# Interior Castle Handbook Session 9, St. Teresa of Avila **100 Themes on Her Life and Work, 46. Christological Formation** Copyright Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, Inc. ICS Publications, 2011. Used with permission. 1\. Given The centrality of the mystery of Christ in St. Teresa’s life and doctrine, it is important to highlight the most notable milestones in her Christological formation. Certainly the first seeds germinated in her early childhood. Among the household objects in the inventory made by Don Alonso was a larger-than-life oil painting of Jesus seated at the well in Sychar conversing with the Samaritan woman. After the death of Don Alonso, Teresa brought the precious painting with her to the Incarnation. From the time she was young — she assures us — every night before going to bed she spent some time thinking about the scene of Jesus praying in the garden. Probably this custom came from her first Christological readings in the _Flos Sanctorum,_ which in the first introductory pages there was a translation of the gospels on the passion of Christ — Monotéssaron — and which were illustrated with a series of twenty drawings, among which figured one, really impressive, of Jesus praying in the garden. Yet even before these readings, Teresa was introduced to the most fundamental truths of the mystery of Christ through the primers and catechisms of her early Christian formation. In them she learned the fourteen articles of the faith, “the seven final ones pertain to the sacred humanity (of the Lord”). They made her memorize them, beginning with the first which is “to believe that the Son of God was conceived by the blessed Virgin Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit and not like us: more miraculously!” So they continued until the seventh article, on his return at “the end of the world.” Highlighted in the third article is his passion and death, which Teresa from an early age celebrated with emotion in the Holy Week processions. 2\. Nonetheless, the real manual of christological formation was a book from the later middle ages translated from the Latin and known to her with the Castilian designation “the Carthusian.” It was four large volumes written by the Carthusian Ludolph of Saxony with the title _The_ _Life_ _of Christ._ It spread throughout Europe from its numerous incunabular editions. It was translated into Castilian at the end of the 15th century and adapted for Spanish readers by the Franciscan Ambrosio Montesino, who published the four volumes in Alcalá at the beginning of the 16th century with a total of 1320 pages. The work consisted of two parts, the first of which presented the life of Jesus from his preexistence in the bosom of the Father to the healing of the blind man of Bethsaida. The second part, went from the messianic profession of Peter at Caesarea Philippi up to the sending of the Holy Spirit. Teresa when already a Carmelite nun, had at her disposal in St. Joseph’s the four volumes, and was accustomed to having them with her on days of retreat in the hermitage of Nazareth or that of Christ at the pillar. We do not know if she read the more than a thousand pages of the book by Ludolph-Montesino, but certainly, given the Castilian structure of the work and given its precious content, _The Carthusian_ was highly suggested by the contemplative sampling of Teresa the reader. 3\ In her Castilian version the book contained a long exposition and meditation of the whole history of Jesus. Always for its basis it included the corresponding biblical text, highlighted by major type to differentiate it from the commentary. The most important section of the work centered on the steps of the Passion of the Lord (volume 4). The book presents them as a dramatic liturgical sequence, from what occurred at Compline on Holy Thursday, passing through Matins of that night, until what occurred at the hours of Tierce, Sext, and None and Vespers of Friday. Most important for a reader like Teresa was that each episode or each commentary concluded always with a touching prayer to the Lord for the purpose of reaching his person and entering into his mystery. It was the terminal contemplative moment of each section. 4\. The entire book was preceded by a preamble of the author in which he imparted to the readers an introductory base with some keys for reading, meditation, and contemplation. These nineteen pages constitute a kind of little, introductory treatise not only for the comprehensive reading of the book but for access to the mystery of Jesus, based on eight premises, which are first stated and then developed at length. It is enough here to repeat this series of the eight premises. −    That in the practice of virtues, and in every perfect life, Jesus Christ alone is the true foundation. −    For people to exercise themselves in the life and contemplation of the Redeemer is something very beneficial for seven reasons. −    The preeminence of the life of Christ contemplated and lived. It is one of the great benefits that those receive who occupy themselves in the contemplation and guarding of it. −    An industriousness about contemplating without error the life of Christ. −    A brief summary of the exterior conditions of Jesus Christ and his properties. −    The perfection and beauty of the arrangement of the face and members of the Son of God. −    The excellence of the holy Gospels over all the other sacred scriptures. − The discord and difference of some things present between the four evangelists is real concord. 5\. We will highlight only a few of the data that undoubtedly influenced Teresa’s Christological attitude. Above all, _the_ _industriousness_ _to_ _contemplate,_ proposed in the fourth premise. It is summed up in a precious instruction: “With all the affection of your soul, with diligent and delightful fervor, holding yourself in the contemplation of these mysteries with some delay, leaving aside all other cares, be present to these things that were said and done by the Savior as though with your own ears you heard them and with your own eyes saw them; for they are very sweet to the one who thinks of them with desire and more to the one who tastes them. And therefore, even though many of them are counted as past, examine them as though you thought they were all present to you, because in that way you will undoubtedly taste a greater sweetness and read the things that have already taken place as though they were being done now; and fix your eyes on past facts as though they were present; and thus you will find the mysteries of Christ to be more pleasant. “This was all a program of Christological prayer that Teresa put into practice in her own way of prayer. 6\. The introduction insists especially on the beauty of the face of Christ: this is the theme of the sixth premise, which proposes to the contemplative “the face, form, and figure of our Redeemer (in a manner that] you can conjecture his acts deeds, and customs.” And with true mime transcribe the portrait of Jesus, taken from the presumed letter of Publius Lentulus ad Tiberium *Caesarem*, which probably had already been read by Teresa in the preamble to the _Flos Sanctorum._ It is said that she transported it to her mystical experience: “The vision of Christ left upon me an impression of his most extraordinary beauty, and the impression remains today” (L 37.4). 7\. Nevertheless, it was not the details but the mass of Christological data contained in the work that gave Teresa an incomparable Christological introduction. The Carthusian brought to the reader one by one all the biblical texts referring to Jesus. This book by the Carthusian is an immense Christological spirituality. Perhaps this is the reason why Teresa includes the book in the list of indispensable books for the libraries of her Carmels (C. 8). [[pursuits-texts/04-formation-and-liturgy/handbooks/formation-II-b-handbook/tj-ic-guide-apx-c|Appendix C, Session 9, St. Teresa of Avila]] --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation II Year B: The Interior Castle (The Seven Dwelling Places)* (US National Formation Program, 2024).