A discussion of Carmelite spirituality would be incomplete without St. Teresa of
Avila, the Doctor of the Church. She is most notable for her mystical visions and
teachings on prayer. Yet, before touching upon these topics, I decided to start with the
fundamental: Who God is for St. Teresa. I believe our spiritual lives can benefit from this
fundamental understanding alone.
The Importance of Christ’s Humanity: Our Real Friend’s Life to Learn From
St. Teresa’s most notable teaching about God is the importance of Jesus’
humanity. (Life 22.8-10) She holds that it is only through the personal relationship of the
human Jesus that we can reach God. 1 The Risen Jesus is our true friend (Life 22.6) in
whom, when we are in need, “we look at Him as a man, we see Him weak and in trouble,
and He is our companion”. (Life 22.11) St. Teresa’s experience from her numerous
visions of the Risen Jesus’ humanity (Life 28.1-3) has firmly established her
understanding of God’s love, peace, power and truth. 2
St. Teresa always sees Christ as the Risen One, a living Jesus, rather than a Christ
in history. She often uses terms such as “Spouse” when addressing the Lord. The living
Christ has a real presence in the Eucharist, the living bread for us. The fact that, on many
occasions, St. Teresa’s visions occurred after communion shows that her relationship with
Christ transcends physical closeness. The Risen Jesus encounters have the transforming
power to increase our faith and love of God, to give us real freedom, to liberate us from
fear, to renew our hope, to give dynamism to our lives, and to overcome the difficulties
and agonies we face in our human existence.
Christ’s Humanity is Our Lessons
St. Teresa emphasises that the humanity of Christ enables us to attain spirituality,
not as a hindrance to it. She explains that experiencing Christ is experiencing God (Life
10.1), and through Christ’s love, we can experience God’s love. (Life 22.14) Furthermore,
she stresses that our spiritual growth and the full union with God can only be attained
through Christ. (Interior Castle 6.7.6)
For St. Teresa, Jesus is “the living book” which teaches all Christians the meaning
of our existence. 3 She urges us to reflect on Jesus’ earthly life, no matter what our
psychological state is, because Jesus’ life can always resemble our own situations and
emotions, from joy to sadness to suffering. (Way of Perfection 26.4-5) By following
Jesus, we can integrate our lives into fullness to forge our relationship with the Father.
She considers this living book of Jesus so perfect that “if we study it, no other book
seems necessary.” (Way of Perfection 37.1)
Salvation: United with God
Since God’s salvific plan is centred on the Incarnation and Resurrection, Christ’s
humanity through Incarnation has implications in St. Teresa’s understanding of God’s
salvific plan. First, St. Teresa sees a spatial dimension in salvation. In her vision of
paradise, St. Teresa sees heaven as an inhabited space, populated by people she knows.
(Life 38) Second, not only do people dwell in this salvific space, but so does the Trinity
dwell there. Third, when explaining the spiritual marriage, St. Teresa finds that “union
[with God] takes place in the innermost centre of the soul where God Himself must
dwell”. (Interior Castle VII.2.2) These three characteristics imply that while people in
heaven dwell within the spatial dimension with the Trinity, in our earthly lives, the
Trinity Himself dwells within our souls. Such an intimate union with God, one of the core
emphases in Carmelite spirituality, strongly resembles the Johannine concept: “Abide in
me, and I in you.” (Jn. 15:4)
The Holy Spirit: the Power that Moves Us to New Life and New Things
In her visions, St. Teresa rarely sees God the Father alone. Rather, she always saw
Christ’s figure as the image of God, and her vision of the Trinity is manifested through
Christ. In her vision of the Trinity, on four occasions, St. Teresa saw “Him [the most
sacred Humanity] with amazing clarity in the bosom of the Father.” (Life 38.17-18) Thus,
Christ plays a central role as a gateway in her Trinitarian understanding. 4
In St. Teresa’s writings, the communication from the Holy Spirit, the Third Person
of God, is mostly movement-based. 5 St. Teresa calls for the guidance of the Spirit to
mend human relationships, as we can see in her letters. The Spirit has the power to bring
movements which can lead people to “new life”. In the Interior Castle, especially moving
between the higher mansions, the Spirit plays a key role in the displacement and
decentering of the soul towards God. 6 It is the Spirit who deconstructs or purges
something, opening space for new things to take place. The Virgin Mary, during the
annunciation, is one example. (Lk. 1:34-35) Finally, the Spirit is also responsible for the
movement of inspiration. It includes individual conversions and the collective divine calls
to apostolic work.
Reflections: How can Christ’s Humanity Sustain My Everyday Life?
1. Have we focused on Christ’s life as a human and imitate His way in our daily
lives? Such as how he managed solitude amid his busy work, how he dealt with friends
and companions, how he humbled himself, how he faced enemies and confrontations,
how he empathised and tolerated his disciples and sinners, and how he bore suffering and
death.
2. Do we have a “space” for the Holy Spirit to work on us? This “space” can be
moments of quietness or a physical space. It can also be a spiritual “space” in our heart.
We all have unsettled desires, worries, bad memories, or maybe bitterness out of unfair
treatment. Yet, St. Teresa reminds us that we still need to “reserve a space” for the Holy
Spirit, a space that allows God’s love to move us forward and give us energy to respond
to his work.
(965 words + 73 words endnotes)
(Author: Edward Yee, 8 June 2026)
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