What is prayer …? (3) ‘like a stream’

This is the third blog post on Teresa of Avila’s four waters of prayer, which is a description of Teresa’s experience of prayer outlined in chapters 11 to 22 of her autobiography (Life).

Here, we explore the third water (chapters 16, 17), which develops Teresa’s metaphor of prayer as like watering a garden.

We have already looked at the first water and second water. The third water continues on the established theme of decreasing human effort in prayer, as it is met by the divine work of grace.

In the third water, Teresa uses the image of a stream flowing through the garden. This is not entirely without work, as the gardener needs to direct the water (Life, 16). But the overwhelming effort comes from the natural flow of God’s grace, like a stream running through the garden.

In the third water of prayer, the effort of the intellect (understanding) is far reduced. The ‘heavy work’ of active thought in the first water, like hauling up buckets of water from a well, is replaced by an attentive focus on God that is fixed, yet settled and gentle (Life 16.4).

There is a profound encounter with God in prayer (in Teresa’s form of language, ‘Union’ (Life 17.5)), which is personal and relational. We not only gaze upon God, but God gazes upon us, in face-to-face encounter. And here, we are aware of God, and ourselves, as we truly are.

But unlike the fourth water, it is a less than complete form of encounter or union with God (Life, 17.7). We are still aware of ourselves. Our will, understanding and memory are still free, even they are gently held in a state of peace and joy (Life, 17.5).

This may sound inward-looking and like it lacks any connection to ‘real life’. But Teresa isn’t advocating an introspective retreat within oneself.

The journey may be an inner one, but it has an outward motion also, as the rich nourishment of prayer leads to transformation in Christ and loving service. These again may sound like quite abstract concepts, but they have concrete expression in our identity, relationships and actions.

We may ask, how am I being changed by encounter with God (in Christ)? What does that look like, in terms of who I am and what I do?

Here, the detail is important; it’s in the everyday and ordinary of small things done with great love.

The third water is characterised by it expressing both Martha and Mary (Luke 10: 38-42), in a fusion of the active (Martha) and contemplative (Mary) (Life 17.6).

In the second water, Teresa describes how it is easy to be absorbed in quiet prayer as a pleasant and enjoyable experience. There is a desire to rest in that pleasant state, rather than get on with everyday life.

But here, there is a fusion of the active and contemplative, so that one is indistinct from the other.

It has been said, that it must be ‘inefficient’ for Teresa to have lived and worked in this state. That is quite possibly true. (Sometimes, in her writing, Teresa does come across as a somewhat scattered and easily-distractible person!)

But it this active-contemplative awareness of God is something that those who live religious life in community, and also lay people living a secular expression of the charism, may discover as part of everyday lived experience.

It is a movement of God within us; a gentle awareness of God and self, in encounter; and a receiving of the gifts of joy and love that overflow into our life, in the here-and-now.