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Interior Castle

Teresa of Ávila

4.18 · Rating details · 5,249 ratings · 302 reviews

A cornerstone book on mystical theology, Interior Castle describes the seven stages of union with God. Using everyday language to explain difficult theological concepts, Teresa of Avila compares the contemplative life to a castle with seven chambers. Tracing the passage of the soul through each successive chamber, she draws a powerful picture of the path toward spiritual ...more

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Paperback, 288 pages

Published January 4th 1972 by Image (first published 1588)

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Mar 27, 2016 Roy Lotz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: religion-mysticism-theology, eurotrip

It is absurd to think that we can enter Heaven without first entering our own souls

Last week I spend five days walking on the Camino de Santiago. I know, probably that doesn’t sound terribly impressive to anyone who walked all the way from France, but I still had a great time. Every morning we set out before sunrise, when the lush landscape of Galicia was still shrouded in mist and twilight. We walked on and on, guided by the conch shell signs that point the way. We reached the pilgrim's hostel just as the heat of the day began to take hold. My back sore, my feet blistered, I would drop my backpack and stretched out in my bunkbed.

Besides walking, sleeping, and eating, the only thing I did was read this book: St. Teresa’s book on prayer. It seemed like an appropriate choice. Both Santiago (St. James) and St. Teresa are patron saints of Spain; and yet they represent two very different periods in Spain’s history. The cult of Santiago dates from the time of the Moors, when Christians needed a figure to rally around during the Reconquista. St. Teresa, on the other hand, lived during the Counter-Reformation. As the Catholic world was coming apart, Catholic officials were understandably skittish at even a hint of unorthodoxy. Thus St. Teresa’s mysticism was first viewed with suspicion, and she was even picked up by the Inquisition. But after some investigation, it was decided that St. Teresa posed no threat to orthodoxy; to the contrary, she helped to reinvigorate the faith.

This context is necessary to understand this book, or at least half of it. This is because, although ostensibly guide for prayer, it is also a handbook for avoiding the suspicions of heterodoxy. It is full of advice for those having mystical experiences on which visions to discount, because they are products of Satan or the imagination, and which visions to accept. Teresa also explains when you should yield to one’s prioress or confessor, and when you should stand your ground. St. Teresa was obviously acutely aware of the paranoid climate, and thus this book is as full of pragmatic counsel as religious guidance. She even explains in the beginning that the only reason she wrote the book was because she was commanded to.

As James Michener pointed out, the most striking thing about St. Teresa is this seamless mixture of pragmatism and mysticism. For somebody who reported feeling her soul leave her body, she comes across as remarkably down to earth. Several times, she quotes or references a Biblical passage and then adds parenthetically “Well, at least I think that’s what it says,” as if she couldn’t be bothered to go look it up. She also frequently comments on how inadequate she feels to the task at hand; and a few times she says that she’s unsure whether she is repeating herself, because she wrote the last bit a while ago and she doesn’t have time to reread it. The final effect is really charming, as if she just sat down and dashed off the whole thing between breakfast and lunch.

These interior matters are so obscure to the mind that anyone with as little learning as I will be sure to have to say many superfluous and even irrelevant things in order to say a single one that is to the point. The reader must have patience with me, as I have with myself when writing about things of which I know nothing; for really I sometimes take up my paper, like a perfect fool, with no idea of what to say or of how to begin.

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.

What most bothered me was that the mystical and orthodox strains in Teresa’s thought did not go easily together. Perhaps this is only my taste. One thing I enjoy about mystic writings is their grand conception of the cosmos, the notion that everything apparently opposite forms one complete whole. Thus mystic texts, in my experience, tend not to be especially preoccupied with moral injunctions, since they regard good and evil as a kind of illusion.

But in Teresa, the emphasis on wickedness, on personal shortcomings, on temptation, and in general the whole moral framework of Catholicism made her system as much about avoiding sinfulness and unorthodoxy as achieving a mystical experience. For example, I’ve heard mystics say that each person is a part of God, but Teresa councils that we should contemplate God to realize our own foulness and lowliness. I don’t find that very appealing.

On the fifth day after we began, at about noon, I found myself standing in front of the two towers of Santiago Cathedral. Later that day, I finished the final pages of this book. I had taken a pilgrimage of the body and soul, and hopefully I’m better for it. In any case, I enjoyed myself and learned something.
...more

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May 16, 2011 Karen Locklear rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Update: I am blogging about this book. Here is the blog address if interested:

http://whatisyourpurposerightnow.blog...

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. I intend to finish it tonight. Then in the morning I've ...more

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Feb 04, 2019 booklady rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, classic, 2005, prayer, scripture, theology, favorites, women, spiritual, worth-reading-over-and-over

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 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.

September 12, 2019: p.272 Thought I really understood this last time I read it, many years ago. I remember thinking, Teresa is SO easy to understand! Now, I am struggling with her. And this is the STUDY EDITION! It is not her writing, well yes, she does meander, but trying to know what she is referring to... I am never sure I am sure. Which is probably just as well...

Here is a short selection from the Fourth Dwelling places where Teresa is leading up to her description of the Prayer of Recollection. In it, she also introduces a concept she calls the ‘shepherd’s whistle’:

‘Having seen their (sinners) perdition, they’ve already begun to approach the castle, even though they may not manage to remain inside because the habit of doing so is difficult to acquire. But still they are not traitors, and they walk in the environs of the castle. Once the great King, who is in the center dwelling place of this castle, sees their good will, he desires in his wonderful mercy to bring them back to himself. Like a good shepherd, with a whistle so gentle that even they themselves almost fail to hear it. He makes them recognize his voice and stops them from going so far astray so that they will return to their dwelling place. And this shepherd’s whistle has such power that they abandon the exterior things in which they were estranged from him and enter the castle.’

Although I have read and/or listened to Interior Castle at least 3 times previously I do not remember the shepherd’s whistle, nor the Prayer of Recollection. These struck me as very similar to what my confessor has told me in the Confessional on occasion, ‘Jesus has forgiven you as soon as you decided to come here and all the angels and saints, your patrons especially, are celebrating, as they do whenever you come to ask forgiveness.’ And no, I wasn’t confessing some whopper mortal sins or going through my whole life story, just my usual litany of minor infractions which so offend my King, but even so the compassion of the priest’s words almost undid me.

This Fourth Mansion is so deep, but I am finding it hard to read this time. Funny, but I used to think Teresa much easier to read. Now I find her meandering style irritating. I want her to hurry up and get to the point! Unfortunately, that represents regression on my part. Oh dear! :( And yet at the same time, I also think I recognize that as she comes close to talking about anything relating to God, she finds herself at a loss for words. There simply are NO words. Although I am using a lot words here to say that. (sigh) Sorry dear Teresa!

February 4, 2019: What we will be studying this year... This study edition was not even in GRs. ...
Just learned that Kieran Kavanaugh died on Saturday, February 2. He has been the Spanish to English translator of many of the works of St. John of the Cross—along with Otilio Rodriguez. Kavanaugh was a member of the Washington, D.C. Province of the Discalced Carmelites friars. Eternal rest grant unto him O LORD! ...more

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Jun 08, 2014 Walter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: theology-catholic-spirituality

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 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 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 200 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. ...more

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Aug 30, 2017 Darius Murretti rated it it was amazing

Interior caslte review
The vast majority who try fall by the wayside but St Theresa(Terry) succeeded in opening her inner eye and entering the “straight and narrow gate “ to the Father’s house during her life time, entering the wedding chamber and marrying the Kings of the infinite .
Why did Terry succeed where almost all others failed ?
1)Terry had a conviction “Either we are the brides of this great King or we are not.” So what are we waiting for?!
2) Terry relied on God’s grace not on her own ...more

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Sep 11, 2015 Anna Elissa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: personal-fav, 2011-2015, catholic-mysticism, setting-spain, catholic-saints, catholic-prayer-devotion, catholic-spiritual-classics, catholic-carmelite

I don't know which one is more unfair: leaving this book with 5 stars but with no review, or writing a review which can never ever do it justice, however hard I strive to. 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: it's ironic that I only discovered this book very recently, at the order of my spiritual director. ...more

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Jul 22, 2008 ♥ Ibrahim ♥ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: spirituality, thinkers-i-adore

Our Lord Jesus Christ told us that in the Father's House there are many mansions, and for our be love saint here, Teressa, these mansions could be seven and they represent the mansions of the soul as it seems to grow, develop and be united with its Beloved the Lord. How close are we getting to the Lord? Are we making some progress?

The beautiful thing about Teresa is that she writes as words come to her mind in full spontaneity. So, her words come so genuine, so simple, so real, so much from the ...more

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Feb 27, 2009 Jean rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Although St. Teresa was a 16th century nun, she was as busy as the rest of us when "encouraged" by her spiritual director to write this book for her nuns. I read it as part of a Sunday school class, and I found myself cracking up at how Mirabai Starr captures her. One minute she is fervently advocating for humility and self-expression and prayer and the next she's literally writing I don't where I was. Between opening and managing some 15 or more Carmelite convents, dodging the suspicious ...more

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Sep 01, 2012 Stef rated it it was amazing

I've been reading this start-stop skip around fashion since 2012. this time i read it from cover to cover and every reading seemed to be planned by God to come at the right time, just when i needed to read something in particular. Thank You, Lord.

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Jun 04, 2013 Diane rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-translation, catholicism, kindle, saints, prayer, read-in-2013, theology

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 ...more

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Jan 07, 2012 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: christian-spirituality-advanced, catholicism, christian-classics

second Read 2019 - A group of friends of mine reads theology books together, trying to read stuff outside our own culture and background as well as classics from long ago. Well, a group of straight men have little in common with a celibate nun of five centuries ago!

This one is obviously a challenge. And it is probably good to read her other books first. I had read her three major works a while back and forgot to tell the group we probably shouldn’t start here. She presupposes a lot of beginner ...more

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Feb 26, 2016 Elizabeth Andrew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: spirituality

I've spent my adult life appreciating Teresa of Avila's INTERIOR CASTLE second-hand. Her autobiography has long been a favorite but every time I tried INTERIOR CASTLE I got bogged down. I love stories of Teresa's spunky leadership, her bad-mouthing God ("If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few!"), and her belief in an indwelling divinity who spurs on our yearning for connection, and all of that personality and wisdom seemed buried in self-effacing doctrine about ...more

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Oct 27, 2014 Sondra Jones rated it it was amazing

I'm not going to "review" a classic. But I will say wow. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castles goes way beyond any spiritual practice or state that I've known existed. It's a whole new world. Again! It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. And that's a good thing.

This book is available on YouTube, read in its entirety. That's how I "read" it. Now I need a hard copy.

Some new ideas to me were around Jesus' suffering and suffering in general. That is why I need a hard copy; need to go back and read ...more

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Apr 27, 2014 Kristin rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Teresa of Avila wrote Interior Castle as a way to explain her theory about the soul. I have to admit, the idea of the soul being a castle shaped crystal housing seven mansions inside is pretty cool. The imagery of the soul-crystal darkening after being touched by Lucifer was striking as well. As a person who never fully understood the mystic branches of the Abrahamic faiths, I found the mysticism offered here is fairly accessible. However, the multiple comparisons of disabled individuals to a ...more

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Oct 22, 2019 Mari rated it did not like it

Shelves: trying-to-read-more-women-2019

When reading spiritual texts, I try to rate them on two accounts. I attempt to consider whether it is good life advice to a person that believes in the tradition in question (that's rarely me, since I'm far too skeptic to commit myself to anything). Secondly, I'm affected by how much I simply enjoyed the reading experience, regardless of agreeing or disagreeing. For example, I found Bhagavad-Gita a very enjoyable and beautiful read, although I can't say I remember much of its teachings anymore.

When reading spiritual texts, I try to rate them on two accounts. I attempt to consider whether it is good life advice to a person that believes in the tradition in question (that's rarely me, since I'm far too skeptic to commit myself to anything). Secondly, I'm affected by how much I simply enjoyed the reading experience, regardless of agreeing or disagreeing. For example, I found Bhagavad-Gita a very enjoyable and beautiful read, although I can't say I remember much of its teachings anymore.

Interior Castle is something I strongly disliked on both accounts. I read this for a class I'm taking in theology, and while I'm clearly not the target audience considering I'm an atheist and very critical towards Christianity in particular, it was really hard for me too even have any academic or philosophical interest towards it. I was constantly annoyed by it's hypernegative representation of humans and especially women.

Teresa of Ávila was a catholic nun, and wrote this book primarily to her fellow nuns to instruct them in finding union with God through prayer. She portrays the human soul as a castle, which has several rooms in it, and through prayer, meditation and committing oneself to God a person can travel towards the inner rooms, in which the rather erotic union with God finally can happen.

Teresa describes humans as completely wretched, with nothing good to them. Everything worth cherishing is a gift from God, including things such as bravery to endure tribulation (which will happen A LOT, and we should be grateful), doing good deeds or even the will to be with God. Everything that is good in a person should bring praise to God, and one should not feel any pride for their skills or achievements. Teresa highlights self-knowledge as a vital ingredient on a soul's journey towards God, by which she means complete understanding of how thoroughly wretched one is. One should attempt to amortise their own self and will, which is a contradiction in itself, as a person can barely do anything without any inner motivation and desres. Of course, if you believe in God, it is a plausible idea to completely abandon your own desires and want only what God makes you want, but mostly this just leads to a vicious circle of having to amortise yourself without being allowed to want to do so, especially since your reasons are probably shit considering your dreadful human nature.

I've been trying to read more books by women this year in order to find more realistic representations of women, which is also why I picked this book out of a long list of classics of mystical Christianity. I probably should have known I shouldn't expect very progressive views from a catholic nun. Teresa is constantly belittling women's mental, intellectual and physical strength, including her own, and portraying them as the weaker sex. Like yeah, people are bad, but women are much worse. It's much worse to hear all that misogyny in the form of a woman teaching it to other women.

The misogyny grows deeper when Teresa uses the metaphors of falling in love, engagement and marriage for the soul's union with God, presenting the individual as the Bride and God as the groom. This relationship is one of complete submission to and worship of the narcissistic God; SLAVERY is used to describe it. This makes it hard to fathom how anyone could find the idea of Christian marriage remotely healthy - Bible too describes the individual or the church as God's bride. This makes the power dynamic in a marriage rather wonky, if you ask me. But you probably shouldn't, since I am a woman, and I don't even pray.

In addition, there's of course a healthy dose of intimidating people with Devil's temptations and warning them from even trying to use their common sense. This is the usual "don't you dare to question this" and "don't let the Devil tempt you to think" package in Christian literature, and finely disarms all criticism, since people like me that find flaws in it are practically married to Satan.

It all probably seems very different to a person that buys the idea of an amazing God to whom we owe everything to and sees control, fear, submission and demand for praise as love. As for me, I still have to read a second book for my class, and I'm honestly dreading it, since this shit was tough to get through. ...more

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Mar 17, 2019 Josh Wilhelm rated it really liked it

I read Teresa's "Interior Castle" as book six (out of ten) for a class on "Classics of Christian Spirituality" at Regent College. Written by Teresa to her sisters in her Carmelite monastery, the book is a manual on the mystical life, using an image of a giant crystal castle as a metaphor for the life of the soul. The soul for Teresa is not the tiny, shrunken soul of modernity, but is rather a vast castle with innumerous rooms. For the purpose of illustration, this castle is divided into seven ...more

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Feb 28, 2017 Becky Ankeny rated it liked it

It isn't fair to rate this book until I've read it several times, but a first-time through was difficult. Teresa refers to herself in the third person, presents women as intellectually inferior, and extends a metaphor over 300 pages or so. I trudged. BUT, it will be worth reading again. Teresa says that a touchstone for mystical experience is whether it leaves the person more humble and more committed to the virtues and to loving God. Also, true communion with God, however outré the experience ...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Jennifer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: religion

This is an excellent, though a difficult, book and one I feel I will return to in the future.

Saint Teresa wrote The Interior Castle relatively late in her life, after years as a nun, and with a lifetime of spiritual discipline behind her. Therefore, she is easily able to identify common pitfalls which present obstacles to spiritual growth and advancement. Her advice is practical and surprisingly relevant to readers some 400 years after the book was written. However, she may easily surpass the ...more

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Apr 03, 2012 Sharayah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This is probably a better book than I rated it, but I just did not understand it. I have not experienced anything remotely like the raptures St. Teresa talks about, and the run on sentences and rabbit trails leave me lost.

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Jul 02, 2010 Julie Davis rated it it was amazing

Rereading after having read it for the first time at least a decade ago.

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Jul 09, 2009 Kellerrenate rated it it was amazing

Anyone wanting to re-connect with Christian thought and learn about a devotional/rational relationship to God, this is an incredibly beautiful book.

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May 22, 2019 Shawn rated it it was amazing

I think it is fitting that I read Marcus Aurelius' Meditations just before reading this because Teresa of Avila espouses many of the things found in Meditations, she brings to it a much needed personal and poetic touch. To have conceived such a work while in a constant state of physical pain (she frequently complains and apologizes about her head hurting) and yet to remain so fixated and devout on this text solely to better her sister nuns is a very strong display of willpower, love, and ...more

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Nov 23, 2019 Alexis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: catholic-history-and-writings

A beautiful self help guide to understanding where you fall in the contemplative life. Interior Castle was a good companion read to A Dark Night of the Soul as many of the same ideas are reflected in both, but with the male and female perspective coming out differently in each.

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May 27, 2012 Carol Apple rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

“Few tasks which I have been commanded to undertake by obedience have been so difficult as this present one of writing about matters relating to prayer: for one reason, because I do not feel the Lord has given me either the spirituality or the desire for it….”

So Teresa of Ávila (1515 – 1582) begins The Interior Castle (published 1577), a book which became a lucid and beautifully written spiritual classic. A learned woman who had already written several books, Teresa had been instructed to write “Few tasks which I have been commanded to undertake by obedience have been so difficult as this present one of writing about matters relating to prayer: for one reason, because I do not feel the Lord has given me either the spirituality or the desire for it….”

So Teresa of Ávila (1515 – 1582) begins The Interior Castle (published 1577), a book which became a lucid and beautifully written spiritual classic. A learned woman who had already written several books, Teresa had been instructed to write a book on prayer for her fellow sisters of Carmelite order, women who chose to give up all worldly ambition and desires in favor of a life of sacrifice and prayer. It always amazes me how, out of thousands of possible books, I end up reading certain ones. I didn’t plan to read this one; it was not on any of my “to read” lists. I vaguely remember seeing on a list of spiritual classics somewhere, downloading it, and immediately getting sucked into the castle.

The castle metaphor is both the soul itself and the person’s mind, will, and consciousness as she grows in spiritually closer to God:

“Now let us return to our beautiful and delightful castle and see how we can enter it. I seem rather to be talking nonsense, for, if this castle is the soul, there can clearly be no question of our entering it. For we ourselves are the castle: and it would be absurd to tell someone to enter a room when he was in it already! But you must understand that there are many ways of “being” in a place.”

Although the entire drama happens inside a soul – your physical body could be sitting in a chair or pulling weeds the whole time – an amazing variety of things happen as the soul progresses inward through the corridors and rooms of the castle, from the exterior courtyard where it must fight the “venomous creatures” – worldly temptations – all the way to the most inward chamber where the King awaits perfect union with His chosen ones. There are visions, ecstatic experiences, encounters with God that give new knowledge and understanding, even the experience of leaving the body, and many things Teresa says cannot be adequately described in human language.

In each room or “mansion” of the castle (there are seven in all) the soul experiences new levels of self-knowledge, states of mind, various kinds of visions, and “favors” or direct experiences with God. Fairly early on in the journey one’s desires of the pleasures of this world begin to diminish and the desire for the pleasures of the eternal spiritual world increase until toward the center, the soul begins to long for the day she will leave this world.

Teresa compares the process to that of the silkworm that must first spend time fattening up and preparing to weave its cocoon. The silkworm acts out of obedience to its God-given nature, having no idea why it does what it does. The butterfly that emerges is an entirely new creature that the worm never imagined or anticipated it would become. In Teresa’s metaphor, the point at which the soul becomes a butterfly (new creature) is not the point of physical death. In fact this transformation, in which the soul dies to self, occurs in the fifth of seven mansions. Even reaching the seventh mansion, where spiritual union with God occurs, does not mean the soul has reached the end of her physical life. It simply means that she has become one with God in love (without losing her individuality) and all her desires from this point on are to please Him.

All in all this is a beautifully written and profound book. Although I finished it several months ago and although it took a while to process it, the book has apparently penetrated some small part of my interior because it has stayed with me.

A more detailed review is available at my blog:

http://www.carolsnotes.net/2012/06/ho...
...more

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Jan 16, 2019 Katie Fitzgerald rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: format-ebooks, genre-non-fiction, challenge-alphabet-soup, challenge-alphabet-soup-author, challenge-mount-tbr, challenge-cathlit, 2019, level-adult

#CathLit2019 challenge: A Classic Spiritual Work

I had such a hard time getting through this book, which was my Catholic moms book club's pick for January 2019. I recognize that St. Teresa is imparting lots of valuable wisdom and insight, but I grew weary of the repetition, and of the saint's constant commentary on how unworthy she is to write this book. Though I think I gained some understanding of the concept of an interior life, I don't feel like this book left me with any specific ideas about ...more

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Sep 27, 2014 Czarny Pies rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Believers

Recommended to Czarny by: Ste, Theresa is the patron of a parish I used to belong to.

Shelves: religion

Why read Chicken Soup for Catholics when this work written by a great saint and doctor of the Church is available. Although it was written almost five hundred years ago, its limpid style makes it as readable as anything that has been published in this the 21st century.

Teresa offers a guide on how to begin and progress through a long life of prayer. She leads the reader through seven phases referred to as mansions of one's interior castle. The first three phases are of active prayer in which one ...more

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Oct 21, 2016 John Burns rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: No-one

Shelves: non-fiction

I'm sad to say that I couldn't really understand what she was talking about most of the time. This is partly due to the abstract, abstruse nature of the topic but also due to her totally incoherent style of writing. It reminded me of Anne Frank and Villette, this intelligent and insightful woman rambling on and on, often in a very unfocussed sort of way, often making a point of accusing herself of being too stupid for the task at hand. It's probably also fair to say that I didn't get an ...more

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May 02, 2009 Emily rated it liked it

Shelves: classics, religion, christianity

The Interior Castles is a very wonderful book on how to get closer to God and how to overcome the trials come upon you. St. Theresa originally wrote this for the sisters in her convent, at the urging of a friend of hers. She says that the way to the "ultimate marriage with God" is through humility and a humble life, and through prayer. She also says that we have to be aware of when God speaks to us, and know when Satan is trying to veer us away from Him.

The reason why I gave it only three stars ...more

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Mar 11, 2018 Benjamin Dueholm rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: theology

I feel a bit irreverent reducing this book, which is very important to a lot of people and partakes of Teresa's status as a "Doctor of the Church," to a number of stars, but I found the striking or deeply insightful bits to be rather fewer and farther between than I expected. The "rooms" framing didn't add anything, but it kept me looking for a scheme that didn't really exist. That expectation is probably my fault more than hers. That aside, there is a yearning here to find a kind of assurance ...more

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Apr 03, 2009 Kathy rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: mystics, prayer warriors, people on their spiritual journey through prayer

Recommended to Kathy by: Mary Clark

Shelves: spiritual-direction, spiritual

You can't read this book quickly. The thoughts are deep. And the translation sometimes makes for slower reading as well. I gave up on the English version, and ordered the original Spanish. It makes so much more sense, but still slow reading. i've had it 3 years and still am not done, but then I don'tread it every day either.

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Catholic Thought: Interior Castle Seventh Mansions & Epilogue	20	18	May 27, 2016 12:04PM
Catholic Thought: Interior Castle Sixth Mansions	15	16	Mar 19, 2016 08:58AM
Catholic Thought: Interior Castle Fifth Mansions	10	19	Mar 17, 2016 03:03PM
Catholic Thought: Interior Castle Second Mansions	26	21	Mar 09, 2016 09:00AM
Catholic Thought: Interior Castle First Mansions	11	25	Mar 08, 2016 07:35PM
Catholic Thought: Interior Castle Fourth Mansions	19	23	Feb 27, 2016 11:34PM
Catholic Thought: Interior Castle Introduction	25	28	Feb 25, 2016 08:40AM

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About Teresa of Ávila

Teresa of Ávila

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Saint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesús, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered to be, along with John of the Cross, a founder of the Discalced Carmelites. In 1970 she was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI.

Born in Ávila, Spain, on March 28, 1515, St. Teresa was the Saint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesús, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered to be, along with John of the Cross, a founder of the Discalced Carmelites. In 1970 she was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI.

Born in Ávila, Spain, on March 28, 1515, St. Teresa was the daughter of a Toledo merchant and his second wife, who died when Teresa was 15, one of ten children. Shortly after this event, Teresa was entrusted to the care of the Augustinian nuns. After reading the letters of St. Jerome, Teresa resolved to enter a religious life. In 1535, she joined the Carmelite Order. She spent a number of relatively average years in the convent, punctuated by a severe illness that left her legs paralyzed for three years, but then experienced a vision of "the sorely wounded Christ" that changed her life forever.

From this point forward, Teresa moved into a period of increasingly ecstatic experiences in which she came to focus more and more sharply on Christ's passion. With these visions as her impetus, she set herself to the reformation of her order, beginning with her attempt to master herself and her adherence to the rule. Gathering a group of supporters, Teresa endeavored to create a more primitive type of Carmelite. From 1560 until her death, Teresa struggled to establish and broaden the movement of Discalced or shoeless Carmelites. During the mid-1560s, she wrote the Way of Perfection and the Meditations on the Canticle. In 1567, she met St. John of the Cross, who she enlisted to extend her reform into the male side of the Carmelite Order. Teresa died in 1582.

St. Teresa left to posterity many new convents, which she continued founding up to the year of her death. She also left a significant legacy of writings, which represent important benchmarks in the history of Christian mysticism. These works include the Way of Perfection and the Interior Castle. She also left an autobiography, the Life of St. Teresa of Ávila. ...more

Books by Teresa of Ávila

The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself

The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Ávila, Vol. 1

The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila. Volume 2: The Way of Perfection, Meditations on the Song of Songs, The Interior Castle

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Quotes from Interior Castle

“This Beloved of ours is merciful and good. Besides, he so deeply longs for our love that he keeps calling us to come closer. This voice of his is so sweet that the poor soul falls apart in the face of her own inability to instantly do whatever he asks of her. And so you can see, hearing him hurts much more than not being able to hear him… For now, his voice reaches us through words spoken by good people, through listening to spiritual talks, and reading sacred literature. God calls to us in countless little ways all the time. Through illnesses and suffering and through sorrow he calls to us. Through a truth glimpsed fleetingly in a state of prayer he calls to us. No matter how halfhearted such insights may be, God rejoices whenever we learn what he is trying to teach us.” — 53 likes

“. . . it is presumptuous in me to wish to choose my path, because I cannot tell which path is best for me. I must leave it to the Lord, Who knows me, to lead me by the path which is best for me, so that in all things His will may be done.” — 49 likes

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