The Eucharist in the life and writings of St. Teresa of Jesus

Abstract

Very few of us have extensive acquaintance with the mystical experience of others. Gifts say as much about the giver as about the receiver, and in the final analysis, they remain ambiguous to the outside observer. The privileged persons who have had such experiences, all agree with regard to the intense, unnatural joy involved. Nevertheless, they are equally adamant in declaring that it is practically impossible to describe similar events in detail. At best, the real nature of the gift remains a secret between the giver and the receiver. The extent of St Teresa and the Eucharist covers the whole panorama of history and theology, from Jerusalem to Spain, from the early Church to the Catholic Reformation. To see Teresa in the midst of all this, follow the line of her life from birth to death and trace her encounters with the Eucharistic Christ, many questions loom large. How could one possibly hope to gain insight into one aspect of a person's life, of anyone's life, and more, of a saint's life? Let no reader expect that in the few pages as are set out here, he will find miraculously trapped either the life or the spirit of Teresa. The Saint's mortal life, the vessel that contained her, withheld a residue when her flame had left it. This residue is a dust very rich in unusual elements. To build back with it to what it was hundreds of years ago, when the life of a human soul formed it, could only be impressionistic work. Hence, the present attempt is a portrait of a saint, a tentative study, the fruit of a writer's constant admiration of her.