‘Souls who do not practise prayer are like
people paralyzed or cripped; even though they have hands and feet they cannot
give orders to these hands and feet.’ - ‘This turning away from one’s interior
life is one of earth’s greatest tragedies.’
In the wake of our bishops’ statement
on Catholic schools, these words from Teresa of Avila together with Kieran
Kavanagh OCD’s following comment (The
Interior Castle, Study Edition) might
usefully be read in reference to our teachers, as to everyone. Some may discount
Teresa’s title, Doctor of the Church, but this 16th century mystic is
conceded to be as Fr Kavanagh says, ‘one of the most profound spiritual
teachers in the history of Christianity, and a vivid witness to divine
realities’ (which obviously aren’t seen by some).
What are we doing to actuate ‘the
beauty and dignity of the human person’ (ibid) for our beleaguered teachers?
With both parents in many families forced to work, time and money poor, stressed
in ways previously unheard of, kids in Catholic classrooms - although not as
much as secular schools, thank God – constantly present new behavioural
problems for teachers to solve, while precious teaching time is appropriated to ‘assessment’:
soul-destroying paperwork.
‘All the good works a soul might do
while in mortal sin are fruitless … they cannot be pleasing in (God’s) sight’
(ibid). Hmmm. Should we take that seriously? Yes. No matter how well we do what
we do, teaching preaching or otherwise, while serious sin goes unconfessed and
unforgiven, fundamentally our work is no good to anyone.
‘These crippled souls … are quite unfortunate
and in serious danger ... Those who have completely neglected prayer and the
interior life can no longer do anything to help themselves change, they need
help from the Lord himself’ (ibid).
There are many, many prayerful - dare
I say holy - teachers in Catholic schools, but as authoritative voices are raised
requesting theological qualifications for R E teachers, Teresa’s 16th
century advice is very contemporary. Theology’s no use without the Holy
Spirit’s enlightenment. Like the rest of us, teachers need to learn prayer - which ‘consists not in thinking much’
(theology) ‘but in loving much’ (generous self-surrender to God and community).
Oh dear. That’s going to take time,
and who’s got any of that? Not teachers. But it’s precisely that lack of time and
knowledge of prayer’s benefits which the evil one manipulates to his fiendish
ends and our sticky ones. We’re not likely to gamble even ten minutes a day on
prayer until we’re convinced of the slow but sure results.
Joy. Trust in God. Gradual reconstruction
of lifestyle and priorities. Living lovingly in community. Freedom from regrets,
fear, worries about family, health, money, the environment, terrorism, world poverty
or other people’s opinions (except for fear of alienating them from God). Concerns
yes, worries no. No fear of earthquakes!
Living in the Divine Will. Like a
leaf borne on the current of a river towards the weir which is union with Christ.
