The Spirit of S. Teresa

THE "Exclamations of the Soul to God" were written by S. Teresa, according to the Bollandists, in the year 1579. They are the outpourings of her soul before God after Holy Communion. The" Directions on Prayer and on the Life of Prayer" have been extracted chiefly from L' Esprit du Ste. Therese, published in 1775 by M. Emery, afterwards Superior of S. Sulpice, who selected such passages from the. Various writings of the Saint as, although directly addressed to religious, convey a practical lesson to all who aim at leading a life of close union with God. The Novena preparatory to the Feasts of s. Teresa is written by an unknown hand. Its dedication to Madame Louise de France, Novice Carmelite, fixes as its date the year 1770, when the daughter of Louis XV. left his brilliant and dissolute court for the solitude of Carmel, and received her father's conversion as her reward. This work begins: "o my life, 0 my life, how canst thou endure to be separated from thy true Life? In what canst thou busy thyself'in this deep solitude? What canst thou do, when all thy works are so full of defects and imperfections? O my soul, who can console thee, exposed as thou art upon this tempestuous and stormy sea? I weep when I consider what I am, and I weep still more that I have lived so long without weeping. o Lord, how sweet are Thy ways! but who can walk therein without fear? I tremble lest my life should pass away without doing any thing for Thee; and when I try to serve Thee, nothing that I do contents me, because I can do nothing to repay Thee the least part of the debt lowe Thee. I feel that I would consume myself in Thy service; but when Ilook upon my own misery, I see that I can do nothing good but what Thou Thyself enablest me to do."