St. Teresa's Nine Grades of Prayer

[Pat_Albertson]

St. Teresa’s Nine Grades of Prayer

I have been reading of them, but I don’t think I have gotten beyond grade two, and even with that I am highly imperfect. I know I have a long long way to go and I doubt I will ever be able to get to the upper levels in this lifetime. Thoughts intrude, and I am always saying Acts of Contrition and binding prayers to rid my apartment of any spirits not of the Holy Spirit.

I pray a lot, mostly to try to quiet my dread of not making rent this month (I think I’m on the verge of homelessness), but also to drive out any thoughts of this world and be solely with God, but I’m having a very hard time achieving the latter. I think I would best be described as a mere infant, just the earliest beginner.

Have you tried to ascend these levels? What have you experienced? Please try to enlighten the rest of us.

Thank you.

 

[Dorothy]

We are all imperfect…stay with it…Our Lord loves you!

He loves us right where we are, and if we are faithful He will bring us where He wants us to be.

God richly bless you!

 

[Gertabelle]

Keep in mind that St Teresa wrote this treatise for her cloistered nuns.

Carmelites spend two hours each day in contemplative prayer. They also pray the complete Divine Office in community daily. And they live as silent hermits in community, except for daily recreation, which is a time of joyful and exuberant interaction among the sisters.

Unless you are home-bound, you probably cannot live the depth of silence and solitude that St Teresa’s nuns live.

Just pray.

Just pray.

 

[Dorothy]

Keep in mind that St Teresa wrote this treatise for her cloistered nuns.

Carmelites spend two hours each day in contemplative prayer. They also pray the complete Divine Office in community daily. And they live as silent hermits in community, except for daily recreation, which is a time of joyful and exuberant interaction among the sisters.

Unless you are home-bound, you probably cannot live the depth of silence and solitude that St Teresa’s nuns live.

Just pray.

Just pray.

Yes, it certainly depends a lot on one’s state in life on how and when one should pray.

I do believe that the Doctors of the Church on prayer can be very helpful for those drawn to deeper prayer----as long as they realize they are not in a cloistered community.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Keep in mind that it is God who brings you through the various stages of prayer, not what so much what you do.

Also, the stages of prayer are merely a guide and like the Interior Castle where St Teresa uses the interior mansions as a way the soul moves through prayer, they are not linear.

Souls can and do move back and forth through various stages of prayer until they reach full union with Christ and for most, this doesn’t happen until after death.

Jim

 

[St_Francis]

It is my understanding that one must go up to at least mental prayer in order to rise higher in prayer: God meets us half-way, but we must get to the half-way point!

We must live according to our state of life. If we are cloistered, we live one way, but for those of us in the world, we must also attend to the world around us. We have a much lower threshold to meet in terms of prayer, then we must attend to our duties; we cannot neglect them even to pray!

The best thing for you to do would be to talk to a good priest. The younger priests seem to have been taught more about this, if you are unsure of your priest.

God will not be offended if you take the steps necessary to be able to pay your bills!

 

[Pat_Albertson]

This is what it says about grade five prayer:

As the intensity of God’s presence, grace or energy within us continues to increase through the first four grades of prayer, our prayer may be advanced by God to this first grade of mystical prayer, i.e., infused recollection or contemplation. From here on, God would become increasingly active and we passive. However, we cannot jump into this grade on our own ability. This prayer is totally beyond our control. We can only cooperate with God. As soon as this movement of the Holy Spirit is felt, we should instantly abandon our vocal prayer, meditation, affective prayer and prayer of simplicity.

I believe I have read elsewhere that we should be able to attain grade five prayer on our own, but even if that isn’t true, it appears that we should be able to get to grade four on our own:

It is simply the prayer of acquired recollection, a simple love or gaze on some divine object, whether on God Himself, His nature, the Holy Eucharist, some Christian truth or mystery. The former reasoning and affection have now been transformed into a simple loving attention on the divine. The prayer is the last grade of ascetical prayer, meaning that the soul is able to attain to this prayer by its own effort with the help of ordinary grace.

I am trying to advance but without much success.

At least for the moment, I have plenty of time on my own, especially in the evenings.

Fr. Aumann cautions us as follows: “During the practice of the prayer of simplicity, the soul should strive to preserve the loving attention that is fixed on God, but without forcing itself. It must avoid distractions and slothfulness, but if it exerts too much effort it will destroy the simplicity of the prayer. Psychologically it is difficult for us to remain attentive over a long period of time, and therefore we should not expect, especially in the beginning, to be able to practice the prayer of simplicity for long periods of time. As soon as the loving attention begins to waver, we should turn to the use of affective prayer or simple meditation. All must be done gently and without violence. Nor should the soul be upset if periods of dryness occur. The prayer of simplicity is not always sweet and consoling type of prayer; it is also a transition from ascetical to mystical prayer, and therefore the soul may experience the aridity that normally accompanies transitional states.”

I do not understand the sentence in bold. It seems to me that at least one should actually have to do something, like will oneself to look at a rosary, and yet when one does, that seems to be violence. It’s almost as if you have to proceed as one would if he or she was attempting automatic writing or something, as if one was in a trance. The only way I am ever in anything like a trance state is when I’m on my way to sleep. This seems self-contradictory to me.

Now, back to grade three prayer:

Fr. Aumann states succinctly: "Although St. Teresa of Avila does not use the expression affective prayer in any of her writings, she does refer to this grade of prayer, and it has been accepted by all schools of spirituality. Affective prayer may be defined as a type of prayer in which the operations of the will predominate over discursus of the intellect.** It is merely a simplified meditation in which love** predominates …

And then, a little bit later:

Without doubt, meditation and affective prayer can move us to a deeper consolation of love, joy, peace and inner freedom, etc. But the true fruits should be a more transformed will to will as God wills, a more intense virtuous life, a greater sell-denial and detachment, a purer love for God and others, etc. Focusing on our feelings is a spiritual gluttony.

OK, well, I find that baffling. What is love without feeling? I know that technically love is willing the good for another and that that is something the will can do. I think I can will the good for God, but any actual emotion on my part right now is quite tepid. It doesn’t seem like I’m doing anything.

I think I have to feel at least something, and that mostly happens when I’m imploring God, Mary and my Guardian Angel for protection. And that’s one of the reasons I describe myself as being like a little baby. I try to experience God litterally as a Father watching over me and protecting me. I ask Mary to hide me in her cloak. I ask my Guardian Angel to keep any spirits not of the Holy Spirit at bay.

It’s just so . . . little . . . and so dry . . . and here I use the word dry because that is what I have seen used that seems to fit, not because I want to seem like I’m somehow advanced. It seems like I should be able to get a little more . . . consolation . . .

 

[JimR-OCDS]

It is my understanding that one must go up to at least mental prayer in order to rise higher in prayer: God meets us half-way, but we must get to the half-way point!

We must live according to our state of life. If we are cloistered, we live one way, but for those of us in the world, we must also attend to the world around us. We have a much lower threshold to meet in terms of prayer, then we must attend to our duties; we cannot neglect them even to pray!

The best thing for you to do would be to talk to a good priest. The younger priests seem to have been taught more about this, if you are unsure of your priest.

God will not be offended if you take the steps necessary to be able to pay your bills!

Mental prayer must begin the discursive vocal level prayer.

Mental prayer is merely focusing on the fact that you are praying to God in His presence. Not to an abstract God out in the cosmos.

This must take place whether you’res saying the discursive prayer, Lectio Divina, meditating or contemplative prayer.

We are in God’s presence, who dwells within.

Jim

 

[St_Francis]

Mental prayer must begin the discursive vocal level prayer.

Mental prayer is merely focusing on the fact that you are praying to God in His presence. Not to an abstract God out in the cosmos.

This must take place whether you’res saying the discursive prayer, Lectio Divina, meditating or contemplative prayer.

We are in God’s presence, who dwells within.

Jim

I was talking about mental prayer as opposed to vocal prayer, which is the first level. I think I did make the mistake of calling meditation the third rather than the second level.

 

[St_Francis]

This is what it says about grade five prayer:I believe I have read elsewhere that we should be able to attain grade five prayer on our own, but even if that isn’t true, it appears that we should be able to get to grade four on our own:I am trying to advance but without much success.

At least for the moment, I have plenty of time on my own, especially in the evenings.
I do not understand the sentence in bold. It seems to me that at least one should actually have to do something, like will oneself to look at a rosary, and yet when one does, that seems to be violence. It’s almost as if you have to proceed as one would if he or she was attempting automatic writing or something, as if one was in a trance. The only way I am ever in anything like a trance state is when I’m on my way to sleep. This seems self-contradictory to me.

Now, back to grade three prayer:And then, a little bit later:OK, well, I find that baffling. What is love without feeling? I know that technically love is willing the good for another and that that is something the will can do. I think I can will the good for God, but any actual emotion on my part right now is quite tepid. It doesn’t seem like I’m doing anything.

I think I have to feel at least something, and that mostly happens when I’m imploring God, Mary and my Guardian Angel for protection. And that’s one of the reasons I describe myself as being like a little baby. I try to experience God litterally as a Father watching over me and protecting me. I ask Mary to hide me in her cloak. I ask my Guardian Angel to keep any spirits not of the Holy Spirit at bay.

It’s just so . . . little . . . and so dry . . . and here I use the word dry because that is what I have seen used that seems to fit, not because I want to seem like I’m somehow advanced. It seems like I should be able to get a little more . . . consolation . . .

WRT violence, I think that might refer to the way one handles finding oneself to be distracted. Some people beat themselves up about it and that is an additional distraction. I have seen recommended to simply gently being one’s mind back to the meditation.

Second, consolations are gifts from God, not a normal feature of prayer. We try to allow feelings, but not to allow the feelings or questions about feelings to dominate our idea of prayer because feelings can be so easily changed by circumstance. Moreover. God will give us practice in persevering without consolations, so it helps to practice detachment from our feelings beforehand.

Talking to a knowledgeable priest would be very helpful for you. It is hard to learn this stuff out of books, and I have been a big believer in learning out of books!

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I was talking about mental prayer as opposed to vocal prayer, which is the first level. I think I did make the mistake of calling meditation the third rather than the second level.

Mental prayer begins in vocal discursive prayer.

Its when a person begins to say the prayer with the understanding that they are praying in the presence of God.

In other words, it must precede deeper levels of prayer, or the soul will not move forward, but become bored with repetitive vocal prayer and could abandon prayer all together.

This is per St Teresa.

Jim

 

[DBT]

A few random thoughts …

First, anything Father describes as Grade 5 and beyond is not within our ability to “do.” These are differing aspects of infused prayer all of which are God’s gift.

Second, there’s a distinct “flow” to these varying ways of prayer. For example, meditation can easily lead to the simplified prayer Father describes which, God willing, can lead to infused prayer. All of this can occur in the span of just a few minutes during a single time of prayer. The key, as St. John of the Cross so wonderfully describes, is to learn to let go of active ways of prayer (ie; vocal, meditation, affective) when one feels drawn to simplified prayer and/or the infused.

Lastly, the higher grades (specifically the prayer of quiet and union) don’t necessarily equate to higher levels of holiness or sanctity. In fact, St. Teresa shows that infused gifts are sometimes given to great sinners as a means to prompt conversion or to the spiritually weak in order to fortify them.

Dave

 

[LiamQ]

Have you tried to ascend these levels? What have you experienced? Please try to enlighten the rest of us.

The very first step is the one that, IMO, the vast majority of us are nowhere near taking seriously: to root out imperfections and vices, to develop virtue, and to stop even venially sinning.

People seem to be of the opinion that not sinning is the last step, whereas it’s really the first. God does not draw close to those of us who are constantly offending Him. I hope that’s not difficult to stomach, because it’s the truth, and folks who say the opposite are merely cultivating an emotional life rather than a spiritual relationship and union with God.

If you would like what I think is one of the best kept secrets in all of this, here is a list of all 64 virtues along with their opposing vices: sensustraditionis.org/Virtues.pdf.