Discovering Your Spiritual Path for 2008

December 4, 2007

December, 2007 
 
Discovering Your Spiritual Path for 2008 
By Carol S. Batey, Lifestyle Coach, 
 
As we journey toward a new year, we can create or enhance 
our spiritual path. In humility and faith in our Higher 
Source and ourselves, we can dream the deepest dreams 
possible to us. Are you ready to explore a blueprint left 
for us by the mystics of the 16th Century? 
In October’s newsletter, I introduced the mystics St. 
Teresa of Ávila and St. John of the Cross. Now I will 
expand on their struggles, challenges, and the spiritual 
path they left as an example for us over 400 years ago.  
One definition of “mystic”, according to Webster’s 
Dictionary, is a person who has faith, or believes that 
communion with God or awareness of spiritual truth can be 
attained through subjective experience (intuition or 
insight).  
In the Holy Scriptures, it is stated that “… many are 
called, but few are chosen”. A mystic is one who is called 
to experience God and Spirit firsthand—not far off in the 
distance. Spirit teaches these persons on a deep soul 
level. In Sylvia Browne’s book Phenomenon, on page 190, 
she describes what she calls the “Mystical Traveler”. The 
mystical traveler is that rare advanced spirit who has 
essentially said to God, “Wherever on this earth you need 
me, I’ll willingly go.” The mystical traveler devotes 
himself to the divine purpose of strengthening the 
spiritual connection between him or her and God as a 
thriving, active force. Silvia Browne says that the 
mystical traveler has a peaceful acceptance of sacrifice 
and discomfort; an uncommon empathy; the generosity, the 
kindness, and the unwillingness to sit idle when someone 
needs help. Could this be your mission? If so, you have 
to be really unattached to persons, places and things!  
Noted Author Carolyn Myss, in her book Sacred Contracts 
(page 80), sets forth the work of another author, Evelyn 
Underhill, whose book is simply called Mysticism. This 
scholar has distilled the enlightenment process into five 
stages:  
 
• awakening 
• purification 
• illumination 
• the dark night of the soul 
• divine union 
 
All this equals the Divine Call in life, which is your 
purpose. How do you hear Spirit’s calling in your life?  
Have you had a dream of something you should be doing in 
your life? Have you felt the impulse to follow a prompting 
that leads you down a spiritual path, towards a destined 
area of your life that was missing? How many of us say yes 
when we are called? How many then step into our desired 
destinies with humility and faith?  
On the other hand, how many of us have let others talk us 
out of what was ours to do in this world? Or do we run 
from that nudging by Spirit? Do we say, “I will when I get 
my work project done!”—and then move on to another 
project?! Is that you? This is why it is said that many 
are called, but few are chosen. It’s because they don’t 
answer with a YES!  
As we approach the New Year, I am sure there are many 
things you would like to leave behind from 2007 in order to 
embrace some newness for your spiritual path in 2008. It is 
all possible with Spirit, if you only believe!  
Let’s look into St. Teresa’s life to see what we might 
possibly implement into ours.  
St. Teresa of Ávila was born in Spain in 1515. When she 
was still quite young, she devoted her life to God. Even 
though she rebelled over and over again, Teresa finally 
grew up. God became her “Beloved”. This ordinary woman, who 
had never had a formal education, yet soared to such 
heights that we all know her today. Rather than being 
taught by “learned men”, as she would call them, she 
answered with humility the call to become a mystic. 
Following her spiritual path, she devoted herself to prayer 
and meditation—sometimes all day long.  
Even though she humbly prayed around the clock, Teresa 
never felt worthy enough to grace God’s presence. In our 
day, we would say that she had a self-esteem problem. This 
woman now considered a saint had a mind and body full of 
doubts, fears, illness, and dullness.  
Yet she believed her sickness made her fall more deeply in 
love with her Beloved, God. Often Teresa actually asked 
for afflictions, so as to feel closer to her God, to 
identify with him dying as Jesus on the cross. Can you, 
the reader, identify with St. Teresa’s spiritual way of 
drawing nearer to her Beloved? Along with prayer and 
meditation, humility was her entry to open the door to the 
Divine. She died to her personal self daily.  
Throughout her life, Teresa hoped for someone who 
understood what her soul was going through, someone who was 
also traveling along a spiritual path. And she was hoping 
that someone like her Bishops could explain the spiritual 
happenings in her life to her. No one could really do this, 
however, except her Beloved; he was her teacher.  
One day, Teresa met St. John of the Cross. He was 
twenty-five years of age at the time. John could look 
within Teresa’s soul and tell her what she was 
experiencing: the “dark night of the soul”. This 
understanding was based on his own experience of feeling 
alone while going through tough spiritual crises. One of 
John’s famous poems was written after he was kidnapped for 
nine months and endured physical, emotional and mental 
abuse. Before escaping, he wrote many poems about the 
“dark nights of the soul”, about escape, and of one day 
being free again to worship in spirit and in truth. Beaten 
and mistreated by his jailers, his clothes covered with 
blood, John could identify with the suffering that St. 
Teresa’s soul was also enduring.  
St. John of the Cross’s book The Ascent of Mount Carmel, as 
well as other books with his inspiring poems and life 
stories, is available in the public libraries. Author Rowan 
Williams, in Great Spirits of 1000-2000, says of St. John 
of the Cross on page 96, “Very few Christian writers have 
so plainly set out what it means to allow God to be God 
when we pray, and how this entails for us both total cost 
and total transformation.” 
St. Teresa named John the “father of my soul”. At one time, 
he was her confessor. Have you ever wished that just one 
human being on this earth could explain some happening in 
your soul’s life? Teresa was much older than John; she was 
old enough to be his mother! However, they found comfort in 
each other for many years. St. Teresa taught her nuns to 
find someone to offer support on their spiritual quest. 
Don’t go through the “dark nights” alone! I say find a 
close companion to share the spiritual journey, or a 
spiritual community of people who believe as you do.  
In her mid-forties, Teresa got what she so desired—some 
would call them mystical graces: She heard voices, she had 
a vision of God and others, and she was carried up into the 
heavens to fellowship with her Beloved. This remarkable 
humble woman became known for being able to turn her 
mysticism into divine importations of art, poetry, and 
dance, integrating it all into her spiritual life with her 
divine Beloved. She created new foundations and 
improvements for her order, speaking out again and again 
for reforms to situations she felt were unjust and changing 
them. For a woman of that period, this type of activity was 
unheard of! St. Teresa taught the male monks, as well as 
her nuns—which was also unheard of! She was loved by many, 
who looked up to her and treated her with much respect.  
Her superiors and the Bishop to whom she confessed, knowing 
about her unusual prayer lifestyle and worship devotions, 
insisted that Teresa write her life story. This, The Book 
of My Life, and Interior Castle, instructing the nuns and 
monks, can also be found at the public libraries.  
All Teresa wanted to do was to stay in contemplative 
prayer, which is a silent prayer along with meditation.  
This is how Teresa reached true sanctification, which is 
described in both books. Her story speaks of her 
fortitude, determination, courage and humility in serving 
her Beloved. Humbly she exclaimed, “For the love of God, 
let me work at my spinning, go to worship, and go to choir 
and perform my religious duties like the other sisters!”  
All Teresa wanted to do was to be in the Holy presence of 
her God.  
Although St. Teresa had a unique relationship with God, 
when she was asked to write, she didn’t think she could do 
it. She felt that she lacked “the smarts”, and that her 
health was too bad. She thought, why not let the “learned 
men” do it? Still, when the Bishop asked her to write, she 
wrote! Throughout her writing, Teresa insisted that she 
didn’t know how to write so that one could understand.  
After writing and writing, she had such a lack of faith in 
what she had tried to convey that she never re-read her own 
writings. Yet she left edifying material for her “sons and 
daughters” that inspired the world for many years to come.  
 
It is easy to see that St. Teresa was an extraordinary 
devotee of God, a gifted writer, reformer and theologian.  
Do you wonder how she accomplished all this impressive 
work? As she said, she had limited abilities. Yet in 1969, 
she was posthumously named a Doctor of the Church. It must 
have been her spiritual practice that enabled St. Teresa to 
accomplish what she did. In my book In Due Season, I 
discuss spiritual practice, fortitude, and determination. 
At the time I wrote that, I did not know about St. Teresa.  
Did she know me, I wonder?  
In her writings, St. Teresa described a vision, in which 
she saw a diamond with many facets, a castle with many 
chambers, which she likened to the soul. (This is 
comparable to the mansion with many rooms that Jesus 
described in speaking of Heaven). The chief area, says St. 
Teresa, is the center, where the Spirit lives and the most 
secret things pass between God and the soul.  
The first door of entry is prayer and meditation. In The 
Book of My Life (page 55), St. Teresa affirms that there is 
a sweet blessing the Beloved gives to those who persevere 
in prayer. “Prayer is the doorway to the kind of exquisite 
gifts he has given me,” St. Teresa continues. If we keep 
that door closed, how can he give us what we need? The 
“Beloved” may be wanting to grace our soul with delight, 
but he can’t get in! Unless he finds the soul solitary, 
empty, and longing for his love, there is nothing he can 
do. We put obstacles in his way and make no effort to 
remove them. And yet we want God to do us favors! 
In the 1st room of St. Teresa’s visionary castle, the souls 
there are so infirm and busy with outside affairs that 
nothing can be done for them. It seems as though, of 
themselves, these souls are incapable of entering at all. 
Once they do enter, they can’t remain for a long time. In 
this state, a person is still searching for answers in this 
world—which is an illusion. In order to progress, 
self-knowledge and humility must be developed, St. Teresa 
instructs. She reminds us that the door of entry into the 
castle is meditation and prayer—mental prayers, rather than 
spoken.  
When the soul is ready to advance to the 2nd room, a 
spiritual practice must be in place, asserts St. Teresa. 
Her spiritual practice, created over 400 years ago, was 
prayer and meditation, listening to sermons, edifying 
conversations, good company, and reading uplifting books. 
These tools increased her power to resist temptation.  
I believe that once we seek out a deeper spiritual path, we 
often come upon opposition. St. Teresa says that the power 
to resist temptation when we feel opposed is increased by 
knowing that we can combat it with our spiritual practice.  
We must learn to know our soul and gain control over it.  
My personal spiritual practice includes attending services 
at church, eating wholesome foods, exercising, prayer and 
meditation, reading, enjoying uplifting music and TV 
programs, talking to supportive people, and journaling.  
Have you developed your spiritual practice for this year?  
If not, put one in place for 2008! 
3rd Room: Exemplary Life. This room helps you to perfect 
your prayer life. It involves a high standard of virtue.  
At this stage, St. Teresa admonishes, the soul hasn’t yet 
experienced to the full the love of the spirit. The soul’s 
progress is slow, because the soul is still governed by 
reason. Heed not your own understanding, warns St. Teresa.  
First the soul must recover from the sorrow of sin, through 
controlled discipline and penance (“punishment for sin” in 
the Roman Catholic Church). What is required is a full set 
of oblations (offerings to God), a total surrender of self. 
This often comes through sickness and trials, giving the 
soul a means of discerning truth while praying. St. Teresa 
welcomed an illness, since she believed it brought her 
closer to God—which she felt made her more like the 
Beloved.  
4th Room: A promise to marry. Prayer for union with God 
(“marriage”) is the way of entering the mystic life! The 
soul shrinks and God increases within the castle. The 
grace of this promised marriage is “spiritual consolation”. 
In The Interior Castle, St. Teresa calls this the Prayer 
of Quiet. 
I looked up the word “consolation” in the dictionary. It 
means “. . .a comforting person, thing or event.” When one 
comes to pray, wanting whatever is needed to shift one’s 
life or that of a loved one, comfort is received. St. 
Teresa says that the soul flows like water in a fountain; 
its love is free, and all bounds, or limits, are gone from 
its progression. The soul does not run from trials, and 
there is no importance to anything in the world. There are 
no attachments. 
5th Room: Possession by God. Here we release our personal 
will to the Will of God. We surrender to the Beloved.  
Ultimately, St. Teresa says that we do not have a will of 
our own. Our desire becomes God’s Will only. 
In the 6th Room, the lover and the Beloved grow in love. In 
the stages of a mystic, this is the purification stage.  
Here many afflictions are experienced in the exterior 
world: sickness, misunderstanding, backbiting and 
persecution, the timidity of inexperience, sometimes 
over-scrupulous spiritual direction, and even undeserved 
praise. These afflictions may also occur within (in the 
interior), St. Teresa continues. Often we don’t want to go 
into the 6th room, because it doesn’t always feel 
comfortable. Here we feel our insecurities, and the dark 
night of the soul comes upon us.  
The only way to gain freedom from these afflictions is to 
progress to the center of the castle, wherein is the 
innermost comfort. What St. Teresa is saying here is that, 
when we face challenging times on our spiritual path, we 
may overcome them by going within our soul to seek the 
center, where Spirit lives. There freedom is found, and it 
remains inside our soul. Through prayer, meditation, and 
putting into play our spiritual practice, we have the tools 
to come through and not get stuck inside that 6th room of 
the soul! This purifies us for the divine union with God. 
The last room is Spiritual Marriage: Complete 
transformation and perfect peace. This stage is the Divine 
call. At this time, you and Spirit unite or integrate and 
become one. You have achieved your self-knowledge through 
humility, detachment and suffering.  
What this saint wants us to experience is knowledge of our 
soul, as we move through the many rooms to get to the 
center. So whenever you get lost or weak, return to Room 1 
and work through the process, room by room, to the center 
of your soul. Spirit is there waiting to unite with you 
again and again. Welcome home!  
As you can see, Saint Teresa and Saint John of the Cross 
imprinted our hearts, souls and minds with their blueprint. 
Their stories help inspire us along our path. We all have 
a call to know ourselves and the divine Beloved. Then it’s 
our responsibility to reach out and help another on his or 
her spiritual path. “Where much is given much is required”. 
Take time to examine where you can create, enhance or renew 
your spiritual path in order to answer destiny’s call for 
2008. Spirit is always calling us to action! Many are 
called, but because of fear and doubt, few answer by saying 
yes. Just remember this: 
 
Christ has no body now but yours, 
No hands, no feet on earth but yours. 
Yours are the eyes through which He looks, 
Compassion on the world. 
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. 
Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world. 
Christ has no body now but yours. 
 
? St. Teresa of Ávila 
 
As a Life Coach, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t 
pose these questions to you: 
 
1. Are you willing to allow God to show up through your 
body? 
2. How are you allowing God’s hands within you to be used? 
3. Can you say Yes? 
 
This ends our year. Happy Holidays to you and your family. 
Thanks to all of you who have read my works, visited my 
site, been to my classes, and supported my mission and 
spiritual destiny to help instruct, enlighten and inspire 
you on your spiritual path. 
 
Blessings, 
 
Carol Batey, Lifestyle Coach 
www.artlifestylecoach.com