Teresa de Ávila (1515–1582)

While my reading experience itself was more of a 3 star than a 4 star, I’m bumping it up to 4 stars for two reasons. First, because when there was an idea I connected to, I REALLY connected to it. It felt kind of like searching for treasure in a thrift store - you have to sift through a lot of stuff you’re not super interested in, but when you find something incredible it makes the whole experience worth it.

Second, because Teresa was constantly having to cloak her thoughts and ideas show more within the guise of “I’m just a silly woman who knows very little” sort of language. She even refers to herself as “a certain person” throughout the book, rather than admitting that she’s talking about herself. This is because The Interior Castle was written during the Spanish Inquisition and Teresa could have easily been killed for some of her ideas if they offended the wrong people. I can’t help but respect her level of craftiness to disguise her ideas so that they could still be read and appreciated, but without putting her life unnecessarily at risk. I can’t imagine being as brave as she was in 1577, when she finished writing this. So although I felt frustrated as a reader having to read between the lines, she ultimately earned that 4th star.

I feel like Teresa is at her best when she uses metaphors and similes to connect her mystic thoughts to our physical world. Sometimes her thoughts are so lofty (and rambling) that they need something tangible to ground them. The idea of our souls as many levels of a castle is brilliant, and the metaphor she uses of our souls being like silkworms is beautiful as well. This feels like a book to return to when I’m older, because I have a hunch I’ll get even more out of it later on in life! show less

Summary: Teresa’s instructions to nuns on the spiritual life of prayer and meditations on the Lord’s Prayer as a way to contemplative prayer.

I have yet to find the Christian who describes prayer as easy. Yet I know many who have persisted, wrestled with distractions, struggled with doubt, and broken through to times of intimacy with God, a sense of being greatly loved by the Father, and have witnessed the work of God in answer to one’s prayers.

In the late sixteenth century, the mystic, show more Teresa of Avila, gave a series of instructive meditations for the nuns in her order that have been collected in The Way of Perfection, a spiritual classic that has been read to the profit of many others wishing to deepen their own lives of prayer. This edition, sadly no longer in print, has been mildly edited and updated in language, to introduce Teresa’s instructions to a new generation.

Teresa begins by pointing to the role the Church plays in their formation and encourages their prayer for its theologians and priests. She urges them in love for each other, detachment from both family and the world, and humility, whether in quietly continuing in one’s prayers amid minor illness and accepting false accusations. Moments of transcendence in contemplative prayer are transitory, but the call to a life of self-sacrifice is ongoing.

She uses images from every day life to illuminate her ideas. For example, she likens prayer to water that cools, cleanses, and quenches thirst. She speaks of vocal, mental, and contemplative prayer, the latter a wordless resting in God’s presence. Her counsel is to be attentive in praying as we are able. Like many spiritual teachers, she invites us to pray the Our Father. She believes the Lord’s Prayer may take us into God’s presence:

“In case you think there isn’t much to gain by practicing vocal prayer perfectly, I must tell you that while you are repeating the Paternoster or some other vocal prayer, the Lord might possibly grant you perfect contemplation. In this way our Lord shows He is listening to the persons speaking to Him. He is speaking to her, suspending her understanding, and taking the words out of her mouth so she cannot speak even if she wants to.”

Thus, she emphasizes that contemplation is a gift of the Lord. The focus is on Jesus, his indwelling of us and presence walking with us, rather than in seeking an experience.

The latter half of the book is a series of talks focusing on the phrases of the Our Father. C. S. Lewis has written of how we may use the prayer as a structure that we “festoon” with our prayers and petitions. Her meditations are something like this, a reflection, I suspect, of how this has been so in her own prayer life. For many of us, the petition “forgive us our sins as we forgive the sins of others” is perhaps the most difficult. Her reflections on this are particularly rich and challenging, emphasizing that our forgiveness of others precedes, at least in intention, the request for forgiveness.

There is a bit of “stream of consciousness” in her writing, probably reflecting the turns of her mind. This warrants the re-reading meditatively of what she has written. I wonder whether perfection, even of contemplation can be attained in this life. There is a strain of that here, but Teresa tempers this with encouragements to practical self-sacrifice, and faithfulness in praying as we are able.

My own experience is that I have learned more about prayer by being in the presence of those who have lived lives of prayer, as I have listened to them pray and talk about their prayer life than by books. While we cannot pray with Teresa, we overhear her prayers and her instruction as one who prays. Little wonder this book has stood the test of time and speaks to us over four centuries later. show less

I pulled this off the shelf to read again and see what inspiration it held for me. I see how Teresa describes the states of super consciousness, samadhi, and moksha, using the rough vocabulary available to her, and interspersed with long detours into her concern with the deceptions of the devil, or with vigorous advice to her sister Carmelites. Those passages feel like interruptions to me, and a distraction from the point of the narrative, which is to describe the soul’s union with God. I show more eventually began highlighting the text that focused on these descriptions, in order to make them easier to distill in any future reading.

That said, the final section on the “seventh mansions” is almost entirely highlighted. It is particularly poignant because it is entirely dependent on her own experience. Little theology at the time could explain what was happening to her. We are witnessing a soul’s complete transformation. I find her voice compelling and compassionate, and I am grateful to spend this time in her company. show less

Summary: St Theresa’s reflections on growing in love, humility, and the life of prayer.

About a year ago, I reviewed a different, out of print, edition of this work from the same publisher. The folks at Paraclete were so generous that they sent me their “in print” edition of the same work, published for the 500th anniversary of the writing of this work. In addition to a foreword by Paula Huston reflecting on her own encounter with this work, the translation is one into contemporary show more English, with instances where the translator changed sentences in the passive voice to active. In reading this edition, I felt like Theresa was speaking directly to me.

The Way of Perfection breaks down into two parts. The first focuses on the spiritual life and how one of those in the Carmelites might progress in becoming like Christ. She explains the benefits of poverty, the importance of unceasing prayer and the necessity that women love each other equally without favoritism, which can wreck the harmony of a house. She instructs on detachment from all earthly affections to focus on the love of God. This includes gifts from family. She addresses answering unjust accusations:

“No one can ever blame us unjustly, since we are always full of faults, and a just person falls seven times a day. It would be a falsehood to say that we have no sin. Even if we are not guilty of the thing we are accused of, then, we are never entirely without blame in the way that our good Jesus was” (p. 57).

She devotes several chapters to mental and vocal prayer and contemplation. She urges people to pray as they are able and that the Lord is as pleased with our vocal prayers as our silent mental praying. She stresses that the state of contemplation, resting in the Lord, is a gift that may come equally to those praying vocally or mentally.

The second part turns to the great vocal prayer of the church, the Our Father. Theresa takes us through the prayer phrase by phrase, mining its richness. She marvels how much Jesus gives us in the first words, “Our Father.” She reflects on the significance of “hallowed be thy name” and “thy kingdom come” side by side, that the presence of God’s good rule on earth reminds us of the holiness of his name. She acknowledges the challenge of yielding our will to God. She tends to spiritualize the idea of daily bread, focusing on the bread of Christ. Perhaps it is well that our need for daily physical bread be a reminder of the need to be daily nourished in Christ. She emphasizes the underlying love of each other behind the prayer to be forgiven as we forgive. “Lead us not into temptation” is not a shrinking from spiritual conflict but our awareness of our vulnerabilities to temptation and the protection of God.

I’ve but touched on the richness to be found in these pages. It certainly did not hurt me to read The Way of Perfection again. I suspect that multiple readings are warranted because, in each reading, we are different people and will hear different things.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. show less