The Interior Castle (Complete Edition). St. Teresa of Avila
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the beauty of the building; still, it is a great gain that these persons should have found their way in at all.
12. You may think, my daughters, that all this does not concern you, because, by God’s grace, you are farther advanced; still, you must be patient with me, for I can explain myself on some spiritual matters concerning prayer in no other way. May our Lord enable me to speak to the point; the subject is most difficult to understand without personal experience of such graces. Any one who has received them will know how impossible it is to avoid touching on subjects which, by the mercy of God, will never apply to us.
31. Way of Perfection, ch. xxviii, 9.
32. In her Life St. Teresa likened God to a diamond (ch. xl, 14); and elsewhere (ch. xi, 10) the soul to a garden wherein our Lord takes His delight.
33. St. John xiv. 2: ‘In domo Patris mei mansiones multæ sunt.’ St. John of the Cross uses the same comparison: ‘If the soul shall overcome the devil in the first combat, it shall then pass on to the second; and if it shall be victorious there also, it shall then pass on to the third; and then through the seven mansions, the seven degrees of love, until the Bridegroom shall bring it to the “cellar of wine” of perfect charity.’ (Ascent of Mount Carmel, bk. ii. ch. xi. 7.)
34. Prov. viii. 31: ‘Deliciæ meæ esse cum filiis hominum.’
35. Gen. i. 26: ‘Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram.’
36. Way of Perf. ch. xxviii.
37. St. John of the Cross on the words of his stanza: ‘In the inner cellar of my Beloved have I drunk.’ ‘Here the soul speaks of that sovereign grace of God in taking it into the house of His love, which is the union or transformation of love in God . . . The cellar is the highest degree of love to which the soul can attain in this life, and is therefore said to be the inner. It follows from this that there are other cellars not so interior; that is, the degrees of love by which souls reach to this, the last. These cellars are seven in number, and the soul has entered them all when it has in perfection the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, so far as it is possible for it. . . . Many souls reach and enter the first cellar, each according to the perfection of its love, but the last and inmost cellar is entered by few in this world, because therein is wrought the perfect union with God, the union of the spiritual marriage.’ A Spiritual Canticle, stanza xxvi. 1-3. Concept. ch. vi. (Minor Works of St. Teresa.)
38. St. Matt. xx. 15: ‘Alit non licet mihi quod volo, facere? an oculus tuus nequam est, quia ego bonus sum?’
39. St. John ix. 2: ‘Quis peccavit, hic, aut parentes ejus, ut cæcus nasceretur?’
40. Imitation, bk. II. ch. 1: ‘Regnum Dei intra vos est.’ Luke. xvii. 21. The Imitation is one of the books which according to St. Teresa’s Constitutions, (§ 7) every prioress was bound to provide for her convent.
41. Gen. xix. 26: ‘Respiciensque uxor ejus post se, versa est in statuam salis.’
42. Way of Perf. ch. xxi. 6; xxix. 4.
43. St. John v. 5: ‘Erat autem quidam homo ibi triginta et octo annos habens in infirmitate sua.’
44. St. Matt. vi. 21: ‘Ubi enim est thesaurus tuus ibi est et cor tuum.
45. Many an ancient castle was provided with a bear-garden where rare animals were kept for the amusement of the inhabitants. This may have supplied the material for St. Teresa’s comparison.
Chapter 2.
The Human Soul
DESCRIBES THE HIDEOUS APPEARANCE OF A SOUL IN MORTAL SIN AS REVEALED BY GOD TO SOME ONE: OFFERS A FEW REMARKS ON SELF-KNOWLEDGE: THIS CHAPTER IS USEFUL AS IT CONTAINS SOME POINTS REQUIRING ATTENTION. AN EXPLANATION OF THE MANSIONS.
1. Effects of mortal sin. 2. It prevents the soul’s gaining merit. 3. The soul compared to a tree. 4. Disorder of the soul in mortal sin. 5. Vision of a sinful soul. 6. Profit of realizing these lessons. 7. Prayer. 8. Beauty of the Castle. 9. Self-knowledge 10. Gained by meditating on the divine perfections. 11. Advantages of such meditation. 12. Christ should be our model. 13. The devil entraps beginners. 14. Our strength must come from God. 15. Sin blinds the soul. 16. Worldliness. 17. The world in the cloister. 18. Assaults of the devil. 19. Examples of the devil’s arts. 20. Perfection consists in charity. 21. Indiscreet zeal. 22. Danger of detraction.
1. Before going farther, I wish you to consider the state to which mortal sin46 brings this magnificent and beautiful castle, this pearl of the East, this tree of life, planted beside the living waters of life47 which symbolize God Himself. No night can be so dark, no gloom nor blackness can compare to its obscurity. Suffice it to say that the sun in the centre of the soul, which gave it such splendour and beauty, is totally eclipsed, though the spirit is as fitted to enjoy God’s presence as is the crystal to reflect the sun.48
2. While the soul is in mortal sin nothing can profit it; none of its good works merit an eternal reward, since they do not proceed from God as their first principle, and by Him alone is our virtue real virtue. The soul separated from Him is no longer pleasing in His eyes, because by committing a mortal sin, instead of seeking to please God, it prefers to gratify the devil, the prince of darkness, and so comes to share his blackness. I knew a person to whom our Lord revealed the result of a mortal sin49 and who said she thought no one who realized its effects could ever commit it, but would suffer unimaginable torments to avoid it. This vision made her very desirous for all to grasp this truth, therefore I beg you, my daughters, to pray fervently to God for sinners, who live in blindness and do deeds of darkness.
3. In a state of grace the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of clearest crystal. Its works are pleasing both to God and man, rising from the River of Life, beside which it is rooted like a tree. Otherwise it would produce neither leaves nor fruit, for the waters of grace nourish it, keep it from withering from drought, and cause it to bring forth good fruit. But the soul by sinning withdraws from this stream of life, and growing beside a black and fetid pool, can produce nothing but disgusting and unwholesome fruit.
Notice that it is not the fountain and the brilliant sun which lose their splendour and beauty, for they are placed in the very centre of the soul and cannot be deprived of their lustre. The soul is like a crystal in the sunshine over which a thick black cloth has been thrown, so that however brightly the sun may shine the crystal can never reflect it.
4.