Ahava and Blessings
Today we celebrate day 7 of our Novena to St Teresa of Avila.
St Teresa of Avila was a pragmatic Mystic. Many times she would literally be transported, she would levitate and the nuns would say: here she goes again. She lived religion and spirituality totally different from the imposed Catholic Religion. She did not like penances or punishments and she mistrusted what she called learned men. She sometimes would pray with a broom and rosary in her hand at the same time. She felt there was no separation between the manifest world and the spirit world. This view is held by all mystics, including Yeshua and Mary Magdalene. She believed that spirituality is the WAY OF LOVE, THE WAY OF THE HEART, and that it couldn´t be thought or rationalized. She did believe in a Higher Intellect, I would say an opening of our channel to receive Higher Wisdom and Mystery teachings.
One day St Teresa of Avila was in the kitchen cooking, she was holding a frying pan and she started to levitate. The nuns were scared, not at her levitating, they were scared that she may burn herself with the hot oil. Everyone knew about these raptures, as she called them. Once she came out of the rapture she continued to cook and everything was 3D again. It is fascinating how she could live in so many dimensions at the same time and ultimately always remember that her earthly responsibilities and incarnation were part of her Spiritual Ascension.
St Teresa of Avila believed that there were two states of prayer: the active and the Passive. The active state was a commitment to prayer, meditation, purification, any practice that empties us. The second state, the passive state, comes as a result, when the mind is quieted we receive the sweetness of the Divine, thus we receive our souls. The receptive state in my experience is the most active state we could ever experience, as in stillness we allow creation to BE, to MANIFEST, and we are taken into the essence of who we are. Mary Magdalene has the same view of prayer and for this reason I named my third book Mary Magdalene and the Path of Alaha Shela: The path of prayer that brings us into Sacred Unity.
Day 7 of Novena
Say out loud:
St. Teresa, I ask that you open the doors to the interior castle of my heart so I too may begin the journey into the power of prayer. I ask that you grant me this gift. Make me a channel of Creativity and Inspiration.
Read the following written by St. Teresa of Ávila. Please note that GOD as she calls the Divine has no Gender, I am just being faithful to the translation.
Remember: if you want to make progress on the path and ascend to the places you have longed for, the important thing is not to think much but to love much, and so to do whatever best awakens you to love. — Teresa of Avila, from The Interior Castle
When I first began to receive visions of Christ, I was aware that he was speaking to me. I gazed at his great beauty and felt the sweetness of the words that came from his divine mouth, even when they were stern. I desperately wanted to know the color of his eyes and how tall he was, so that I could accurately describe them later. But . . . striving [to see these things] produced no results. In fact, the effort only made the vision vanish. Sometimes I see him looking at me with heartbreaking compassion. In general, the vision is so powerful that my soul cannot bear it and slips into a divine rapture. I lose the vision so that I can more fully enjoy the vision. So it’s not a matter of being willing or unwilling. It is clear that all the Beloved wants of us is humility humility and holy bewilderment. He wants us to accept what we are given and praise the One who gives it. — Teresa of Avila, from Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life
On this 7th day of the Novena, let us reflect on the following:
1. How can we bring more love into our life. St. Teresa tells us to love much and to do whatsoever awakens us to love. I love music, chanting, drumming and learning different instruments, and I love to dance! This practice awakens me to love so much that when I don´t practice music or dance in my life I feel my energy change. What absorbs your attention and pushes away the ego? It could be a walk, cooking, dancing, writing, it could even be the work that you do. Whatever awakens you to love, bring more of this into your life.
2. St Teresa of Avila says that the Abwoon wants humility and holy bewilderment. How can we be humble in our practice? If you are reading this you are an awakened soul. An awakened Soul is a privileged Soul. How can we stay humble with the blessings that have been given to us as AWAKENED SOULS. When you are finish reflecting, chant and do the Movement Prayer in the video included below.
AHAVA
RACHAMIN
CHESED
SHALOM
INANA NOOHRA DI ALMA
Ahava,
Ana Otero