The Interior Castle Study Edition

The Interior Castle is considered St. Teresa of Avila’s masterpiece. She wrote this last work in just a few months in 1577, five years before her death. At this point in her life she had been granted the highest mystical graces; this book is the fruit of her lived experience and a deep-felt praise of God for it. More than a book, The Interior Castle is a powerful image of the mystery of the human person. It is, in a very real sense, Teresa’s soul. Using the image of a castle, Teresa describes the soul’s progressive inner journey through seven dwelling places, until finally reaching the center where, now transformed, it is united with God. Reading the works of Teresa herself is indispensable. This second, revised study edition has been completely redesigned as a springboard to reading and understanding Teresa’s text. The book presents a chapter of The Interior Castle itself, followed by a review of the development of her thought and the principal ideas in each chapter. Interpretive notes after each chapter cover doctrine, history, and sociology. Expanded questions for reflection and/or discussion conclude each chapter. A glossary of terms offers definitions as well as their specific and sometimes unique meaning in Teresa’s writings. Comprehensive indexes of key themes and figures, castle imagery, and biblical references make this volume an indispensable reference resource.

A Study Edition, with Introduction, Commentary, Discussion Questions, Glossary, and a fully linked Index. St. Teresa of Avila is an unsurpassed teacher of Christian prayer and spirituality, and in The Way of Perfection she is at her best. Now, with the help of this study edition, everyone can enjoy the benefits of her wisdom. In The Way of Perfection, St. Teresa gives practical counsels and advice on prayer, destined originally for the few nuns who embraced the reformed Carmelite life she established. As a handbook for spiritual formation, it presented them with the basic Christian spirituality undergirding their Constitutions and Rule. Over the centuries, the book's appeal has reached far beyond the walls of Carmelite monasteries, and The Way of Perfection has become a spiritual classic. More and more today, Teresa's instructions speak to all those interested in prayer, providing them with basic guidelines for praying and showing how to avoid potential pitfalls. But as the readership and interest grow, so does the need for some help in working with this sixteenth-century text. The principles and teachings in Teresa's book, first presented within the limited horizons of her own situation, clearly lend themselves to broader applications, and can work well in all walks of life. This study edition-with its introduction, commentary, notes, discussion questions, glossary, and a fully linked Index-provides what is needed to assist contemporary readers in making these applications and delving more deeply into the text's spiritual riches.

The Interior Castle is considered St. Teresa of Avila’s masterpiece. She wrote this last work in just a few months in 1577, five years before her death. At this point in her life she had been granted the highest mystical graces; this book is the fruit of her lived experience and a deep-felt praise of God for it. More than a book, The Interior Castle is a powerful image of the mystery of the human person. It is, in a very real sense, Teresa’s soul. Using the image of a castle, Teresa describes the soul’s progressive inner journey through seven dwelling places, until finally reaching the center where, now transformed, it is united with God. Reading the works of Teresa herself is indispensable. This second, revised study edition has been completely redesigned as a springboard to reading and understanding Teresa’s text. The book presents a chapter of The Interior Castle itself, followed by a review of the development of her thought and the principal ideas in each chapter. Interpretive notes after each chapter cover doctrine, history, and sociology. Expanded questions for reflection and/or discussion conclude each chapter. A glossary of terms offers definitions as well as their specific and sometimes unique meaning in Teresa’s writings. Comprehensive indexes of key themes and figures, castle imagery, and biblical references make this volume an indispensable reference resource. Then, because Teresa always wanted her writings to be in harmony with Scripture, the study edition offers a biblical index that lists by page number scriptural texts or allusions to them found in Teresa's writings. With its combination of Teresa's text and modern commentary and notes, The Interior Castle Study Edition demonstrates how contemporary church teachings are reflected in Teresa's basic concepts and principles of the spiritual life, and how modern readers can apply these perennially rich teachings to our lives today.

This book compares Teresa's approach to prayer with the ancient tradition of Lectio Divina. St. Teresa of Jesus is the Church's great teacher of prayer, and lectio divina, the ancient Christian approach to praying over the Scriptures, is among the Church's most venerable prayer methods. In this booklet, noted Carmelite retreat director Sam Anthony Morello shows how the tradition of lectio can assist us in following the Teresian way of prayer, and how in turn Teresa's insights and attitudes can enrich our contemporary practice of lectio. In clear and practical language, the author explains the fundamental ingredients of Teresian prayer, and relates them to lectio (reading), meditatio (meditation), oratio (prayer), and contemplatio (contemplation), the four traditional elements of lectio divina. A closing series of reflection questions make this an ideal introduction to Teresian prayer for both group discussion and individual study.

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INTERIOR CASTLE EXPLORED is a penetrating interpretation of St. Teresa of Avila's central teaching on prayer. But it is more than a contemporary Carmelite commentary on the 16th-century Carmelite classic; it is also, in its own right, a guide to the life of deep union with God. +

This book contains Book of Her Foundations and Minor Works. Includes general and biblical index. In 1573, while staying in Salamanca to assist her nuns in the task of establishing one of her seventeen monasteries, Teresa began composing the story of their foundation. The Book of Her Foundations comprises the major portion of Volume Three. This book not only tells the story of the establishment of her monasteries but, characteristic of Teresa, digresses into counsels on prayer, love, melancholy, virtuous living and dying, plus other teachings of the Mother Foundress. This book also has an excellent introduction, chronology, and map of Teresa's foundations and journeys. Five of her brief works, including her poetry, complete ICS Publications' third volume of her Collected Works. Includes general and biblical index.

This book explains the seven stages of the spiritual journey described in the classic Interior Castle. Here, Teresa of Avila, the great Spanish mystic and theological Doctor of the Church, meticulously (and metaphorically, using striking marriage and nature imagery) details the theological doctrine of transformative union with the incarnate, Triune God that systematically evolved over the course of her lifetime of spiritual experiences and scriptural knowledge. In seven sections of this companion, paralleling those of Interior Castle, Gillian Ahlgren clearly and methodically explicates each passage of the soul, which is envisioned as a crystal castle made of many rooms-from stillness and contemplative prayer, to humbling self-knowledge, to understanding of the potentiality of the human-divine union, and to the center of the seventh, the place of transformative union, and the deeper, theological insights into God. Completing the work is an introductory overview of the saint's life and spiritual output, as well as timelines and bibliography. An especially valuable chapter considers the potential of Teresa's spiritual journey to shape our own. Highlights: " Discusses the concepts of self, psyche, agape and eros " Includes the insights of Julian of Norwich's Showings, Origen's Commentary on the Song of Songs, Teresa of Avila's Life; and those of Karl Rahner, Bernard McGinn, Edward Howells, and Rowan Williams " Perfect supplement for college courses " Accessible as well to general readers +