I will say no more of this vision and the Mansions, because your Reverence must by now have seen this admirable book, and must know with what accuracy, with what majestic doctrine, with what lucid examples she describes the progress of the soul from the gate to the very centre. It is clearly seen in this treatise how she communicated with our Lord, and how His Majesty vouchsafed to place her in the centre and to unite her with Himself, as she puts it, by the bonds of marriage and an inseparable union.' 18 Hic iacent serpentes et venenatae bestiae. Vita extra castrum interiorem est vita sine Deo, vivens in peccato. Cum viae peccati et attachiamenta nos mordent, paralyticos relinquunt. But here the Lord asks only two things of us: love for His Majesty and love for our neighbour. It is for these two virtues that we must strive, and if we attain them perfectly we are doing His will and so shall be united with Him.” As the author of the Interior Castle, Teresa portrays the spiritual development of the human soul and its response to God as being like a great castle, wherein lies seven rows of mansions. With each graduation, the soul moves from the outer mansions to the inner mansions, ever moving into closer union with God. Ironically, but perhaps unsurprisingly, the religious content was what least impressed me. The book is divided into seven mansions within the crystalline castle that represents the soul. Each progressive mansion is one step closer to God. Despite this organization, however, I found the chapters quiet repetitive; the divisions from one stage to another didn’t strike me as very clear. The general tendency is for the mystical experiences to keep growing in intensity, which culminates in the experience of a burning mixture of pleasure and pain that seems to come from nowhere. This is the inspiration for Bernini's famous, and famously erotic, portrayal of the Saint.

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S. Teresia tres condiciones enumerat incrementi spiritualis continuae; Orandi consuetudinem numquam renuntiare: Ab omni, quod non est Dei, separa. Maiorem solitudinem quaere (sine opere vel officio neglecto) ad imitationem Christi.The fruits of this prayer are more intense and transformative. They include a desire to praise God, to do penance and suffer for Him, to have solitude, and for all souls to know God. The present translation ought to dispose of the reservations expressed by an able critic in his otherwise valuable appreciation of the works of the Saint. See Santa Teresa, by the late Alexander Whyte, D.D. London, 1898, p. 32. In this stage, the soul moves from the “ Illuminative Way” to the “ Unitive Way.” St. Teresa writes many chapters to this stage alone, along with many terms: There is that in the Interior Castle which reminds one of Dante's Paradiso. In the one and the other, the soul, purified from earthly dross, is gradually being invested with new and glorious qualities, and is being led through regions unknown until it arrives at the very threshold of the throne of God. Not even the boldest imagination could have designed so wonderful a picture of a soul adorned with graces at once so varied and so true. In one case we know, the poet has drawn abundantly from the treasury of the Angelical Doctor, putting in verse the conclusions of the scholastic theologian. In the other case we can follow, chapter by chapter, the influence of the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Teresa had never studied it herself, but her directors and confessors were deeply versed in it and solved her doubts and perplexities on the lines of the greatest of the school men. The Interior Castle might almost be considered a practical illustration of certain parts of the Summa theologica, 26

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James Finley expounds on the practice prayer in the first three Mansions and then delves into the qualitative deepening of prayer in the 4th Mansion, which opens into the 5th. November 13, 2019: Finished reading. Will never be finished assimilating this book. I am not in the same place, nor am I the same person I was when I started this book almost a year ago. It is definitely worthwhile to read Interior Castle using this STUDY EDITION, even if I did not avail myself of all the material in it. There is just SO much! You could spend a lifetime trying to absorb and then live this book. Teresa lived in a quieter simpler time than we do. This is not a review. I am not sure I am capable of a full review of this book, but I will see. One thing I do know, my experience with it this time was completely different than it was the other times I read the regular editions on my own. It was like the difference between looking at something and then looking at it under a microscope. I had no idea all that was there I could not see. a most beautiful crystal globe, made in the shape of a castle, and containing seven mansions, in the seventh and innermost of which was the King of Glory, in the greatest splendour, illumining and beautifying them all. The nearer one got to the centre, the stronger was the light; outside the palace limits everything was foul, dark and infested with toads, vipers and other venomous creatures."The book presents a chapter of The Interior Castle itself, followed by a review of the development of her thought and the principal ideas in each chapter. Active Recollectio – Praesens in tribus primis gradibus, hoc conatum requirit ut praesentiam Dei in oratione cognoscamus. Hoc includit omnes facultates animi detrahendi Deum considerandi ac etiam cum Ipso loqui. Supernaturalis Reminiscentiae Anima in quarta mansione hoc incipit experiri. Solus Deus hanc dat gratiam, amantem Dei conscientiam. Non possumus per nos propria opera supernaturalem memoriam efficere. Haec oratio hominem semper in melius transformat. Voluntas Deus occupat tempus (uniens cum suo) et tunc etiam intellectum et imaginationem.

The Interior Castle: Teresa of Avila, Mirabai Starr

Students will have access to course content for the duration of the course. Course content will be available four weeks after the course ends. Recommended Readingyou must not build upon foundations of prayer and contemplation alone, for, unless you strive after the virtues and practice them, you will never grow to be more than dwarfs.” Supernatural Recollection– The soul in the fourth mansions begins to experience this. God alone gives this grace, an loving awareness of God. We cannot bring about supernatural recollection through our own efforts. This prayer always transforms the person for the better. God takes over the will over time (uniting it with His) and then even the intellect and the imagination. The work was copied, probably under the supervision of the Saint, who introduced many changes; when completed the original was handed to Father Jerome Gracian and to the Dominican, Fray Diego de Yanguas, for approval. Both, particularly the former, made numerous corrections, which Fuente, not without reason, calls impertinent, scratching out whole sentences and adding others. The book thus revised must have enjoyed a certain celebrity, though not to the same extent as the Life, to which St. Teresa herself preferred it. Scarcely a week after its completion she wrote to Father Salazar, S.J.: 'If Señor Carillo [Salazar himself] came, the person in question [the Saint] thinks he would find another jewel which in her opinion is superior to the former [the Life]. This one reflects nothing foreign to itself, but is resplendent in its own beauty. It is enriched with more delicate enamels than the former, the workmanship, too, is more perfect. For, as the person in question says, the jeweller was less experienced when he fashioned the previous one. Moreover, the gold of the new The French Carmelite nuns in their new translation, Œuvres complètes de Sainte Thérèse, t. vi, Introduction, p. 5, quoting the Año Teresiano, t. vii ad 7 July, and Father Gracian's Dilucidario, as well as his additions to Ribera, show the exact share of Fr. Gracian and Dr. Velasquez in the preliminaries of this work.