Watering your spiritual garden

Think of yourself as a gardener.  You want to cultivate a garden in your soul that will delight the Lord.  How is this garden watered?  There are four ways to water the garden of the soul.  You can draw the water from a  well.  This is hard work.  You could use a water-wheel with buckets.  This is less laborious and yields more water.  You could have your garden near a stream or a brook.   This will saturate the ground more thoroughly with no effort on your part.  You may need to pour on extra water only rarely.  But wouldn't it be best of all if rain fell from heaven and you could let the Lord water your garden.

In the same way, there are four degrees of prayer.  Beginners draw water out of the well.  They must fill the well, as it were, in a life full of distractions.  If God has put some water in the well, we can water the flowers a little.  If the well is dry, there remain moist tears that make virtues grow.  If there are not even tears, there can yet be tenderness and an interior feeling of devotion. 

The second level of prayer is a condition of the soul that allows itself to be captured by God.  It is something like being in love.  It brings great joy and requires little effort.

The third "water" that irrigates our soul is incomparably better than the first two.  Speaking and silence, laughing and weeping, it is a state of heavenly intoxication.  The focus is entirely upon God.  There is depth of understanding.

The fourth degree of prayer is almost impossible to describe.  It is like rain from heaven.  It comes when you least expect it.  The soul is in a state of suspension.  The soul feels close to God.  There is a consciousness of God's presence.

Teresa of Avila,  The Life of Teresa of Jesus

Who is Teresa of Avila?   Teresa of Avila (March 28, 1515 -- October 4, 1582) was a major figure in the  Catholic reformation as a prominent Spanish mystic, writer and monastic reformer.  She was known for continual prayer and ecstatic visions.  Many later theologians were influenced greatly by her autobiography, The Way of Perfection, and the work, Interior Castle.  These works still inspire and provide spiritual guidance to Christians today.