St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross

As Catholics prepare to celebrate Pentecost, we are offered an opportunity in reflecting on ‘Spirit’. The mystics, for us, provide a doorway where we can articulate Spirit to access a greater understanding of the Trinity God working in the world. The impact of the Spirit on the ‘interior life’ has been given nourishment by writers such as Teilhard de Chardin, Evelyn Underhill, St John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila and Meister Eckhart. Their words articulate a notion of Spirit and challenge us to reflect where we place and operate with Spirit in our world. 

Evelyn Underhill provides us with a direction of Spirit… “The spiritual life of individuals has to be extended both vertically to God and horizontally to other souls; and the more it grows in both directions, the less merely individual and therefore more personal it will become.” Are we engaging in the spiritual life that moves vertically and horizontally?

Teresa of Avila reflects on the virtue of prayer as ‘an act of love’ where ‘words are not needed’. An act that connects us to the spiritual life. Where is our orientation of love trending as we move to Pentecost?

Meister Eckhart challenges us to experience God in the stillness - “Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness.” What is a practice that keeps us present and open to be present to the Spirit?

Teilhard de Chardin switches our notion of a human experience to a spiritual experience- “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” In what ways do we recognise the Divine nature in our humanity?

St John of the Cross calls for us to be contemplative as an access to spirit - “Contemplation is nothing else but a secret, peaceful and loving infusion of God, which, if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of Love.” How do we live from a contemplative stance in today's busy world? 

We pray for our community to move to a richer understanding and integration of Spirit and look for the opportunities to do this in the present of our every day.