Praying With St. Teresa Of Avila
As a lifelong artist who enters a zone of peace and silence while doing art, I love to see others enter this same peace and learn to use it in their prayer lives. As God has become the center of my life, my heart has become less and less restless; and art has been a big contributor to the journey. Sometimes, the praise and success from using our gifts distract us from God, especially if we forget He gave them to us! Only reading and re-reading St. Teresa of Avila’s life helped me understand how to use God’s gifts properly while keeping distractions at bay. St. Teresa persisted through years of being told she was using her gifts well, when she felt she wasn’t, to become so accomplished in prayer that she is the first woman Doctor of the Church who is cited in the Catechism’s section on prayer.
According to her, the best way to combat an entry into frenzied activity leading us down a path of emptiness involves making a commitment to daily prayer. Prayer has many variations, and all should put you in a place of peace and silence where you are talking and listening to God. In your prayer time, be it five minutes or hours, thoughts can enter your sacred silence and distract you. Worse, they can be negative or critical of yourself and others. God’s grace and your persistence allow you to combat and defeat those thoughts. Coloring in His words and words written by the Saints can help you draw closer to our God, especially if you learn some simple techniques and let go of perfectionism. Some people using the book, Coloring Meditations for a Full Life, have reported fewer distracting thoughts and more comfort with silence. Using this way of gaining the upper hand over your brain may be that little help you need to give your soul space to grow closer to God. It has become a mission of mine to teach both artists and non-artists to enrich their prayer lives by knowing more about St. Teresa by using art techniques.
My mission has been helped by the ability to communicate in both Spanish and English, so more people can strengthen their prayer lives. It’s fun to see people participate together in both languages. Sometimes, it is hard to be in a place where you do not understand what is said around you. That is our experience of God, too! His ways are so far above our ways. Of course, in our humanity, confronting a difficult or uncomfortable situation is made easier with practice gained by attending events that provide a warm forgiving environment where you get to interact with all kinds of people. In bilingual situations, little interactions start where people discover they are more alike than different. Then, they gain a sense of comfort and accomplishment in the virtue of loving one's neighbor. Join with fellow travelers, and gain a new way to pray, a new confidence, a renewed faith, more hope and encouragement from others.
Please feel free to visit Art2Pray.com and request a free copy of the first part of Coloring Meditations for a Full life, and read the blog posts to learn more about this important mission.
Learn about St. Teresa’s life and benefit from using her wisdom to grow in your faith life at Woford’s Praying with St. Teresa Retreat. St. Joseph Parish in Jasper is hosting the event from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. EDT on Sept. 9 This afternoon for prayer is for families of all ages. Registration is $10 for adults or $25 for a family. Register online at www.evdio.org/catechesis.html. Come after the 11:30 a.m. Mass in English or 1 p.m. Mass in Spanish, or before the 6 p.m. Mass in English. Refreshments will be provided.
