Christ and the Virtues. Teresian prayer is
characteristically Christ-centered. Christ is the direct object of both the
mental and the affective dynamics of Teresian prayer. Teresa prays with, to,
and through Jesus Christ. Her Christ is the Christ of the Gospels; Christ as
the "Way, the Truth, and the Life " is her constant focus. That focus
must be learned by the beginner, retained by those advanced in prayer, and
refined into a "loving gaze" by the contemplative (see Life, 12 and
22, and Castle, 6, 7 for Teresa's classic treatment of the essential role of
Christ in every stage of the ascent of prayer). Some of her principles in this
area are that: 1) meditation's best subject and object is the biblical Christin
his life, death, and resurrection; 2) one's prayer is best habitually (though
not exclusively) centered on Christ; 3) the sacred humanity of Christ is the
most adequate mediation for initial growth in prayer and the best assurance of
and preparation for the gift of contemplation; and 4) any other opinion is
gravely suspect and harmful.
Teresa, our teacher, knows how important the
figure of Christ is to the one who prays. Christ is a friend and companion at
prayer (see Way, 26, I). Christ addresses the loneliness of the meditator. He
fills the void, thus turning loneliness into solitude and access to God.
Furthermore, the Christ of Scripture is the model of all the virtues that we
desire to learn. After all, Christian perfection lies in the virtues. We pray
to be transformed; transformation is brought about in the first instance by the
acquisition of the virtues, which then open us up to the further deification of
contemplation and the states of union. We need Christ to train us in the
theological and cardinal virtues. Unless we strive after the virtues we always
be dwarfs" (Castle, 7, 4, 9). And since charity and humility give birth to
all the other virtues, we desperately need the living model of Jesus Christ,
the humble one, to show us the way. 'This whole building ...has humility as its
foundation, " and to build Christian humility we must "fix our eyes
on the Crucified" (Castle, 7, 4, 8). With Christ as our friend and teacher
we will be drawn all the way into the bosom of the Blessed Trinity (see Castle,
6, 7, 7)
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