St Teresa is the great teacher on spiritual growth and what that looks like putting a map on the mystery and in the book of her interior Castle she talks about seven stages of spiritual growth and so I want to give you a very brief summary of what that looks like the seven stages to get an idea of the context of when at what point in her life did this trans viberation happen the first stage of State the basic state of Friendship with God the way to enter into the interior Castle is through a life of prayer there is no communion with god without a life of prayer personal prayer and the first stage of how prayer grows is vocal prayer when we're faithful to saying our prayers and we don't just say them like lip service but we are conscious of to whom we are speaking and we allow our hearts to be United with what we're saying and being mindful of who we're speaking with and so the prominent form of prayer at this point is vocal prayer learning how to pray the rosary learning how to pray the Psalms uh learning different prayers that speak to our need that that enrich our soul that keep us grounded in in the truth and in friendship with God and help us to lift up our mind and heart to the Lord in a way that is that is really bringing about a relationship and not just the saying of a formula that's the first stage of prayer this state is when a person is now being on good terms with the Lord but not on the level of deep Intimacy in other words there the soul is now actively striving to live in the state of grace and to keep the Commandments but there's not a really deep knowledge of God in the level of the heart yet the gift of the spirit that is most of the seven gifts of the Spirit the one that is most prominent in this stage is fear of the Lord this is the first stage of spiritual growth having a basic fear of the Lord it's the beginning and at this point there's no manifestations of the actions of God the person a person doesn't really experience the presence of God yet every now and then they might get glimpses or Graces to encourage them but the soul is not purified yet to have a deep sense of God's existence then the second stage the ACT active life of friendship is when spiritual life begins at this point there's been a conversion a born again experience an an experience of an Awakening an epiphany some breakthrough moment that allows our relationship with God to have now been based on a on an experience and a living encounter with God as alive this is the beginning of the second stage the Pro prominent gift of the spirit here is piety reverence all the strength of heart and will is now directed to growing in the spiritual life rather than just avoiding sin and trying to keep the Commandments be faithful to what God is asking of us but now there's a deep sense of wanting to grow spiritually in this personal relationship with the Lord and a new self begins to emerge the soul applies itself to a deeper prayer Life by reading spiritual things meditating on good spiritual books allowing those spiritual meditations and readings to go from the head to the heart to build us up spiritually and what it means to know the Lord and at this point the person starts to detach more deeply from the things of the world and long more for the things of the Lord and begins to organize a plan of Life on spiritual terms now the action of God here the soul starts to experience consolations in a sensible way the senses of the Soul effectively a person can begin to feel as it were the presence of God in a way that before they didn't but this is also accompanied after this the honeymoon phase it's also accompanied with new aridities a new dryness and St Teresa's whole chap there's only one chapter that she has for the second mansion and its title is war because even though there's been a new birth in what it means to worship God and to know God there's also intermixed a spiritual warfare for the first time on a deeper level than the soul has ever known this consists of battling old weeds and Thorns returning to the surface the battle to overcome badly Acquired inclinations and habits of disorder from our former life the lower faculties of the Soul start to be attracted again to the things left behind for God when the dryness comes because when experiencing spiritual consolation the soul doesn't have any attraction to the things left behind of the world as long as God is offering something better but the moment he hides his face or takes back that Sweetness in order for the soul to grow more deeply then the old self tries to regain lost ground and so the in this stage mortification to die to sin and the relics that sin leaves in US through discipline and the cultivating of virtue even amidst dryness is the only way to grow and get to the third stage the third stage is now mature friendship and mature friendship is means that the soul has a well regulated spiritual life good habits in what it means to live in God's friendship the gift of the spirit most effect most Act active here is fortitude the kind of prayer that is most active is what's called active recollection simplified mental prayer or prayer of Simplicity I don't have time to get into what that all means and looks like but just to paint it the the overall picture for you at this point spiritual foundations have been laid the practice of mortification and Penance for example fasting weekly the desire to learn and grow in the practice of meditation how to really do like lexio deina to go from the mind to the heart and what we read from spiritually inspirational things like the word of God and to allow it to become a fire in our soul and to learn how to rest in that fire more frequently and a person becomes much more active in charity and Works of Mercy for example in the third stage is where there's a renewed Vigor where people begin to see attendance at Mass becoming a daily necessity where people are attending prayer groups Retreats days of recollection they long to consecrate themselves to the Lord and don't only want to turn to the heart of God in need but want to belong and be United bound to the heart of God and this is the state where religious vocations and holy marriages are discovered at this point there's a good moral life in place the soul isn't so much struggling with mortal sin anymore the majority of the faults of a person is all what is can't be seen by others it's all the stuff that happens in the thought life criticizing others harsh judgments complaining and other vices that come with that all those three stages right there are What's called the perative way and in terms of St Teresa's four Waters that's the first water which is the symbol of a well well the majority of the work on how we pray is done by us rather than by the Lord as we'll come later the fourth stage the fourth Mansion is preceded by a special Grace called the blinding light of the word the spirit our spirit experiences a blinding light from Heaven at some point this is like the the holy spirit's right of initiation and going deep into Divine intimacy with the Lord this is the beginning of the second water which is the image of a water wheel now prayer doesn't require as much human effort but God's grace is accompanying it like the like the well that has a special wheel that helps with the bringing forth of the water from from the depth this is where prayer of quiet begins what's called what and also passive recollection and the the beginning of infused contemplation and The prominent gift of the spirit here is counsel the soul Delights in holy wisdom and now the soul is more balanced in its personality in blending the natural and the supernatural in terms of social affability I'm not going to go too much into the details of this stuff I just want to give an overview but then the fourth stage was a transitional stage which called which is called the illuminative way and it's a transitional stage to the unitive way the fifth and seventh stages in which the profound work of the holy spirit reproduces in us the life of Jesus for the glory of the father where St Teresa describes persons in this stage as Majestic Souls here in the fifth stage of spiritual courtship real transformation Begins the third water the stream from the well where we're doing most of the work in prayer human effort then it's graced gradually by God's assistance and now the stream represents the prayer of simple Union what God does is more prominent than what we do at prayer the gift of the spirit here most prominent is knowledge the beginning of contemplative gifts the Soul's Zeal in this activ in the activity of the Soul at this stage is Relentless obedience to God's will a greater vision of Jesus as a willing victim begins to be contemplated deeply and the Divine Life within becomes prominent then the sixth stage is spiritual betral transformation continues this is the fourth water from the well to the water wield the stream and now the fourth water is pure rain God is just showering down on the soul it's an era of rapture and ecstasy this is where the transverberation takes place as experienced by St Mariam and Jesus crucified whom we celebrated yesterday in the carites St poo experienced this while hearing confessions During the period of 3 days it lasted 3 days the transverberation St TZ St John of the Cross St Gemma galgani St Katherine of Sienna they all experienced this they were all in the sixth Mansion St fosa whose birthday was yesterday Mother Teresa of Kolkata most likely did but I didn't haven't heard about it in her writings The prominent gift of the spirit here is understanding the soul experiences more and more without seeing it the infinite Purity and greatness of God within itself a living knowledge of the supernatural world the realities of the kingdom of God this is like when we read St fala we see how often she spoke to like the Child Jesus she spoke to Jesus in his sacred Humanity in different ways this is all happening in the sixth Mansion of spiritual betral and after all those mystical Graces of consolation there's also profound purifications and trials called the passive night of the spirit which is what Mother Teresa talata went through and she writes to to her spiritual dire spiritual director and today is the birthday of Mother Teresa of Kolkata finally after that passive night of the spirit comes the seventh stage spiritual marriage transforming Union consummation this is the level of sainthood this is where Saints people are are literally when we say Saints as Catholics we're talking about the people who made it to this stage in this life this is this they live the supernatural life of God's grace on earth and the point of entry into this stage just like the the light of the Eternal Word in entering the fourth stage the point of entry into this one is an intellectual vision of the Most Holy Trinity the gift of the spirit most prominent is wisdom and here the prayer is one of perfect union pure worship no trace of disorder self-love but pure only purity of heart and as as profound as Faith Faith's knowledge of God is there's not a clearness there's not a clearness of vision because that is reserved only for heaven in which the soul will be will enjoy an essential Union with God Beyond the Veil and it's in heaven after this growth has taken place that there's the beauty of metamorphosis Total Transformation in God's life without the the least bit of losing the integrity and dignity of our unique Humanity there's no other mystical tradition like this there's no other divine revelation of love like this this is the most exalted Dignity of the human being that there is to know and it's ours as Catholic Christians and we see this beauty in the Saints May our Lord and God who zealously desires the spirit of love to blaze like fire throughout the world make our hearts United to Jesus's heart in a friendship So Divine and intimate that we like Teresa may experience the secrets of his Sacred Heart and be instruments of kindling his flame of love for the Salvation of Souls