Let Nothing Upset You

Saint Teresa of Avila

Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) is a much-loved Catholic saint and mystic from Avila, Spain, who followed both the way of action and the way of contemplation. This little poem “Let Nothing Upset You” was written without thought of publication and was found in her breviary after her death.

Saint Teresa of Avila

Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, later to become loved around the world as St. Teresa of Jesus, grew up as a beautiful, high-spirited girl from one of the most distinguished families in the sixteenth-century Spanish town of Avila. With charm, intelligence, keen artistic sensibilities, and a saving dose of common sense, she seemed to have the world at her feet. Yet while still in her teens, this passionate young woman had already begun to find the attractions of worldly life too small to satisfy her. She felt their pull – would be torn in two by it, in fact, for more than twenty years. But nothing could silence a much deeper appeal, a call to a far higher destiny.

Some dim awareness of an infinite promise deep within her must have prompted her to turn inward. In her writings, Teresa describes candidly what was taking place inside. “All the things of God gave me great pleasure,” she recalls, “but I was held captive by the things of this world.” Yet the inward pull would not let her go:

“Reason tells the soul how mistaken it is in thinking that all these earthly things are of the slightest value by comparison with what it is seeking. A little recollection reminds it that all these things come to an end. And faith instructs it in what the soul must do to find satisfaction…”

—Saint Teresa of Avila.

Young Teresa had seen what life offers on the surface, and it was not enough. She longed for much greater challenges, deeper awareness, something more lasting than this world of change. “There is no joy in the finite,” the Upanishads say. “There is joy only in the Infinite.” Teresa’s soul yearned for the Infinite, and nothing less would satisfy her.

Teresa of Avila is so appealing a figure, so human and yet so inspiring, that we naturally want to know her secret. What enabled her to turn herself inward, heart and soul? Is it something that we can follow?

As it happens, Teresa did leave us her “secret.” In her autobiography, she stresses over and over the one quality she found vital: determinación, determination, decision, will. “Those who have this determination,” she declares, “have nothing to fear.”

Determination? Is that all? Surely, we think, some loftier, finer qualities must come before this mundane one. But then we reflect on our own experience. In any walk of life—arts, sciences, sports, entertainment—wherever excellence is achieved, there is one quality we almost always find: the sheer will to overreach oneself, to keep going whatever the odds until the goal is attained. St. Teresa is simply reminding us that we need this same quality to reach an infinite goal. The same determination with which we pursue passing, personal satisfactions can be used for spiritual growth.

If we find that we are not making the kind of progress we would like on the spiritual path, Teresa is suggesting, the reason may be simply that we are not trying our hardest. We may have all kinds of other reasons, but often the problem is simple lack of determination.

—Eknath Easwaran [Blue Mountain Blog, Deepening Determination, Advice From Saint Teresa (November 18, 2014)].

Additional Saint Teresa Quotes (Passages for Meditation)

I GAVE ALL MY HEART

I gave all my heart to the Lord of Love,
And my life is so completely transformed
That my Beloved One has become mine
And without a doubt I am his at last.

When that tender hunter from paradise
Released his piercing arrow at me,
My wounded soul fell in his loving arms;
And my life is so completely transformed
That my Beloved One has become mine
And without a doubt I am his at last.

He pierced my heart with his arrow of love
And made me one with the Lord who made me.
This is the only love I have to prove,
And my life is so completely transformed
That my Beloved One has become mine
And without a doubt I am his at last.

—Saint Teresa of Avila [“I Gave All My Heart”].

HER HEART IS FULL OF JOY

Her heart is full of joy with love,
For in the Lord her mind is stilled.
She has renounced every selfish attachment
And draws abiding joy and strength
From the One within.
She lives not for herself, but lives
To serve the Lord of Love in all,
And swims across the sea of life
Breasting its rough waves joyfully.

—Saint Teresa of Avila [“Her Heart Is Full of Joy”].