Lent Series: Self-awareness and St. Teresa of Avila, Part 1

St. Teresa of Avila wrote about spiritual self-awareness in her book, The Interior Castle'. She believed self-awareness was a vital ingredient for growth in the spiritual life and the journey to union with God. She said Self-knowledge is important in helping open up to the love of God, able to see ourselves as God sees us, open to being teachable and willing to surrender to the forming action of God in our life, all through learning who we are and ‘Whose’ we are.

What did Teresa mean by self-awareness?  How did she propose to obtain it?  The journey begins in the ‘room of self-knowledge’, a necessary place of humility and simple appraisal of our soul before God.  This is the essential place to begin this journey of prayer. It is the only way to a deeper spiritual life.  Staying in this 'room', pondering God’s word, learning He is waiting there for us, will lead to greater self knowledge, awareness of our need for God and our dependence upon Him.  We will see more clearly how Jesus humbled Himself for us and reflect on our lack of humility.  

Teresa said true humility is central to growth in self-knowledge on the journey to the truth of the soul and union with God, even though this might cause discomfort. Humility lays us bare to the truth, of how small and limited we are, and the infinity of Who God is and of our distance from Him, the gap between us. 

Once we have learned enough of ourselves to see this huge gap, we are standing in the truth

of the situation and true humility will result.  This journey can be traced from her first lines in the Interior Castle all the way through to the seventh mansion, where the soul is ready for union with God.  This work must never be abandoned.

Lack of humility often goes unnoticed as we are blind to our motivations and attitudes.  We can fail to see ourselves truthfully, to admit our pride and see our reality before the reality God sees.  True humility should become a daily habit.  Teresa insists on knowledge of the grandeur of God and work for self-awareness to please God, going hand in hand to help increase humility. 

Teresa said humility is essential to self-awareness, seeing ourselves more clearly, knowing ourselves better and growing in compassion for others at the same time.  

We will often need to return through the 'rooms' of self-awareness throughout the journey of prayer.  As we will see next time, Teresa followed St. Augustine’s thought that only in forgetting self and looking within would we find God.