One of the most celebrated works on mystical theology in existence, as timely today as when St. Teresa of Avila wrote it centuries ago, this is a treasury of unforgettable maxims on self-knowledge and fulfillment. Teresa of Jesus, was a Spanish nun and one of the great mystics and religious women of the Roman Catholic Church.
About Interior Castle A cornerstone book on mystical theology, Interior Castle describes the seven stages of union with God. Also in Image Classics. Also by Teresa Of Avila. First of all, don't read this book straight through and expect to get meaning from it. This is not one of those books.
This is a book that needs to be experienced. There is so much to it, I can't even begin to explain well enough to give it credit. Meditation and pondering are definetely required! I have 78 pages left.
~ St. Teresa of Avila ~
I intend to finish it tonight. Then in the morning I've decide Update: Then in the morning I've decided to read one section of it, journal a response, and then change up this review eventually. View all 3 comments. In the study of the various aspects of Catholic theology, sometimes we forget that the whole religion thing is really about one thing - loving God and loving each other. In this classic work, St. Theresa of Avila brings us back to these simple truths. In her eyes, the spiritual life, which is the love of God in one's own life, is like a castle with seven "mansions", or levels.
In the outer mansions are the things that keep us from God and from love, namely selfishness, self-centeredness, all of In the study of the various aspects of Catholic theology, sometimes we forget that the whole religion thing is really about one thing - loving God and loving each other. In the outer mansions are the things that keep us from God and from love, namely selfishness, self-centeredness, all of the vices and the pride that tells us that we don't need anything but ourselves.
As we enter the inner mansions and come closer to God, we shed these things and become filled with the things that make life really meaningful. In embracing humility, we learn that the best things in life come from outside ourselves and we can't do it alone. In embracing purity, we come to realize that life is so full of distractions that we need to get back to the things that matter, the things that make us strong. The closer that we come to God in the center of the innermost mansion, the less that the world means to us. The things that we foolishly cling to in our selfishness melt away in the vanity that surrounds those things.
In the inner mansion, that sweet place within our souls where God always dwells, that is where we find true meaning. It is amazing to me how this woman, St. Theresa of Avila, a nun who lived in the Spain of the Inquisition and the counter-reformation, could write such profound truths that they touch a 21st century American like myself. It provides so much material for meditation and thought. Ironically, this woman who never pursued a PhD nor even a college education, found truths more profound than any of the great PhD theologians of the past years who claim to have the real answers. This book is not to be read once, but to be read and reread, in short passages at a time, and to be prayed over and contemplated after reading.
If you do this, you will find so many great truths about the spiritual life. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to deepen their spiritual life. Aug 30, Darius Murretti rated it it was amazing. Why did Terry succeed where almost all others failed? Its like going to school with your boyfriend! Each room requires a spiritual lesson to be mastered before you can get to the next room! Room 1 is humility. Simply enter ROOM 1 and your boy friend starts to sparkle in the light!!! How can he stand you!?! When you see Gods Infinite power and your powerlessness bang!
When you enter the court of an all power King you automatically become humble. Humility and hugging tight to your BF is the invincible armour against disruptions of these evil spirits. Without humblyholding close to your BF you are toast. These are mere coverings.
We are the soul. We are like the ultimate dunce not to know who we are or where we came from!!! We should not be that lame. We should attempt to discover that we are in fact the wondrous soul inside and we live inheaven with our DAD who, owns it. Terry warns us of his tricks. She urges us to be on guard against and repel the the attacks of our enemy and emerge victorious.
Catholic First - St. Teresa of Avila - Interior Castle
If we are ready are to succeed in his life time we will need to go to a living God man and seek his instruction. BUT before you run off! In order to get ready to meet a Master we need to study and understand the devine design so longing to aatain it will awaken. Yes — free of charge — if anyhi g HE will pay for your room and board when you visit him. He is always the give never the taker. So becoming ready is a great thing!
So what has Terry to say to help us?
See a Problem?
She speaks with authority of seasoned veteran Terry tells us: We have to stop chasing the world and go within to get our birthright. The journey is traveled by the force of love and longing. Love and longing are the true prayer to God. The more we love and long the more help HE gives up to proceed upward and inward to behold and be eternally wed to the eternal Bridegroom , IN a thrill of intense longing the soul beholds and rushes forth to unite with the Beloved.
We need to conserve our sexual energy more and direct it into love and longing for our Beloved bride Groom. Blessed are the pure in heart Terry tells us: Help each other pick out the weeds that would choke the seed of love and longing and take inspiration from each other to keep our desire fixed on this goal. But in the beginning it will see like an emotional void where we are just holding our mind still in the darkness repeating a mantra just having faith that god will provide the love and longing if we persist.
Terry also says that if we keep the company of those who have love and longing we will already have some of it when we sit. But once we sit we can not think our way into love and longing. It has to come from God and we have to be patient and have faith that it will. If a person does not think Whom he is addressing, of Whom he is asking it, I do not consider that he is praying at all.
These are very much absorbed in worldly affairs; but their desires are good; sometimes, though infrequently, they dedicate themselves to Our Lord; and they think about the state of their souls, though not very carefully. Full of a thousand preoccupations as they are, they pray only a few times a month, and as a rule they are thinking all the time of their preoccupations, for they are very much attached to them, and, where their treasure is, there is their heart also. From time to time, however, they shake their minds free of them and it is a great thing that they should know themselves well enough to realize that they are not going the right way to reach the castle door.
Eventually they enter the first rooms on the lowest floor, but so many reptiles get in with them that they are unable to appreciate the beauty of the castle or to find any peace within it. Still, they have done a good deal by entering at all.
- Buddhist Boot Camp;
- Saint Teresa of Avila for Every Day: Reflections from the Interior Castle.
- St. Teresa of Avila's "Interior Castle":.
- Works Cited:.
- Bichos do jardim (Portuguese Edition).
- See a Problem?;
Then Terry goes on to explain that like the sun in the center of our solar system and earth orbits it. No thicker darkness exists, and there is nothing dark and black which is not much less so than this. You need know only one thing about it -- that, although the Sun Himself, Who has given it all its splend our and beauty, is still there in the centre of the soul, the crystal in incapable of reflecting the sun. While in a state like this the soul will find profit in nothing. SO stay away from smut! And do things selflessly to please God so He, being pleased with us , will remove the darkness of sin and we will be able to reflect the light within ourselves and enter and pass through the inner castle to the wedding feast.
Since God is infinite there is no limit to the greatness of gifts he can bestow. He wants to make us his brides and we will share in all he has. Such people ,she tells us , Just shut their heart against and further gifts for God. Sometimes he increases our understanding in other ways. It so we should just continue to choose what God wants not what the devil wants even i f once or twice we made the wrong choice we should just keep making right choices God ward choices.
It is conscious of having been most delectably wounded, but it is certain that this is a precious experience and it would be glad if it were never to be healed of that wound. The soul beseeches its Beloved with words of love, and even cries aloud, being unable to help itself, for it realizes that He is present but will not manifest Himself in such a way as to allow it to enjoy Him, and this is a great grief, though a sweet and delectable one; even if it should desire not to suffer it, it would have no choice -- but in any case it never would so desire.
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It is much more satisfying to a soul than is the delectable absorption, devoid of distress, which occurs in the Prayer of Quiet. For the Spouse, Who is in the seventh Mansion, seems to be calling the soul in a way which involves no clear utterance of speech, and none of the inhabitants of the other Mansions -- the senses, the imagination or the faculties -- dares to stir. So powerful is the effect of this upon the soul that it becomes consumed with desire, yet cannot think what to ask, so clearly conscious is it of the presence of its God.
Now, if this is so, you will ask me what it desires or what causes it distress. What greater blessing can it wish for? I cannot say; I know that this distress seems to penetrate to its very bowels; and that, when He that has wounded it draws out the arrow, the bowels seem to come with it, so deeply does it feel this love. I have just been wondering if my God could be described as the fire in a lighted brazier, from which some spark will fly out and touch the soul, in such a way that it will be able to feel the burning heat of the fire; but, as the fire is not hot enough to burn it up, and the experience is very delectable, the soul continues to feel that pain and the mere touch suffices to produce that effect in it.
It is perfectly clear that source of this sweet pain of love is the Lord, and its effects are the intense absorption of the joy Anyone to whom Our Lord has granted this favour will give God the most heartfelt thanks let him endeavour to serve God and to grow better all his life long and he will see the result of this and find himself receiving more and more. The soul, then, has these yearnings and tears and sighs, together with the strong impulses which have already been described. They all seem to arise from our love, and are accompanied by great emotion, While the soul is in this condition, and interiorly burning, Ah, God help me!
Lord, how Thou dost afflict Thy lovers! Yet all this is very little by comparison with what Thou bestowest upon them later.
That's Love folks intense unremitting painfully sweet and very clear and definite of purpose. By pain that is very sweet love joins two hearts into one. View all 34 comments. I don't know which one is more unfair: The Interior Castle is a spiritual classics; it has been read and enjoyed by millions, and in turn I'm sure it has made many saints! So nothing I write can ever truly describe how awesome this book is! What I can say is this: Iron I don't know which one is more unfair: Teresa is my patron saint, and by logic I should've devoured or at least be familiar with her works ages ago.
But, better than never, right? I am SO glad that I came across Interior Castle during my lifetime here on earth, because everything it says is relevant to my state of spiritual life. No, I'm not saying that I've experienced all the mystical things described in the book What I'm saying is that this book gets me, and I get it.
Teresa could've easily been my own blood sister or at least a very empathic spiritual director. Granted, I can see how some - or perhaps many - people would say this book is difficult. I, too, found myself having to take a breath after reading one or two chapters, and to continue only after a few days have passed. I wouldn't say the book is difficult though, but that it is profound. It is deep waters. You cannot treat it as a leisurely read, unless you have a recollected disposition that makes it easier for you to enter into a meditative state whenever and wherever.
Additionally, many of the spiritual experiences described might be hard to imagine if one hasn't experienced them first hand. Teresa admits it herself. She clearly knows her stuff, but thinks she's unable to explain them sufficiently. That being said, I think she's done a great job, by the grace of God. Would I recommend this book? View all 8 comments. This is a book about prayer written by Saint Teresa of Avila, a 16th century Carmelite nun, mystic and doctor of the Church. In this book, she presents a model of the human soul as a castle cut from a single diamond.
This castle is divided into seven groups of mansions, beginning at the outer gate and moving inward toward the center. We enter the castle whenever we pray, for the gate to the outermost mansion is prayer. Those who never pray remain in a courtyard outside the gate. As we progress This is a book about prayer written by Saint Teresa of Avila, a 16th century Carmelite nun, mystic and doctor of the Church.
As we progress in prayer, we move gradually inward through the mansions.
Interior Castle
Along the way, we discover that our attachment to sin is trailing us in the form of reptiles. We battle our demons in the second mansions, and to win we must call for supernatural assistance from God and the saints who live near Him. The third mansions are the arid deserts of the soul, and here we must travel lightly and swiftly through, which we accomplish by dropping our heavy self-centeredness. And in the fourth mansions, there are two distinct fountains: Because… The fifth and sixth mansions are very strange and mystical.
Teresa describes such things as: In the seventh mansion, of course, there is the ecstasy of uniting with God, which St. Tracing the passage of the soul through each successive chamber, she draws a powerful picture of the path toward spiritual perfection. One of the most celebrated works on mystical theology in existence, as timely today as when St. Teresa of Avila wrote it centuries ago, this is a treasury of unforgettable maxims on self-knowledge and fulfillment.
Teresa of Jesus, was a Spanish nun and one of the great mystics and religious women of the Roman Catholic Church. About Interior Castle A cornerstone book on mystical theology, Interior Castle describes the seven stages of union with God. Also in Image Classics.