Date: August 19, 2007

Podcaster: stlocds

Episode Description: St. Teresa of Avila - The Way of Perfection Chapter 32
“I am amused by persons who don't dare ask for trails from the Lord, for they suppose that in doing so they will be given them at once. It would not be right for us to fail to do what Jesus has offered on our behalf; if we don't want to do it we shouldn't say these words.
Now, let me put it another way. His will must be done whether we like this or not, and it will be done in heaven and on earth. Believe me, take my advice, an make a virtue of necessity. O my Lord, what a great comfort this is for me, that you didn't want the fulfillment of Your will to depend on a will as wretched as mine! I'd be in a fine state, Lord, if it were up to me as to whether or not Your will were to be done! Now I freely give mine to You, even though I do so at a time in which I'm not free of self-interest. For I have felt and have had great experience of the gain that comes from freely abandoning my will to Yours. O friends, what a great gain there is here! Oh, what a great loss there is when we do not carry out what we offer to the Lord in the Our Father!

Before I tell you about what is gained, I want to explain the great deal you offer so that afterward you won't take back what you gave, claiming that you hadn't understood. Don't be like some religious who do nothing but promise; and when we don't follow through, we make an excuse saying we didn't understand what we were promising. And this could be so, because to say that we abandon our will to another's will seems very easy until through experience we realize that this is the hardest thing one can do if one does it as it should be done.

I want to advise you and remind you what His will is. Don't fear that it means He will give you riches, or delights, or honors, or all these earthly things. His love for you is not that small, and He esteems highly what you give Him. He wants to repay you well, for He gives you His kingdom while you are still alive. Do you want to know how He answers those who say these words to Him sincerely? Ask His glorious son, who said them while praying in the Garden. Since they were said with such determination and complete willingness, see if the Father's will wasn't done fully in Him through the trials, sorrows, injuries, and persecutions He suffered until His life came to an end through death on a cross.

So, if you love Him, strive that what you say to the Lord may not amount to mere polite words; strive to suffer what His Majesty desires you to suffer.”

Time: 6:00The Way of Perfection, Chapter 32. The Collected Works of Teresa of Avila Volume Two. Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh O.C.D. and Otilio Rodriguez O.C.D. ICS Publications Institute of Carmelite Studies, Washington, D.C. 1980 ISBN 0-9600876-6-4 (v. 2)