Living With Intention Is Intended Living
In 16th century Spain, Santa Teresa de Ávila (also known as Santa Teresa de Jesús) created a bold stir in the Catholic church. As she entered into her first convent in 1535, with the desire to marry God and no other, she realized how askew the life of a nun was at that time. During that period in Spain, and most of Europe, a woman had two choices: marriage or nunhood. There was a third option but it was way too scandalous for words and it surely didn’t make a woman popular for the right reasons. Thus, if a woman didn’t want marry or be an outcast, she had to be a nun and get married anyway, just to the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. Also, those women who found themselves widowed, and not remarried in good time, had to take the same vow and live in a convent as well. Thus, as Santa Teresa entered the holy place, she found out that what lacked behind the convent doors was a pure intention for living the religious life.
Santa Teresa discovered that very few women were living in convents, renouncing their worldly life, to know and serve God. Rather she found that the women brought the worldly life with them, trinkets, possessions and all, inside the convent walls, including maids and staff. Santa Teresa was outraged and began her own ministry, which still survives around the world today. She founded her sisterhood on the basis of renouncing worldly goods and living an austere life based on having little, even wearing little to no footwear, fasting, meditating, and maintaining one’s daily activities inside the claustral walls. It was a rigid life but due to her persistence and bold stance, she reformed nunhood in 16th century Spain to a life that was one of devotion, meditation, and prayer.
Her reformation came from her desire to serve God and to purify her life so she could more clearly hear the voice of God, which added to her radical persona during the emergence of the renaissance in Europe. It was her writings and way of life that contributed to the age of discovery and even to modern mysticism today. Yet, it is worth stating that at that time she was considered a rebel, for a woman to openly state that she heard the voice of God was, yes, scandalous and invited condemnation. As the saying goes, “a well-behaved woman rarely makes history,” and such is Santa Teresa another example of this being so.
In Spain, Santa Teresa was known as an andariega, one who walks a great deal. In establishing her 17 convents across Spain, Santa Teresa walked to each one. This only lends to highlight, more so, how this spiritual mystic literally “walked the talk.” She was a woman who lived her intention which in turn fueled her intent to live. She knew what she wanted and why, and walked her journey from there, from that simple, austere seed of knowing. From her writings on silence, meditation, and contemplation to the way she lived her life, it is no wonder why many are still intrigued and inspired by her lasting footprints today.
On Day 4 of the Whole30, inspired by Santa Teresa, I am drawn deeper into reviewing my intention for living. As I ask myself what I want and why I want it, it is only logical to then ask, “am I living that already? And if not, am I willing to?” One can easily live a compartmentalized life in today’s world. There can be vacation Kathy, workout Kathy, work Kathy, Kathy that is around family, Kathy that is around her partner, and Kathy that is around her friends, to name a few. And although there may be the common thread of “Kathy,” there might also be vastly different faces that show up in each example. However, the point of an integrated life, which seems to be my intention, is to break down these walls and to live as the same person, with the same intent, in all situations, making each step count towards intended living.
Santa Teresa made no apologies for her way of life, even when the Catholic church began condemning her and her writings, going as far as burning some of them. Santa Teresa did not compartmentalize her life to appease those she was around in certain situations. Even when she did not agree with the more lavish nuns in her early days, she maintained her personal vow of austerity, staying true to her path and to her walk, directly reflecting her intention and desires to those around her and living the full embodiment of this manifesto.
Often as we make desirable changes in our lives, albeit with our nutrition or other dreams, we are fearful to act upon such intentions, in particular around certain sects of people. However, just as we can kindly say, “no,” to a piece of cake someone offers us, we can also do the same in those moments when we are asked to take a step outside of our intended means of living. With the clarity of our knowingness, we, too, can dissolve all the compartments we have created in our lives and begin to make bigger, deeper footprints in the foundation we stand upon. Perhaps, making lasting footprints that others will follow, even for generations to come. That is the power of living with intention and claiming that you, YOU, are here, intending to live, and to live BIG. Namaste.