discalced Carmelites towards the service of the church’’ (Const. Art.5).

The Church of our times is faced with similar and more complex problems. The mystical body of Christ still suffers from fragmentation. The Church has to become holier. It needs good vocations to preach the Good news of salvation to the ends of the earth. St. Teresa who said- “We are beginning now but those who come after us strive always to make a new start and to better themselves”-(Foundations29:33) is inviting us to read the signs of the time and be at the service of the Church as true sons and daughters. The charism of a Carmel is to nourish the church through prayer.

St Teresa understood that God is most real in the depth of the human soul and the longest journey is the journey inward. Once you find your maker in the cave of your being you are the most joyful person. You are freely given the keys to heaven’s largesse. You will become the kind of people whom God refuses nothing. “For God was living in my soul for this presence is not like other visions, because it is accompanied by such living faith that one cannot doubt that the Trinity is in our souls by presence, power and essence. It is an extremely beneficial thing to understand this Truth”. (Sp. Testimony5) She knew that the most beautiful, the noblest, the most perfect existence is that of God and God is most real in the interior Castle of our soul. With the care and gentleness of a mother, she teaches us to enter into that interior depth.

Prayer for St. Teresa was not an isolated activity. It encompassed the whole life. St. Teresa wanted the Carmelites to walk under the cool shadow of God’s friendship twenty-four hours of the day. She was convinced that prayer and community living are the two sides of the same coin.

We live in a world where communication media is progressing at an alarming speed. We know within the fraction of a second what is happening all over the world. With the use of mobile phone and internet, we can communicate anyone anywhere at any time. Yet paradoxically there is no other time in history people feel more alienated from one another. There is a terrible sense of homelessness. Mankind has an aching need to belong. St. Teresa of Avila through her teaching can inspire us to face the problem at two levels.

On a personal level, through her teachings, she convinces us that only God can give us an abiding sense of self-worth. The point of espousal between depth psychology and mysticism is the growing awareness that we are created in the image and likeness of God ( Gen 1:6) and that each one of us is precious.
St. Teresa who was a born psychologist was not a born saint. She says “we don’t remember that we are creatures made in the image of God. We don’t understand the great secret hidden inside of us.” She knew that getting inserted into the love of God requires constant effort and warns us “It is foolishness to think that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves, reflecting on our misery and what we owe to God and begging Him often for mercy”(Int. Castle2.1,11) .
She is convinces that although contemplative prayer is a gift of God it is not something God, from His Olympian heights bestows on a chosen soul once in a thousand years. God wants to give it to everyone. It is only that we are not ready for it. Prayer of recollection, a unique contribution of St. Teresa – of seeing the humanity of Jesus within oneself – is meant to make us ready for the contemplative prayer. “God and the soul understand each other without the use of any other means devised to manifest the love these two friends have for each
other. It’s like the experience of two persons here on earth who love each other deeply and understand each other well; even without signs, just by a glance, it seems they understand each other(Life 27:8) She explains progressive prayer in a very simple way and within the context of human intimacy. And she makes us believe that it is within the reach of everyone who desires it. “All one need do is go into solitude and look at Him within oneself and not turn away from so good a Guest”. (Way 28:2)
Prayer centers are mushrooming in India. We want God to solve all our problems, ease all our pains and give all that we need to lead a comfortable life. God often becomes a first aid box that we open only when we need relief. Today when the world has a tendency to go to God for His gifts, Carmelites have this challenging obligation take them to the giver of gifts in silence and solitude. St Teresa teaches us to be a prophetic witness to the Indwelling God in a hidden way. “the soul collects its faculties together and enters within itself to be with its God…..those who by such a method can enclose themselves within this little heaven of our soul, where the maker of heaven and earth is present, and grow accustomed to refusing to be where the exterior senses in their distraction have gone or look in that direction should believe they are following an excellent path.”(way 28:4:5)
At another level, this love experienced has to flow out in to the community. St. Teresa could not imagine a greater disgrace than a break down in love. A small community must be like a family. “In this house all must be friends, all must love each other all have to help (Way4:4). The love of neighbor is the touch stone on which love of God is measured. “We cannot know whether we love God… and be certain that the more you will be advanced you see you are in love for your neighbor, the more you will be advanced in the love of God: for the love His Majesty has for us is so great that to repay for our love of neighbor, He will in a thousand ways increase the love we have for Him. I cannot doubt this… If we practice love of neighbor with great perfection, you will have done everything.” (Int. Castle 5:3)
There is no other saint who has emphasized the interconnectedness of prayer and virtuous living. There is a harmonious blending of contemplation and action in the Teresian way of living out the Carmelite Charism. For St. Teresa a
Carmelite is one who is caught up in love, love of God and love of neighbor. In a world where enduring relationships are exceptions rather than a norm, a Carmelite community is invited to stand as a shining example of communion and friendship.

St Teresa gives a number of practical advices to build a happy “College of Christ”.
“Never be obstinate about things of little importance.”(Maxim 5). Once we are set free from our need to control things happening around us through detachment we are set free to fight an internal battle and face the Truth and Beauty that lie hidden in us. She insists that a candidate seeking Carmelite way of life should have commonsense; probably by this she means the capacity to sift essential from the accidental. Very early in her life Our Holy Mother realized that God alone is the only permanent reality. Once that realization became an enduring factor, all her physical, emotional and spiritual energies were converged to one end; union with God. She knew God is stooping down to make her the beneficiary of heaven’s choicest blessings, provided she would let him do so. If we are guided and inspired by this teaching, all our communities will become happy places to live in spite of all our individual differences. A collective vision is the most essential ingredient for a happy Religious community.
Environmental pollution is one of the major concerns of today. One of the solutions suggested to prevent the eco imbalance is to plant more trees that more carbon dioxide may be absorbed and more oxygen is released. A Carmelite is an intimate intercessor planted in God’s garden. She is called to absorb the vexing problems of the world carry them in heart, take it to the throne of God and release the oxygen of pure love and positive energy. Every negative thought that goes out of ourselves pollute the spiritual atmosphere around us. We are called by St. Teresa to nullify it with positive energy of a heart inflamed by pure love. In order to inflame our hearts she asks us: Offer yourself to God fifty times a day and that too with great fervor and longing after God”(Maxim31) . “Habitually make many acts of love, for that set the soul on fire and make it gentle”(Maxim 52).


A tiniest atom creates atomic energy through a process of nuclear fission. God can enter the microcosm of a pure human soul that has bare opened his or her inner space for His transforming action can rejuvenate the world around. This is our apostolate. The path mapped out by St. Teresa for this end is the path of humility detachment and love of neighbor. Our mission is directed towards the salvation of souls. “And when our prayers, desires, disciplines and fasts are not directed towards obtaining these things … reflect how you are not accomplishing or fulfilling the purpose for which the Lord brought you together”(Way 3:10) .
The ultimate mission of a Carmelite is to prepare the people of God for the second coming of the Lord. We are called to sphere head the universal solidarity of human kind. God is the only permanent reality. St Teresa understood this truth at the tender age of four. In the early childhood the favorite word she uttered was “forever and forever.”(Life 1:4) Later on she would say “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing dismay you, all things are passing, God never changes, patient endurance attains all things, God alone suffices” (Poem.
It is a self purifying and transformative journey. On the anvil of life he or she has to be purified like gold and that is an inevitable mystery. Taking the watch word of St. Teresa, “either to suffer or to die” a Carmelite is expected to walk under the shadow of the cross of Christ. In today’s world’s desperate attempt to create a pain free world a Carmelite is called to be a witness to the truth that suffering is redeeming.
Through her writings St. Teresa seems to say that we should not to set limits to what God can do for us. The Interior Castle is a loving invitation to enjoy the image and likeness of God within us. The most painstaking and time consuming act that God engaged in is shaping of a human soul who is willing to let Him do it. St. Teresa of Avila was one of the most pliable instruments in the hand of the Master artist. She basked in the dignity and honor God gave her and she wanted every Carmelite to enjoy it. The question is do I desire it. Do I desire it passionately? “In the measure you desire him, you will find him… And you can desire to see Him so much that He will reveal Himself to you entirely”( Way 34:12) .
Let our dear Mother St. Teresa have the final word. “So I say now that all of us who wear this holy habit of Carmel are called to prayer and contemplation. This call explains our origin. We are the descendants of the men who have felt this call of those holy fathers of Mount Carmel who in such great solitude and contempt for the world sought this treasure, this precious pearl of Contemplation… Yet few of us dispose ourselves that the Lord may communicate to us. In exterior matters we are proceeding well so that we will reach what is necessary, but in the practice of virtues that are necessary for arriving at this point we need very much and cannot be careless in either small things or great. So my Sisters, since in some way we can enjoy heaven on earth, be brave in begging the Lord to give us His grace in such a way that nothing will be lacking through our fault; that He show us the way and strengthen the soul that it may dig until it finds this hidden treasure. The truth is that this treasure lies within our very selves. (Int. Cast.5.1.2)