About Teresa's teachings on Jesus


Meg: It seems to me that Teresa taught the novices to practice imaging and noticing Jesus always in their field of consciousness. It eventually becomes a habit (first through strenuous effort and then with on-going praxis of the mind within the practice of faith). This training is to sustain the experience of the presence of Jesus that usually comes to novices but then fades as ordinary consciousness replaces the new experience.

We can abide in this experience of Presence with the habit of recollection through the humanity of Jesus, who is just like us.


From: "Djcocd@aol.com"

I've been reading A Day With Jesus and I find it a delight. It reminds very much of St. Teresa's way of prayer and of what she teaches her nuns and friars about walking in the presence of Jesus our Good
Friend.

Twelve Practices that guide us in ministry:

1. We must strive to be free from afflictions that diminish our effectiveness. Our right effort is to change ourselves. This will change others.

PENTECOST

About five or six years ago, I was in this period of the liturgical year when the Easter narratives are so delightful:

-Mary meeting Our Lord in the garden,
-the Emmaus story of the breaking of the bread and recognizing him,
-Jesus cooking breakfast for his fisher disciples.

Concluding Teachings on What’s After the Thoughts?

When the thoughts get stilled and the thoughts lose their binding power as afflictions there is apatheia, or purity of heart. Life is fuller of manifestations of God because the spiritual senses are awakened.

Thoughts About Pride
An affliction of the soul

‘Doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons.’
Teachings:

l) Two kinds of pride: a) carnal and, b) spiritual

• Carnal pride gives me thoughts of exaggerated self-importance and is common to all folks: a self-willed defiance with some self-talk like, ‘just this time’ or ‘I need this more than some one else,’ or ‘I’m worth it….’

Thoughts About Vainglory
An affliction of the soul

‘Doing all the right things for the wrong reason’

1) Vainglory is taking credit for good actions. Glory means God’s presence and you take it to ‘self’ rather than God.

2) Vainglory is an affliction of motivation toward the self. Vainglory refers to what others think, how I am perceived. I actually perceive myself through what I think others think of me.

Thoughts About Acedia
An affliction of the soul—‘Weariness of Soul’

• ‘My ability to discern sleeps and is turned off. I’m separated from reason and awareness.’

• Image: a moth-eaten garment, worn out and useless to wear.

• Difficult to detect. Mind is sluggish. Thoughts are actually slow and diminished. Moody.

• Shows itself in distaste for spiritual things. Scripture and spiritual reading is repulsive.

The second affliction of the mind:
Thoughts About Dejection

Unlike anger that is to be quieted no matter its source or force or size,the causes of dejection desiginate the treatment:

* depression is usually sourced in anger that has gone underneath consciousness.

• unresolved anger due to harm done needs to be anointed with forgiveness

Thoughts About Anger
An affliction of the Mind

*We are not our thoughts. Anger prevents prayer.
To root it out promotes the springing up of God's felt presence; God Consciousness.

• Anger can be entirely rooted out

Stuff
Thoughts About Things

• We are not our thoughts, nor are we our things.

• Counterfeit is to substitute things for God.

• Things are a thought

• Thing-thought can be ‘god’ in heart, hence an idol

Thoughts About Sex

• Few reach the ideal of chastity. The chaste person has passed beyond all physical expressions of sexuality, beyond all erotic thought and even beyond subconscious desire. A joyous state of freedom has been reached and the chaste person experiences peace and bliss.

Thoughts about Food
One of the three affliction of the body (the other two are the thoughts of sex and the thoughts of things)

Three middle paths: a) quantity b) quality c) time designated, as in frequency of eating

Introduction: These notes are a composite taken from various editions of Thoughts and Tools Matter.

I drafted this to put into the new book, Lectio Matters before the burning bush. I had to delete this text to keep my manuscript in compliance with original contract. But here on the megfunk
website I'll post these notes in the next few days.

Thoughts start and dart. They loop around and act upon us if we fail to observe and redirect our impulses toward God. This teaching shows where to put our right effort.


Thoughts have an anatomy from beginning to end: teachings from Tools Matter both from Evagarius and from John Cassian on the logismois (Tools Matter p. 52).

When a seeker would go to a Desert Elder they attended to the movements of the heart (of the mind), suggestions, inner prompting. When such an impulse or inner prompting develops into an outward deed, into consent that eventually becomes habitual, it would be too late to show all this to the director.

Matt 11:28.

Brother Lawrence of Gethsemani also looked into the Greek written in my Icon of Jesus.

You also asked about the writing in the book which Jesus holds in your ikon. It is the beautiful passage from Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

I taught at Gethsemani last week. We were sharing about the ancient early practice of spiritual direction: Exagoreusis.

I asked Brother Lawrence to do exegesis on the Greek. This is his reply:

In Spring many decisions arise that govern the next 12 months or 12 years

So, I would like to summarize the Discernment Process that seems to me from the monastic tradition of the early elders:

A Study Guide pertaining to the Thoughts
Thoughts Matter: a study guide. These notes might be helpful for confessors, spiritual directors, teachers and practitioners.

Introduction

Sources:

Twelve Institutes and twenty-four Conferences of John Cassian

Rule of St. Benedict (520 AD) is about 7000 words, 823 verses, 300 Scripture quotes (of which 136 are quotes from John Cassian), over 20 other sources of older Rules and Early Christian Documents.
There are 537 teachings in the Rule of Benedict.

A Rule for Orthodox nuns, written by the same nuns who live it! Used with permission from Mother Raphaela. Orthodox nuns of Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery in Otego, New York. In their Monastery Typicon (Rule approved by their Bishop).

We also need to learn to understand the passions which sometimes inform our conduct in ways that are not in accordance with our prayer, reading and conversations with our mentors.

Anger, for example, is a passion that can quickly destroy both friendships and community life in a monastery. How we approach anger especially in ourselves and in others is therefore critical to our life?

A Teaching on the Human Condition

The Human Condition: Making Sense of Things.

Introduction: I wrote this with the intention of putting it in the most recent book, Lectio Matters before the burning bush. It was too long and got cut. I simply put a short summary of it in the book. This is the complete text. (Meg)

I teach about the three kinds of sins as taught in the Orthodox tradition. See a tape series by Father Thomas Hopko of St. Vladimir Seminary: Sin, Primordial, Generational, Personal. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 575 Scarsdale Road, Crestwood, NY 10707, 1-800-204-2665.