Teresa's Warning

Teresa of Avila: "If you don't practise mental prayer, you need no devils to drag you into hell." Strong words, but her point is that without mental prayer, you have no defence against the slow slide into spiritual complacency. She harps on this repeatedly — never abandon mental prayer, no matter what. (Ep 18, 597)

Catechism sources (PD) teaches:

"A strong inclination" to do wrong--that is, unless always on our guard against it.

(Source: baltimore_catechism.txt)

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches:

The frailty of Peter himself, acknowledged its sin, when he witnessed by his tears the evil he had done in denying Christ. Nor do we say this, because we have pleasure in blaming the first of the Apostles; but that we may take warning from him, not to be confident of our own strength.

(Source: catena_aurea_john.txt)

Doctrinal Foundation

T4.G.010 (Sententia communis (common teaching)): Prayer is a necessary means of salvation for adults. God grants the grace of perseverance to those who pray for it perseveringly. Without prayer, the necessary graces for salvation will not ordinarily be received.

• Scripture: Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.

• Fathers: He who prays well, lives well. He who lives well, dies well. He who dies well, all is well.

T4.G.011 (sententia_certa): God truly gives grace to those who pray for it. Prayer is infallibly efficacious when the conditions of perseverance, humility, and conformity to God's will are met.

• Scripture: Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you.
• Aquinas: Prayer is meritorious inasmuch as it proceeds from charity, and is directed to the good of the one who prays and of others.

T4.G.017 (De fide (defined dogma)): Through sanctifying grace, the Holy Trinity dwells in the soul of the just person in a special manner. The justified soul becomes a living temple of the Holy Spirit, and this indwelling is a real, not merely metaphorical, divine presence.

• Scripture: Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
• Aquinas: The Divine Persons are said to be sent inasmuch as they come to dwell in the soul by grace. Now the invisible mission takes place as regards the gifts of sanctifying grace.
• Fathers: What then shall they say who maintain that the Holy Spirit is a creature? For if He were a creature, He would not be said to dwell in us.

From the Sources

St. Thomas Aquinas (catena_aurea_john.txt):

The frailty of Peter himself, acknowledged its sin, when he witnessed by his tears the evil he had done in denying Christ. Nor do we say this, because we have pleasure in blaming the first of the Apostles; but that we may take warning from him, not to be confident of our own strength. BEDE. Nevertheless, should any one fall, let the example of Peter save him from despair, and teach him that he can without delay obtain pardon from God.

St. Thomas Aquinas (catena_aurea_john.txt):

Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. THEOPHYL. Every thing having been done that could be to dissuade the Jews, and they refusing to take warning, He suffered Himself to be delivered into their hands: Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus. AUG. They took Him Whom they did not draw nigh to; nor understood that which is written in the Psalms, Draw nigh to Him, and be you lightened.

• nT een Py be shame tee ~

Wittitiiin —

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation

http://www. archive.org/details/bookoffoundationOOtereuoft

THE BOOK OF THE FOUNDATIONS OF 5. TERESA

Wibil obstat

Epwarpus Myers Censor Deputatus

Simprimatuce Epm: Can; SURMONT Vic. Gen. WESTMONASTERII,

die 24 Januari 1913.

2 a

ope THE BOOK OF THE

FOUNDATIONS OF S. TERESA OF JESUS

Extended Doctrinal Analysis

T4.G.026 (sententia_certa): The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit — wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord — are infused into the soul together with sanctifying grace. They perfect the virtues and render the soul docile to the movements of the Holy Spirit.

Additional Sources

St. Francis de Sales (03_catholic_controversy.txt):

Francis de Sales, 2gth January 1886. * ["We append here the Saint's second treatment of the subject of scandal, see. p. 5.] There is nothing of which the Holy Scripture gives more warning, history mofe testimony, our age more experience, than of the facility with which man is scandalized.

St. Francis de Sales (03_catholic_controversy.txt):

All is ancient, and there is almost nothing of mine beyond the needle and thread : the rest I have only had to unpick and sew again in my own way, with this warning of Vincent of Lerins : " Teach, however, what thou hast learnt ; that whilst thou sayest things in a new way thou say not new things."

St. Ignatius of Loyola (autobiography_oconor_1900.txt):

Laach_, the German review, as well as those of the English magazine, The Month, tell us that it, more than any other work, gives an insight into the spiritual life of St. Ignatius. Few works in ascetical literature, except the writings of St. Teresa and St. Augustine, impart such a knowledge of the soul.

St. Ignatius of Loyola (autobiography_oconor_1900.txt):

Christian faith and the Exercises, as was his wont when enjoying perfect freedom. Many persons of rank were anxious to help him, but he did not wish to avail himself of their offers. One person especially, Lady Teresa de Cardena, sent frequently, offering to deliver him from prison. He replied in these words, "He, for whose love I am imprisoned, will free me when it may be His good pleasure."

Church Fathers (Confessiones_english.txt):

The animals above mentioned are a symbol of those people who do not do this. And the prohibition of the flesh of these animals is a warning against this fault.

Church Fathers (Confessiones_english.txt):

As to the Scriptures that are obscure, he is slow to come to conclusions, lest he should “be deceived in them or deceive out of them.” In his De Gen. ad Lit. i. 37, he gives a useful warning against forcing our own meaning on Scripture in doubtful questions, and, ibid. viii.

Catechism sources (PD) (baltimore_catechism.txt):

"A strong inclination" to do wrong--that is, unless always on our guard against it. Our Lord once cautioned His Apostles (Matt. 26:41) to watch and pray lest they fall into temptation; teaching us also by the same warning that, besides praying against our spiritual enemies, we must watch their maneuvers and be ever ready to repel their attacks. 47 Q. What is the sin called which we inherit from our first parents?

Catechism sources (PD) (baltimore_catechism.txt):

We honor these first little martyrs who suffered for Christ on.

the feast of Holy Innocents--three days after Christmas.

After the departure of the Wise Men, God sent an angel to St. Joseph warning him of Herod's evil designs, and telling him to fly with Jesus and Mary into Egypt. Then St. Joseph, with the Blessed Virgin and the Infant, set out for Egypt. St. Joseph did not ask the angel how long he