I have just finished reading ‘The Interior Castle’, otherwise known as ‘The Mansions’, by the Spanish Carmelite Nun, mystic and Doctor of the Church St. Teresa of Avila.

The book proved to be more than worthy of the spiritual classic label that it has earned. It is one that I will return to again and again for inspiration.

The book is at one and the same time both easy to read and difficult to read. I would suggest that for those just beginning their spiritual journey it may prove very abstract. Even for those of us further along the spiritual path it can prove challenging, with themes, motifs and experiences which may be totally unfamiliar to us. You don’t know what you don’t know, and yet even the later chapters can fuel the imagination and provide motivation. I certainly found it a helpful guide and, whilst being unable to discern exactly where in the mansion I am, I came away with a renewed sense of spiritual direction.

I also benefitted from reading ‘The Fire Within’ by Fr. Thomas Dubay before venturing into the Interior Castle. It helped me immensely in understanding the context and themes of St. Teresa’s writing and her connections with her younger Spiritual Director St. John of the Cross, whose 'Dark Night of the Soul' I plan to read next.

Anyway, back to this book.

The Interior Castle is a metaphor for our soul. According to Teresa of Avila, our soul is like a single diamond in which there are many rooms. At the centre of the Castle is where the King (Jesus) resides. The soul has great dignity and beauty and is a paradise in which God takes great delight. Teresa asks, “what do you think a room will be like that is the delight of a King so mighty, so wise, so pure and so full of all that is good?”

We enter the Interior Castle, Teresa says, through prayer and mediation. Our destination is the centre of the castle where the most “secret things pass between God and the soul”. This is the interior journey. Teresa goes on to say, “You will have read certain books on prayer which advise the soul to enter within itself: and that is exactly what this means.”

So, the Interior Castle is really a book about prayer and what the 12 step programmes call ‘conscious contact with God’.

Prayer can be separated into two categories, ascetic and mystical.

In ascetic prayer we initiate interaction with God through vocal prayer and meditation. This is also called “purgative prayer” because of the cleansing effect on our lives. The first three mansions of the Interior Castle cover this material.

In mystical prayer, God drives the activity. Teresa writes about this in Mansions four through seven. This form of prayer can itself again be divided into two categories, illuminative prayer and unitive prayer.

Through illuminative prayer God enlightens our will and understanding. Teresa explains this in the fourth mansion. In mansions five through seven Teresa writes about unitive prayer, which leads us to a deep and intimate relationship with Christ “where the most secret things pass between God and the soul.”

Unitive prayer covers two thirds of the Interior Castle and is the focal point of the book.

I found the book at one and the same time revealing, interesting and inspiring. I am very much a ‘head’ Christian and have been aware for some time of a need to counterbalance this with a development of my spiritual life. The idea of having an intimate, inner relationship with Christ excites me. ( )

Beautiful book. Must read ( )

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. ( )

It took me some time to get through this masterpiece by Saint Teresa of Avila. Written in 1577 during the Spanish Inquisition, I found it difficult to get through the self-effacing humility of the good saint and had to take several breaks. One of the blessings/curses of the Dover Thrift Editions is that the books are deceptively small, and while this book is only 168 pages, the pages are dense in words. It is a blessing that the books look short, and a curse because they aren't. Yet they are very affordable and the deception encourages me to read books I would otherwise put off for later. Like Karl Marx's Capital, sitting near me (and larger than Tolstoy's War and Peace at some 1,361 pages.). I found a few things about Interior Castle confusing. St Teresa writes there are seven mansions that the soul passes through (one chooses to enter the crystal castle from the wilderness). As one enters the first mansion, some of the critters get in with you. You can see both the light of the innermost mansion, yet you can still see the dark. St Teresa tells of the experiences of the soul progressing to the seventh mansion where the soul is at one with God. Although the development of the soul as it progressed was obvious, I am still in the dark as far as knowing which mansion one might be in at any given time, if at all. St Teresa writes for other nuns, and while I understand that this is a modern translation, it is interesting how she frequently asks the reader to excuse her stupidity in being unable to explain things. Clearly, the book was not written in one sitting, and often St Teresa admits that she cannot recall what or if she mentioned something in a previous chapter, and that she would not re-read what she had written. This is clearly not a first draft, however, and this edition includes footnotes that indicate what was a marginal comment, with alternative wordings, additions, or omissions from one of the two "learned men" St Teresa had correct her drafts. Such caution was prudent during the Spanish Inquisition, indeed. For many pages I made no notes, and then numerous notes in a handful of pages. St Teresa covers the importance of self-knowledge, of learning, of humility, and raises an interesting question of the soul versus the spirit. While she does not give a definitive comparison, she suggests that the soul and the spirit are closely intertwined, but are not necessarily the same thing. I have often wondered about this difference. One could argue that the ideas of Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, James Allen, and Stephen Covey came from this work. St Teresa confirms the theme of Candide, Franklin's virtues, James Allen's "he who conquers self conquers the universe", and Stephen Covey's "Circle of Influence" as principles for living the interior life. I read this book because of the title, hoping to find something more about the "inner citadel" the Stoics spoke of, and others who have used "interior castle" to mean something similar. St Teresa puts a different bent on the Stoic idea, but one can see the influence of the Stoics on Christian thought. There are two main lessons St Teresa has confirmed for me. First:

...try to be least of all... and your foundation will be so firmly laid that your Castle will not fall.

And second:

...unless you strive after the virtues and practice them, you will never grow to be more than dwarfs.

Further, St Teresa provides a quote which goes a long way to explain what I refer to in my leadership teaching as the "duty cycle" that prevents people from realising their goals:

...the devil sometimes puts ambitious desires into our hearts, so that, instead of setting our hand to the work which lies nearest us, and thus serving Our Lord in ways within our power, we may rest content with having desired the impossible.

Finally, a friend once asked about the Delphic maxim "Know Thyself" and that, despite having been told by others that the phrase appeared in the Holy Bible, it doesn't (and it really doesn't), this is the earliest Christian reference to the Delphic maxim I have encountered to date. Whether this was a result of the work of the Toledo School of Translators is something I hope to investigate further. ( )

Bers a stamp: "Christopher Library Old Alresford Place"