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Title	:	Interior Castle
Author	:	Teresa of Ávila
Book Format	:	ebook
Book Edition	:	Anniversary Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 301 pages
Published	:	March 6th 2012 by Dover Publications (first published 1588)
Categories	:	Spirituality. Religion. Christianity. Catholic. Theology. Nonfiction. Christian

Interior Castle

Teresa of Ávila

ebook | Pages: 301 pages

Rating: 4.19 | 5473 Users | 318 Reviews

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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.

Describe Books In Pursuance Of Interior Castle

Original Title:	Castillo interior
ISBN:	0486115526 (ISBN13: 9780486115528)

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Ratings: 4.19 From 5473 Users | 318 Reviews

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

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.

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

#CathLit2019 challenge: A Classic Spiritual WorkI 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

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 doesnt 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

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

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.