Prayer and St Teresa

I was quite taken by the story of St Teresa of Ávila when it came up in my daily readings the other day. She was a Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic from the 16th Century. The one thing that leapt out at me was the sheer honesty in the following statement:

“I was more occupied in wishing my hour of prayer were over, and in listening whenever the clock struck, than in thinking of things that were good,” she confessed. “Whenever I entered the oratory [the prayer room] I used to feel so depressed that I had to summon up all my courage to make myself pray at all.”

In her early years as a nun, she would sometimes even shake her hourglass in an effort to make her hour of prayer go faster!

She persevered, and managed to get past this barrier to her prayer life, and has since become in inspiration to those who want to learn to pray with depth and passion. 

Here's another quote from her:

“The important thing in prayer is not to think much, but to love much.”