Saint John of Ávila, Apostle of Andalusia - May 10

 

"I would rather live without skin

than live without devotion

to the Blessed Virgin Mary."

~ Saint John of Avila ~

On May 10, we celebrate the feast day of one of the saints who helped form the foundations of my Catholic consciousness and was, in a small way, responsible for my leaving the Hindu (Vedanta) convent in the early 1990's so that I could become a Catholic nun. This did not happen in the manner that I imagined it would, since it was years before I was welcomed into the Catholic Church and I never became a Catholic "nun," per se, but the inspiration for monastic life remained with me for all these years, and I have been an independent lay hermit since 2003. The outward form of what I wanted for myself did not materialize, but I am living the spirit of the thing in a way that takes advantage of the gifts with which the Lord endowed me from birth. God brings all things to the good for those who believe.

Long after my conversion, I continue to look to the saints for clues about how to live a life that is intensely devoted to The Lord. It seems as if a good third of the saints I read about in my daily studies of the saints of the day have, at some point, become hermits, at least for a time. But this isn't true of the saint I chose today, except that I sense an inclination toward the hidden life by certain phases in which he was drawn toward it. But he was mostly known as a beautiful orator, teacher, and  doctor of the church with missionary zeal. If you read his sermons and letters, his mental trend was somewhat mystical. His sermons were widely attended and usually packed the facility where they were given. He given the honorific title of "doctor of the church" in 2012 by Pope Benedict.

"Enlarge your little heart to the

immensity of love with which the

Father offered us His Son, and with

Him gave us Himself, the Holy

Spirit, and all things."

~ St. John of Avila ~

Whenever I read about the saints, I will compare the trajectory of their lives with mine, in the hope that I may learn something from them. Saint John of Avila and I both came from wealth. At least, my father was wealthy. He divorced my mother and then another woman and had a final wife that had me written out of his will after he got Alzheimer's so she could take my inheritance. Thereafter, he died a very suspicious death. When you live by the sword, you die by the sword.

Saint John of Avila was disconnected from the wealth of his parents when they died while he was still a college student and he sold the family property! He gave the proceeds to the poor and embarked on his clerical career. In my case, I was disconnected from my father's wealth by his avaricious third wife. In Saint John's, he sought poverty and created it for himself.

"He who relies on God does not

let himself be overwhelmed by

sufferings, anguish, death, or hell.

He who does not lean on Him,

how much fear he feels, how 

worried he walks!"

~ St. John of Avila

I do believe that God loves the poor and desires that his beloved mystics also be poor so that we depend upon him.  Either we are naturally poor, or we voluntarily opt for poverty, but the end is the same. We cling to God alone.

I hasten to add that in no way do I practice the "radical poverty" of Saint John. That is not my path. I am an artist and a writer, and the accoutrements of that type of career, and the instruments, tools and supplies that are needed for the painting and the writing, are many and varied. So I do not pretend to the total abandonment of resources to which Saint John aspired, nor do I believe this is the path for everyone. You may still actually cling to God alone while at the same time having in your possession those supplies that are necessary to your state of life. If you are a mother, for instance, it is not necessary to make your infant sleep on the floor on a rough hemp blanket. If you make and sell shoes, you don't walk around town barefoot. You get the idea.

Saint John himself lived in a style of radical poverty and advocated for it widely. This was the basis for his disapproval of the behavior of the "upper classes" of his day.

"Whoever has the truth and does

not profess it or behave according

to it is trapping the truth in injustice."

~ St. John of Avila ~

Saint John also had many years of progressively poor health at the end of his life, forcing him to go into semi-retirement. This is a situation one could bewail, or instead look upon it as a tremendous gift of the Lord, allowing us to be drawn into His arms, where we may rest during the last miles of our earthly walk. 

The Lord gives us the blessing of chopping us down so that we remain with Him. The illnesses that create our lack of mobility and force us to remain with the Lord are a divine dispensation.

"The cause that in a greater measure

stimulates our heart to the love of God

is to consider deeply the love that He

had for us."

~St. John of Avila ~

Saint John was the type of person meant to be a leader and a teacher, so even though he was attracted to a small modest house in Seville with another priest in the early years of his life as a priest, he quickly attracted disciples, and this often happens with the doctors of the church that the Lord gifts with great oratory and teaching abilities.

In reading about his life, a rhythm of first being drawn to a small hidden residence and then being called out into the world by his disciples and his superiors in religion shows itself to have been a tension string on which the music of his spiritual work was played.

"You think that by worrying too much

you will be able to keep up. Woe to the

man who does not lean on God but lives

thinking whether it will rain a lot or 

whether it will not rain!"

~ St. John of Avila ~

There were several phases in which he was preparing for one mission but was called away from that by his superiors, such as his planned-for but not taken mission to Mexico. He was talked out of that in order to do missionary work (which later earned him the appellation of "the apostle of Andalusia") in response to the urgings of the Archbishop of Seville and the Inquisitor General.

I don't think they anticipated that he would put himself under the critical eyes of the Inquisition by advocating strongly for church reforms and by his bitter invective against the behavior of the rich aristocracy, however! Having a talent as an inspiring orator was fine, as long as the wealthy benefactors of the church were not antagonized!

"Remember what you have done

offending God and what you have

failed to do in his service; go to

the confessor and throw away all

your sins, sweep and clean your

house."

~ Saint John of Avila

I find echoes of the American condition of the church in what happened next for our dear saint because he was imprisoned on a charge of exaggerating the dangers of wealth and insinuating that the doors of Heaven were closed to the rich! Doesn't that sound like something Donald Trump would do if he could? He would love to send people to prison for any sort of criticism of the wealthy class. So, we live in similar circumstances at the moment, with the exception that our beloved Catholic Church has almost none of the worldly power that it did during St. John's era.

"The good preacher and the good

confessor must go to the front. No

one should say a good word without 

first putting it into practice."

~ St. John of Avila ~

Saint John was ultimately exonerated and released from prison, whereupon he returned to teaching and preaching from a base in Cordoba. He also established schools and colleges in nearby cities. His University of Baeza became a model for the schools of the Jesuits. Wherever he went, a community seemed to want to spring up in his footsteps, but he encouraged his disciples to go and join the Jesuits! As accomplished and overflowing with spiritual gifts as he appeared to be, he was also humble hearted. He must have been a remarkable person to see and hear with one's own eyes and ears

Saint John was ill from his early 50's, (which is also the approximate age of my disability, though mine was at age 49, and it had been announcing itself for the previous 10 years.) He went into a somewhat retired condition at that time and died almost 20 years later, at age 70. He was buried in the Jesuit Church of the Incarnation in the town of Montilla, Province of Cordova, where there is a sanctuary to his memory.

He left behind a considerable amount of written material, including 82 sermons and a large number of letters. I find it fascinating that among the letters we find saints among the recipients, such as Juan de Ribera, Thomas of Villanova, Ignatias of Loyola, John of God and my favorite, Teresa of Avila! His was a prodigious talent that affected everyone from the clergy he helped to reform, to students of religion for whom he established schools and colleges, and to the laity who he attempted to catechize. I don't often find a saint who has such a wide range of talents. He was a remarkable man.

"I know of nothing better than to

meditate on the fact that our Lord,

with Whom we are to treat, is both

God and man, and to think over the

reasons for which He comes down

upon the altar."

~ Saint John of Avila ~

I plan to make a note to myself to review his letters to Saint Teresa of Avila and see if there is anything in there which could inspire me in my efforts to bear down on my spiritual life during this final lap of this race.

I also recommend familiarizing yourselves with this beautiful saint because, no matter what arena in which you are living your life, I suspect that he may have something inspiring for you!

In the meantime, I pray for you, as I hope you pray for me.

Speaking of prayer, here is a lovely prayer asking God to help us follow the example of Saint John of Avila:

"Almighty God, You chose St. John 

of Avila from among your faithful to

show his brothers the way that leads

to You; grant that his example may

help us to follow Jesus Christ, our

teacher, so that one day, together

with our brothers, we may reach the

glory of your eternal kingdom.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Thy Son,

Amen"

God bless you all!

Silver Rose 

(By the way - I am tired of being plagiarized and having my work stolen for the use of other persons, so please remember that, although you may read my work for free in this blog, entirely without any payment for all research and my creativity, you may NOT copy it, in whole or in part, without my express written permission. You may reach me by writing a comment on this blog or contacting me on Facebook. ASK for permission and it will not be unreasonably refused.)

WALKING MEDITATION

I am feeling very grateful today for the many habits and techniques of seeking God consciousness that I learned from the Eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism.

With apologies to the respected spiritual teachers of those many traditions, it is my experience that walking meditation is one of those things that can easily be adopted and adapted to the needs of spiritual seekers of all faiths.

There is only one ultimate creator God or original cause of the universe. However you envision Him/Her/It or even if, for you, there is nothing but emptiness, whatever your tradition or practice at the moment, walking meditation, and other types of meditation combined with movement, is something we can all do with great benefit.

Sufi Dancers

Famously, the Sufis have their highly ritualistic ecstatic dances, and Brother Lawrence used to say that he was as much with God, while washing his pots and pans, as he would be while singing in the choir stall, which was considered a high status activity.

Brother Lawrence

among his pots and pans, in the kitchen

Granted, the higher reaches of ecstatic union with God, such as what the saints, sages and mystics have experienced and described, would probably be a challenge, in concert with walking or other activity, but it is probably fair to say that, for most of us, these high ecstatic states are not a daily occurrence, nor a constant one, when they do arise.

Saint Theresa of Avilla,

in ecstatic union with Christ

- statue closeup -

Lately, I am particularly recommending "walking meditation" to all my disabled and elderly friends, partly because it takes us much longer to accomplish our daily tasks than it did when we were younger and/or more fit and healthy, thus challenging us to find the lengthy periods of uninterrupted meditation while sitting in our schedule.

For myself, as a quasi-hermit on a very limited budget, operating a body that has started to deteriorate, I find that, when I previously waited for a break in my daily tasks in order to meditate in a formal way, there were some days when very little was possible. Doctor appointments, cooking, cleaning, dog walking, ate up my time, while the silence I would prefer was also eaten by other beings in their quest to accomplish their life goals.

"Busy Street Scene"

by Phill Burrows

Living in an apartment community with more than 100 other beings, on a main thoroughfare through town, is not particularly conducive to quiet meditation! I long ago gave up trying to create an oasis in my apartment. Instead, I am working within the noise and the chaos.

I realized, at some point in my journey through pain and disability, that the purpose for spiritual "practices" was, at least in part, to train the mind and body to always be aware of its at-one-ment with the Lord. Formal sitting meditation practice is just that - practice! It isn't the goal. It is A practice for the real thing - continuous God consciousness: the state of awareness of continual connection and identification with Deity (or "original cause" or whatever your tradition / understanding / language provides.)

Jesus meditating in the forest

Those who are unfamiliar with walking meditation are encouraged to do some reading about it, look for local sources of information, watch some videos, hear some talks, and then seek out a venue for the practice of this valuable technique. If you were here with me, I could train you, and I suppose I could write more detail about it in this blog, but why reinvent the wheel? Others have already done this far better than I could.

I will tell you that sometimes I use what is called a "mantra." My favorite is the "Jesus Prayer" sometimes called "centering prayer" I believe:

"Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God,

have mercy upon me, a poor sinner."

You could even just say "Lord" or "Jesus" or something similar. In the Hindu faith, there are a lot of considerations about this mantra, as in the Buddhist zen tradition, that it should be transmitted to the student by an ascended master or guru, but we do not have this tradition, per se, in Catholicism. In any case, let's not let perfection become the enemy of the good by drawing too many demands around this practice, as much could be lost if one felt that contemplation or meditation was essentially impossible without the presence of some elevated teacher-saint to "give" you a magic pill that would open your heart, etc. Once you start along this path, a teacher does sometimes appear, but don't worry about that right now. Just get started.

The addition of a mantra, recited interiorly, is typically what I do when I am having trouble focusing. Usually, I just put my consciousness at the feet of the Lord and hang onto that while I perform whatever household function or life task I have to perform at the moment. If you are new to meditation, you'll want to start with mantra. Eventually, this drops away of its own accord.

Granted, there are times when your full attention is required and you just can't hold God's hand while you do it: important conversations that carry crucial information, that sort of thing, but if you expand your concept of meditation to include a lot of your daily tasks, you will be surprised at how much peace and blessedness this will introduce to your life.

Anyway, I am finding the walking meditation very helpful these days. Also the dish washing meditation, dog walking meditation, grocery shopping meditation and painting meditation. You get the drift.

Old Woman Meditating on the Scriptures

by Gabriel Metsu

If this sort of meditation is a new thing for you, please feel free to write me and tell me about it. I may be able to answer some questions, but I recommend you get a local teacher, if a teacher is what you are looking for.

Primarily, I am writing this to encourage you to give walking meditation a try. I know that I personally experienced some frustration when I found that my life circumstances continually prevented me from enjoying a quiet, meditative life, and I got a lot of benefit from falling back on my training in walking meditation. I had to learn to embrace the reality of my situation and adapt. After many years of formal meditation practice, I found the transition seamless. You can also!

God bless us all.

Silver