A walk to know yourself with St. Teresa of Jesus: Teacher of self-knowledge
Article written by Fr. Luis Joaquin Castañeda, OCD
In looking for the root of problems in my life and in the lives of those to whom I minister, I have realized that many of the issues are rooted in a lack of self-knowledge. As I have studied the writings of Holy Mother St. Teresa, I discovered that she has much to teach us about self-knowledge. This topic became even more relevant when I realized the extent that my work would focus on human formation.
As the formator of the Province of St. Thérèse, I am now responsible for our formandees (our young postulants in formation to enter our Order) and their personal and spiritual formation. Early on, I realized the need to help our formandees to know themselves from the very first stage of formation. Otherwise, it becomes more challenging to help them deal with their problems and those of the community.
In St. Teresa’s teachings, self-knowledge and prayer go hand in hand; as we grow in authentic prayer, knowledge of God and his greatness will come at the same time as improved understanding of oneself. Self-knowledge is a particular gift from God, though, as she explains, sometimes attained at a great price. “I consider one day of self-knowledge a greater favor from the Lord, even though the day may cost us numerous afflictions and trials, than many days of prayer,” she writes in Foundations.
God’s Presence in the Past
A primary goal in the first stages of initial formation of postulants in our Province is to help a young man to reconcile his personal history with his present. As formators, we try to guide a formandee to see, embrace, and live his personal plan of God’s salvation. A key to reaching this goal is that we realize that all the different events, good or bad, that have impacted our lives until the present are part of God’s plan for us.
An individual can find through self-knowledge how God has been present and active in his life even in the difficult times. Self-knowledge helps the formandee accept the negative experiences in his life and at the same time, find healing of the wounds from those negative experiences, with God’s grace.
Taking stock of the positive experiences that the formandee has been given in his life will prompt him to thank God for all His blessings and by doing so become a more grateful person. He will gain the ability to experience and appreciate all that he receives in his years of formation from God and the formative community. Likewise, a formandee can discover through self-knowledge that the presence of God in his life is a Paschal presence, and in this presence he recognizes the loving mercy of God throughout his life.
Testing Motives
Self-knowledge can also help those in formation better to discern God’s call to the Consecrated Life. We realize that a variety of motives can lead a young man to join our formative community. We follow a process to help a formandee discern the true motives that God may use to call him to consecration to God in our Order.
Self-knowledge helps the person discover those motives and directs him in building his true vocation. Many times as the person gets to know himself, he comes to see that what brought him to discern his vocation to our Carmelite Order may not be exactly what he had thought. Nevertheless, in the process of self-knowledge and formation, he can focus those motives in a way that help him grow in his desire to give himself to God. In doing so, he finds the beauty and goodness of his true vocation.
In the Beginning
In Genesis, we learn about God creating Adam and giving everything to him. Yet Adam deprives himself of all that God had given him and closes himself off to the goodness of God by attempting to be like God. Furthermore, in this passage we see Adam blaming Eve who, in turn, blames the serpent.
When we blame another for our decisions, like Adam and Eve, it is because we do not know ourselves. Many times we also do so to avoid facing our true ourselves. In our vocation as Christians, knowing ourselves can help us, in turn, understand how to relate better with others and with our Lord Jesus Christ and thus to grow in our spiritual life.
From the very beginning, we must invite God into our journey of self-awareness. Otherwise, we may get lost or stalled in our growth. God created us; who better than Him to help us to know how we are made?
As taught by St. Teresa
For Holy Mother St. Teresa, self-knowledge begins with the knowledge of God. “In my opinion, we shall never completely know ourselves if we don’t strive to know God,” she writes in Interior Castle. “By gazing at His grandeur, we get in touch with our own lowliness; by looking at His purity, we shall see our own filth; by pondering His humility, we shall see how far we are from being humble.” If we do not know God, then we will never truly grasp the knowledge of ourselves.
She invites us to continually practice self-knowledge to grow in our spiritual life and development as a person. “Always, as long as we live, even for the sake of humility, it is good to know our miserable nature,” she writes in her autobiography. God has given many different gifts to each of us. At the same time, we need to know our limitation and our sins, as painful as facing them can be. Knowing this can help us to deepen our relationship with God and with others and can lead us to give ourselves more freely to the service of the people who live around us and of course, to give ourselves to the service of the church.
To know yourself is to discover a personal history that marks the beginning of a new relationship with God. As we discover the light and darkness in ourselves, we live in the truth of God.
The true discovery is finding out how much God loves you. We are created in the image and likeness of God. Discovering the divine in yourself, together with Jesus you participate in the divinity of God. We are all born with infinite potential and equal worth as human beings. That we are anything less is a false belief that we have learned over time. We are children of the living and merciful God.
This Lent, I invite you to reflect on the teachings of St. Teresa, specifically as she draws us into the process of self-knowledge in the following passages (from her autobiography, except #4, marked with chapter and paragraph numbers).
Prayer (7, 17)
Christ pushes us to know ourselves (12, 6)
Have friendship with persons of prayer (7, 20)
Learn from criticism and feedback (Way of Perfection 15, 3)
Help with personal limitations (7, 19)
Recognize the mercy of God (4, 10)
Recognize false humility (4, 10)
Article first published in the Apostolate of the Little Flower Vol. 87, No. 1
Fr. Luis Joaquin Castañeda, OCD, is a native of Mexico. He began his religious formation in the Discalced Carmelite Order in the US after meeting the Discalced Carmelite Nuns in New Caney, Texas. Fr. Luis completed his postulancy and novitiate in the Marylake formation house in Arkansas. After making his first Vows, he began his theology studies in New Orleans and finished them in San Antonio, where he also completed his formation for the priesthood. Ordained in 2003, Fr. Luis continued his studies in religious formation. Fr. Luis has also served as vicar for the Carmelite Nuns of the Province and is immediate past Provincial Superior of the St. Thérèse Province. He is now serving the in Oklahoma City community as superior, Province formator, and parish vicar in the Little Flower parish there.
