The Interior Castle (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

By St. Teresa of Ávila and Beverly Lanzetta

More than four centuries have passed since Teresa of Avilas birth in Spain, and she is still celebrated as one of the worlds great spiritual teachers. Her endearing human qualities, mystical insights, love for God, and refreshing candor all contribute to her legacy as a cartographer of the soul and a master of contemplative prayer. Her mystical writings are well known in religious circles and have nourished the souls of the most advanced in the spiritual life. They also touch the hearts of people everywhere who may never have heard of contemplation, but who long to grow closer to God. In her texts, she creates a body of mystical literature astounding in its depth and wisdom and comforting in its humanness and common sense.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Sep 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781411429499

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Introduction

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION

THE INTERIOR CASTLE, OR THE MANSIONS BY ST. TERESA

THE FIRST MANSIONS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

THE SECOND MANSIONS

CHAPTER ONE

THE THIRD MANSIONS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

THE FOURTH MANSIONS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

THE FIFTH MANSIONS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

THE SIXTH MANSIONS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO CHAPTER III

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE SEVENTH MANSIONS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

IHS

ENDNOTES

INDEX

SUGGESTED READING

001002

Introduction and Suggested Reading © 2005 by Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Originally published circa 1583

This 2005 edition published by Barnes & Noble, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored

in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or

otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7607-7024-5 ISBN-10: 0-7607-7024-7

eISBN : 978-1-411-42949-9

Printed and bound in the United States of America

3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

NIHIL OBSTAT

DOM MICHAEL BARRETT, O.S.B. CENSOR DEPUTATUS

IMPRIMATUR

EDUARDUS, ADM. APOSTOL. BIRMINGHAMIENSIS

OSCOTT. DIE 24 FEBRUARII, 1921.

INTRODUCTION

MORE THAN FOUR CENTURIES HAVE PASSED SINCE TERESA OF AVILA’S birth in Spain, and both in her own country and in others around the globe she is still celebrated as one of the world’s greatest spiritual teachers. Her endearing human qualities, mystical insights, intensity of love for God, and refreshing candor all contribute to her legacy as a cartographer of the soul and a master of contemplative prayer. Her mystical writings are well known in religious circles and have nourished the souls of the most advanced in the spiritual life. But they also touch the hearts of people everywhere who may have never heard of contemplation, but who long to grow closer to God. In her texts, she creates a body of mystical literature astounding in its depth and wisdom, and comforting in its humanness and commonsense.

The Interior Castle was one of the most important spiritual books in sixteenth century Spain, and remains today an enduring classic of world mystical literature. An autobiographical narration of Teresa of Avila’s journey toward union with God, The Interior Castle chronicles a profound longing for the divine that is unparalleled in religious literature for its complexity of thought and its simplicity of style. The immediacy and intensity of Teresa’s writing conveys a soul impassioned by grace. The Interior Castle is an astute and trustworthy companion for anyone seeking to understand and live a spiritually sensitive life. While written from within a Christian context, The Interior Castle appeals to readers from any religion or no religion, who find Teresa’s personal journey of struggle and triumph to be of universal relevance. In her own day, as well as today, there is an urgent need for spiritual masters, like Teresa, who do not pander to mediocrity but who write in a down-to-earth and unaffected manner about the most subtle and profound aspects of the interior life.

The first woman Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church, Teresa de Ahumada y Cepeda was born in Avila, Spain, on March 28, 1515. A descendent of conversos (Jews converted to Christianity) on her father’s side, Teresa maintained an acute awareness of social injustices all her life. This sensitivity was no doubt related to her family history and to the public confession her paternal grandfather was forced to make in 1485 over his secret practice of Judaism. The early death of her mother—who died in childbirth when Teresa was thirteen—combined with her mixed ancestry, left on the young Teresa an indelible imprint that sensitized her to the ravages of social injustice and to the suffering of women. While lively and vivacious, Teresa was drawn to religious life and, against the wishes of her father, entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation in 1535. According to her own account, the early years of her profession were marked by severe illnesses and a longing to overcome her attraction to friendship, gossip, and vanity in order to devote herself completely to God. This situation changed in 1554 when, during the season of Lent, Teresa experienced an inner transformation as she stopped to meditate on a statue of the wounded Christ on her way to the oratory. Aware of her own insufficiency and lack of commitment, Teresa was transfixed by a spiritual understanding of how much God suffers for us and how little we do in return. This experience marked a radical turning point in her life and signaled the beginning of what would later become her fame as a spiritual author, mystical theologian, contemplative teacher, and founder of the reformed, or discalced (from the Spanish descalzo, shoeless, to indicate the wearing of sandals), Carmelites.

An intense yearning for union with God propels Teresa’s life and texts. The center of her spiritual contribution, and the core around which her spiritual journey revolves, is her experience and articulation of contemplative—or what she often calls mental—prayer. Part of Teresa’s genius was her ability to recognize that contemplative prayer—the prayer of surrender and openness to the divine Other—was far from an ascetic practice reserved for an elite few. Rather, in her able soul, contemplation becomes the fount from which God’s activity overflows into every aspect of life in this world. In Teresa, we find that rare individual who is able to integrate the highest states of mystical consciousness with the work of transforming concrete human conditions, in a manner that lifts everything up to its own highest possibility. Applying her spiritual acumen to the most practical of human needs, Teresa tackled legal documents, affairs of state, and acquisition of properties, as well as social and spiritual condemnation, in her tireless efforts to teach others about the great benefits of mental prayer. Nurtured by this wellspring of inner silence, Teresa was an ardent champion of women’s religious life, and a reformer of her Carmelite Order, founding seventeen discalced monasteries throughout Spain.

Large shifts in cultural history were working themselves out during the formative period of Teresa’s life. In Spain, the forces of Renaissance humanism and Reformation thought were vying for dominance and control, as the full thrust of the Catholic Counter-Reformation was being played out during her lifetime. Most compelling was the gradual shift toward greater lay participation in reading scripture and democratization of worship that characterized the idealism of Christian humanists, who defended the rights of women to study the Bible. The traditional Catholicism of Teresa’s day looked at mysticism with great suspicion, and imposed certain unwritten guidelines that it must follow to be tolerated. Included among these conditions was that mysticism had to be performed within the framework of traditional church hierarchies. For most of its history, contemplative prayer had been viewed as an arduous path followed by cloistered members of religious communities. But in the religious renewal that swept through sixteenth-century Spain, contemplative prayer was adopted as a lay path, with practitioners outside the established Church hierarchy claiming to reach mystical union with the Divine. Meeting in private homes, men and women who belonged to this movement—given the derogatory name alumbrados or Illuminists—held in common the belief that Scripture could be understood through the Holy Spirit without the mediation of clerical authorities. In this often hostile climate, Teresa’s practice and support of contemplative prayer subjected her to intense and ongoing criticism from her spiritual directors, who were concerned she was deluded by the devil, from the Inquisitors, and even from members of her own community.

Under obedience to her confessors, Teresa writes extensively about her life, methods of prayer, and spiritual trials, becoming a chronicler of her soul and of the mystical processes that assist her growth in perfection. Writing during a time of Spain’s heightened political power and an Inquisitional Church acutely suspicious of heresy, Teresa’s four magisterial works—The Book of Her Life, The Way of Perfection, The Interior Castle, and The Book of Her Foundations—were subjected to scrutiny and censorship during her lifetime and after her death. To combat the blatant anti-female, anti-mystical climate of sixteenth-century Spain, scholars contend that Teresa developed a rhetoric of femininity in which she consistently downplays or disparages her self-worth, at the same time that she exposes the prevailing view of women as weak or ineffectual spiritual authorities. The protests made by Teresa that she is ignorant, illiterate, or unlettered concealed a double message that was in part real and in part a rhetorical strategy. From an official perspective, these disclaimers protected Teresa from the Inquisitional authorities. But they also promoted her bold insistence on the subversive value of experiential knowledge and of contemplative prayer.

In the history of Christian literature, Teresa of Avila’s writings are distinguished by a refreshing originality, unencumbered by the more formal scholastic theology of her day. A disarming colloquialism belies the intensity and depth of her transcendent experiences. This makes her thought uniquely suited to our postmodern condition, in part because, like us, she too was laid low by religious factions that tore apart her inner solitude and that pitted her mystical experiences against the often unenlightened advice of her male confessors and spiritual directors. Unable to read Latin and prohibited by an Inquisitional ban from reading spiritual books, Teresa forged out of her own experience a spiritual path that is startlingly modern in its feminine outlook, speech, and writing. In her mystical texts, we find an aching vulnerability and a longing determination to love God as God loves us. Only one who is willing to bare body, mind, and soul can understand the great gifts God bestows on us; but just so, Teresa cautions, this very openness means that we, too, will suffer the anguish of God’s absence in human affairs.

Teresa began to write The Interior Castle in June of 1577, during a particularly painful and trying period of her life, and in less than six months had completed her masterpiece on prayer. Regarded as the most mature synthesis of her spiritual thought, The Interior Castle was written under obedience to her confessor, Fr. Gracian, and in response to requests from her spiritual sisters for further instruction on mental prayer. The book itself was meant to serve as a replacement for her earlier text, The Book of Her Life, which had been impounded by the Inquisitors and was not available for her sisters to read. Under Fr. Gratian’s ardent support, Teresa is instructed to recall what she can about her spiritual life and to create a new document that conceals the author’s autobiographical references. As the fruit of personal experience, The Interior Castle stands as one of the great treatises on a woman’s spiritual journey, and the reader should not be confused by her references in the text to this other person who is, in fact, herself.

Lamenting that she had no thought in her head of how to proceed, Teresa prays for guidance and soon receives a vision of the soul as a crystalline castle, with seven interior dwelling places or moradas. Each morada symbolically represents the soul’s progression into deeper levels of the divine nature, as its moves from beginning to more advanced—and from active to passive—stages of contemplation. Central to her text is the beautiful vision she offers of the soul: radiant with God’s love, most precious jewel in God’s creation, and unencumbered by sin. She is insistent that despite the black cloth of sin which may cover the soul, it is always pure and untouched in its center, where it is never separated from His Majesty, Jesus. The soul, then, is emboldened by a fiery longing to find and unite with its Beloved, who is all forgiveness, acceptance, and benevolence. It is, thus, a book that expresses how the impossible becomes possible, how the work of God’s love ignites the soul’s passion for intimacy and union—stages described by Teresa in bridal imagery, as betrothal and marriage to God.

Yet, like a knight in quest of the Holy Grail, the soul will undergo the severest of trials and the greatest of torments as it labors to overcome the weakness, doubt, fear, and arrogance that stand in the way of its true desire. This total and complete transformation of self—almost archetypal in human experience—is a requirement on the road to spiritual perfection and emerges as one of the central images in The Interior Castle. Perfection is not, however, something the soul can accomplish or create, but is an organic process intrinsic to its own inte riority set into motion by the mysterious action of God’s love. To convey this non-active action that God works in the soul, Teresa compares the soul’s transfiguration from death to new life in Christ to the biological cycle of a silkworm. Just as the silkworm dies in a cocoon of its own making in order to be transformed into the butterfly, so, too, must the soul die to its imprisoned or lower self in order to achieve freedom of spirit in this life. God, Teresa tells us, is the soul’s own dwelling place; here, wrapped in a cocoon of divine love the soul gathers the strength to die to its attachments and worldly concerns, and to break free as a white butterfly. These desires of love, however, never cease and the flight of the butterfly becomes ever more restless until it undergoes a final purification of the spirit before entering the seventh dwelling place, and mystical marriage to God. It is at this point that the little butterfly gives up its own life and is lost in Christ; its life, says Teresa, is now Christ.

In addition to Teresa’s masterful ability to convey the most rigorous aspects of the spiritual journey in an immanently approachable way, she is equally provocative as a social commentator. Painfully aware of the particular gender issues that impinged on women’s personal and spiritual autonomy, Teresa not only stands up to her many critics and inquisitors, she also champions the rights of conversos, women, and others marginalized by society, establishing in her monasteries a reversal of social distinction, power, and wealth. Undeterred by criticism, humiliation, dissent, and deceit, Teresa forged her way of perfection in a time of political and social turmoil not unlike our own. She reminds us that prayer is life; progress is measured not by our possessions or accomplishments, but by the quality of our life and the depth of our desire to become centered in God.

Soon after her death in 1582, numerous copies of The Interior Castle were widely distributed. While Teresa’s books were best sellers, their publication was greeted with alarm by many in Spain’s male-dominated Church. Teresa’s bold engagement with theological and spiritual issues aroused suspicion, for women—regarded as intellectually and emotionally inferior—were prohibited from teaching and writing. Despite these initial attempts to curtail or suppress her work, the force of her writing and the depth of her wisdom ensured that her books would be reprinted through the centuries. It is beyond the scope of this brief survey to trace the many editions of The Interior Castle and her other writings. It must suffice to remark that by the time of her beatification in 1614, opposition to her books had ceased and publication of her works occurred throughout Europe in numerous editions and translations. Not long after, devotion to Teresa of Avila spread to the New World, and her image became integral to colonial visual culture. Her popularity increased throughout Europe and the colonies, with many churches erected and decorated in her name by the time of her canonization in 1622.

What was begun by one lover of God many centuries ago continues unabated today, as her vision of human wholeness and spiritual harmony inspires and obligates us to strive, as Teresa herself did, to embrace all of life with passionate concern. In honor of this holy woman, who wrote with such abandon and simple grace, it is only fitting to summarize St. Teresa of Avila’s great contribution to spiritual literature in her own inimical words: The important thing is not to think much but to love much.

Beverly Lanzetta is a professor of religious studies who has taught at a number of liberal arts colleges. As a scholar and author of Christian mysticism, she has written about the life and vision of Teresa of Avila and other medieval mystics.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

SAINT TERESA BEGAN TO WRITE THE INTERIOR CASTLE ON JUNE 2, 1577, Trinity Sunday, and completed it on the eve of St. Andrew, November 29, of the same year. But there was a long interruption of five months,¹ so that the actual time spent in the composition of this work was reduced to about four weeks—a fortnight for the first, and another fortnight for the second half of the book. The rapidity with which it was written is easily explained by the fact that the Saint had conceived its plan sometime previously. On January 17, 1577, she had written to her brother, Don Lorenzo de Cepeda, at Avila: "I have asked the bishop—Don Alvaro Mendoza—for my book (the Life) because I shall perhaps complete it by adding those new favors our Lord has lately granted me. With these one may even compose a new work of considerable size, provided God grants me the grace of explaining myself; otherwise the loss will be of small account."² She never asked for permission to write anything, but waited until she received a command from her superiors, which, in this case, came from Father Jerome Gracian, superior of the Discalced Carmelites of the Provinces of Andalusia and Castille, and from Don Alonso Velasquez, canon of Toledo, afterwards bishop of Osma.³ The Saint was not in good health at the time; she repeatedly complains of noises in the head and other infirmities, but, worst of all, she was weighed down by troubles and anxieties resulting from the action of the superiors of the Order and of the Papal Nuncio against the nuns and friars of the Reform. Matters became even more serious when, in October, the nuns of the Incarnation of Avila proceeded to the election of a new prioress. Notwithstanding the prohibition of the provincial, fifty-five electors recorded their votes in favor of the Saint and were immediately declared excommunicated. The whole work of the Reform seemed on the brink of ruin, the Saint, as well as all her friends, was in disgrace, subject to obloquy and ill-treatment.

No trace of these trials is to be found in the Interior Castle. Saint Teresa possessed the power of concentration of thought in a marvellous degree. The early mornings and late evenings were devoted to the composition of the book, while the rest of the day was taken up by the affairs of the Order. Mother Mary of the Nativity, a member of the community of Toledo, where the book was begun, declared afterwards,⁴ that she often saw her writing, generally after Holy Communion, her face resplendent, with such rapidity and so absorbed in her occupation that she seemed undisturbed by, and in fact quite unconscious of, any noise that was made. Mother Mariana of the Angels⁵ reports having heard from the same witness, that entering her cell one day to deliver a message, the holy Mother was just beginning a new sheet of her book. While taking off her spectacles to listen to the message she was seized by a trance in which she remained for several hours. The nun, terrified at this, did not stir, but kept her eyes steadily on the Saint. When she came to, it was seen that the paper, previously blank, was covered with writing. Noticing that her visitor had discovered it, Saint Teresa put the paper quietly in the box.

Another nun, Mary of St. Francis, left the following declaration: "I know that our holy Mother wrote four books, the Life, the Way of Perfection, the Foundations, and the Mansions, which I have seen her writing. Once, while she was composing the last-named work, I entered to deliver a message, and found her so absorbed that she did not notice me; her face seemed quite illuminated and most beautiful. After having listened to me she said: ‘Sit down, my child, and let me write what our Lord has told me ere I forget it,’ and she went on writing with great rapidity and without stopping."⁶

Mary of St. Joseph says she heard from Mary of the Nativity that Father Jerome Gracian commanded the Saint to write the Mansions; she, however, begged to be excused, because so many books having been written by holy and learned men, there remained nothing for a woman to write. At length she yielded under obedience. This nun (Mary of the Nativity) was frequently in the Saint’s cell while she was writing and she noticed her resplendent face and the almost preternatural velocity with which her hand travelled over the paper.⁷

Writing to Mother Mary of St. Joseph, Prioress of Seville, November 8, 1581, St. Teresa gives her a message for Father Rodrigo Alvarez, S.J.: Our Father (Jerome Gracian, then provincial) tells me that he has handed you a book written by me, which perhaps you do not feel inclined to read yourself. Kindly read to Father Rodrigo Alvarez, at his next visit, the last Mansion, but under the seal of confession, as he asks this in his superior wisdom. This is only for you two. Tell him that the person he knows has arrived at this Mansion and enjoys the peace there described; that she is entirely at rest, and that some grave theologians have assured her that she is on a safe road. In case you could not read these pages to him do not send him the book, for it might lead to unpleasantness. Until I have his answer on this matter I will not write to him. Give him my compliments.

At the end of the original manuscript, before the epilogue (marked with Ihs.) there is a notice in Father Alvarez’ hand-writing to this effect: "The Mother Prioress of the convent of Seville has read to me this seventh Mansion, whither a soul may arrive in the present life. Let all the saints praise the infinite goodness of God, Who communicates Himself to His creatures so that they truly seek His glory and the salvation of their neighbour. What I feel and judge of this matter is, that everything that has been read to me is conformable to Catholic truth and in accordance with Holy Scripture and the teaching of the Saints. Whosoever has read the doctrine of the Saints, such as the books of St. Gertrude, St. Catharine of Siena, or St. Bridget of Sweden, and other saints and spiritual writers, will clearly understand that the spirit of Mother Tireza (sic) of Jesus is true, since it leads to the same effects as are to be found in the saints; and because this is in truth my judgment and opinion, I have hereunto set my name, this, the 22nd day of February, 1582. P. Rodrigo Alvarez."⁸

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 one is of better quality than that of the former, though the precious stones are not so well set. It has been done, as might be expected, according to the designs of the Jeweller Himself."⁹ Later on she wrote to Father Jerome Gracian: "The book I have written since seems to me superior [to the Life]; at least I had more experience when I wrote it."¹⁰

One day, speaking with Mother Mary of Jesus on spiritual matters, she said that our Lord had communicated so much to her since she had reached what she described in the seventh Mansion—the spiritual Marriage—that she did not consider it possible to advance further in this life, in the way of prayer, nor even to wish to do so.¹¹

The book was eagerly read by those who were able to obtain copies. At the archiepiscopal Seminary at Salamanca it was read publicly after dinner; the students, contrary to custom, sacrificing the recreation rather than miss so edifying an instruction. The result was that several entered the religious life, one becoming a Franciscan, two others, who had already taken their degrees, joining the Discalced Carmelites.¹² We also know of a lady who became a Poor Clare through reading the Interior Castle.¹³ The process of Beatification contains the following evidence of Don Francisco de Mora, architect to Philip III: "The same prioress (of a convent of Dominican nuns) being concerned about my salvation gave me a book in manuscript, called The Mansions, by Mother Teresa, hoping I should derive some benefit from it. I fear this was not the case, but it made me acquainted with Teresa of Jesus, the foundress of the Discalced Carmelite nuns, of whom I had not yet heard, but for whom I now felt devotion."¹⁴

In August 1586 it was decided to print Saint Teresa’s works, the Augustinian Fray Luis de Leon being selected as editor, as he was unconcerned in the quarrels raging round the Reform. Accordingly, the manuscript of the Interior Castle was handed to him. On the first leaf he wrote the following note:

Many passages of this book written by the holy Mother have been scored through, other words being substituted or notes being added in the margin. Most of these corrections are badly done, the original text being much better. It will be noticed that the holy Mother’s sentences are superior and agree with the context, which is not the case with the corrections. These improvements and glosses may therefore be dispensed with. Having myself read and considered everything with great care, it appears to me that the reader, too, should have before him the words of the author

Reviews for The Interior Castle (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

[rmagahiz · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is my Lenten reading pick for 2017, the first time I've chosen an audiobook for edifying reading. I thought I was going to like this one somewhat more, and maybe I would have as a person still in school, but I found that the description of the inward spiritual journey as a trip through a Renaissance castle with many mansions to be hard for me to identify with. I knew, intellectually, that she was composing her work for her fellow cloistered religious, who quite possibly would be receiving it aurally as well, and was prepared to make allowance for the difference in our life pursuits. It never really managed to draw me in fully though, which is a pity. It did not fill me with a conviction that the most interior of the mansions in the depths of contemplation with God was the place I myself wanted to go more than anything, but assumed that I as the reader might already be of that mind on my own. Right now I am going through a period where I am focused on the outside world and its concerns somewhat more than I really like, so part of it could be a matter of timing. I wouldn't mind re-reading the work in a dozen years maybe to see if it comes off differently to me then.
I would say that I did enjoy Teresa's writing style, which is so far from high-faluting and indeed tends to be even self-deprecating that I bookmarked a couple of charming passages of hers. There are some unusual images she includes which I really enjoyed for their extraordinary flights of fancy. It's not enough to make me raise my rating to four stars, unfortunately, but at least it made the book pleasant to experience.
I'm not enough of an expert in theology to be able to tell what innovative ideas Teresa introduced in her writing. To me it felt like it was so thoroughly adopted by Catholic teaching by now that nothing felt controversial.

[danhammang · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This discourse on mysticism written for the aid of her fellow Discalced Carmelite nuns, written from the heart is surprisingly readable given the distance in time between Teresa and the modern reader. There is a genuineness that shines out from each page. This is closer to a memoir than it is to a treatise. It is hard not to be constantly aware of the strength of her vision that must have been so vivid to her contemporaries, in a way that allowed her to move beyond the structured expectations for a woman, for a nun in 16th Century Spain. Kieran Kavanaugh's translation is highly readable. And his introduction is informative, a great help in providing context for her writing and her life.

[revelationinsight · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For the first time in well over 70 years, this work is now available. This particular work is the translation by The sisters of Stanbrook Abbey. This effort is also a critical examine against that of Allison Peers, infamous version.

[pcgator · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I could tell this was an informative, experiential, and intimate look at the spiritual inner life; however I think I am still stuck outside the proverbial castle gate.

[revslick_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Christian Classic! This is the measuring stick I read every few years. It's not to be read as a measure for achievement for bragging or boasting but a cultured humility garnered through failing and surrendering into the arms of grace.

[strokeboy_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very deep and spiritually moving. This book shows us how to bet closer to God in prayer. It also exposes traps set by the devil.

[siusaidh_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've never made it though the entire book but I love St. Theresa's ideas which have helped my faith grow considerably.

[roydknight · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This translation of a classic in Western Christian mysticism is one of the best.