Book Review: Interior Castle

Book Review: Interior Castle by St Teresa ofAvila

St Teresa of AvilaInterior Castle From the Critical Edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D., Edited and translated by E. Allison Peers (New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1946), ISBN: 0-486-46145-9.

Review:

In St Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle, one gets an up close look at the interior life of a Holy Mystic. While this book was originally meant to be a treatise on prayer for consecrated religious, the lay readers who are themselves faithful to daily prayer and seeking a closer relationship with Christ will find it to be both instructional andconsoling and it is to those described that I would recommend taking it up. In this review, I will attempt to outline the main themes and messages that the author indicates as being of “great profit” to the reader.   

St Teresa began writing Interior Castles on Trinity Sunday, June 2, 1577 and completed it with editing around 1580.(1) It is said that she complained quite a bit about being instructed to write it at all because she felt unqualified and preferred to work on the daily duties with the other nuns in her convent.(2) This humility is evident through-out the entire book as she often laments that learned men would have done better than she is able, as well as, humility in the sense that she acknowledges her own weaknesses, “Perhaps it is because I myself have been so wicked…” when referring to a soul who does not feel secure due to its past sin.(3) It is comforting and delightful to know that this woman who had zero ambition and no idea just how famous she and her works would be, was used and elevated by God in this way. 

            The chapters are broken up by “Mansions” with each mansion having its own set of chapters within it. The reader might find the first few “Mansions” a little cumbersome to get through. It takes some effort to become familiar with the language, style, and to learn how to follow along in her thought process. It almost seems that she herself is becoming more comfortable with the work she is being directed to do and this comes through by around the Third Mansion. The title of the book stems from the way in which she describes the soul of a person, which is the “Castle” itself. Inside the soul are many rooms, which she refers to as “mansions.” There are seven mansions total described by the Saint, the seventh being the ultimate destination, “a second Heaven.”(4) 

            In the first Two Mansions, the reader receives basic instructions of what is required to enter into the Castle and she states outright that the door is prayer. These first two mansions have a common theme through-out the book in that you cannot enter even the first mansion without some possession of humility. The more one can grow in the virtue of humility, the further into the Castle they go, so it follows that one must come to a true “self-knowledge,” acknowledging one’s own imperfections.(5) Another common theme is her warnings against the manipulation of the devil and his efforts to keep you outside of yourself, thus preventing you from ever becoming the bride of Christ on this side of Heaven. 

            In the Third Mansion, she treats the importance of having fear of the Lord. This third mansion is not an easy place to be in, as the soul struggles with “aridities of prayer”(6) and she warns of the danger of relying on oneself instead of the good given by God.(7) She continues her instruction in prayer in the Fourth Mansion, treating distractions, “the important thing is not to think much, but to love much…” (8) and she entices the reader to go on since in this mansion the “poisonous creatures seldom enter”(9) and describes a “sweetness in meditation” one begins to experience. It is clear in all chapters that God himself is who grants the soul the ability to experience any of what she has described, choosing who He will and when He wills it. Sometimes God grants the soul the favor of placing them within this mansion without them even trying, willing, or knowing(10) until they realize that they are “recollected” which she calls the “Prayer of Recollection.”(11) In this prayer, the soul is coming to know themselves more and more, leaving behind earthly things knowing that the consolations of God cannot be matched. This fourth mansion, she claims, “is the one in which the greatest number of souls should enter.”(12) And although the devil seldom enters as noted above, it is here where he “can do most harm” since the next few mansions are almost completely shut off to him.(13) 

            The Fifth Mansion contains instruction on discernment of how one can tell if they have truly entered into this next level of union with God, which she refers to as the “Prayer of Union.” She claims that in this mansion, “God implants Himself…in such a way that when it returns to itself, it cannot possibly doubt that God has been in it and it has been in God.”(14) She continues to utilize beautiful analogies and imagery that one can understand, such as in the silk worm and the butterfly, in which the soul becomes so desperate to get back to this union with God, that it can find no rest as it flutters around looking for its center again.(15) She goes on to teach that the love of neighbor and complete obedience to the will of God is one’s only option to continue forward and strive to reach the next mansion, comparing the ultimate union to be found as the “Sacrament of Matrimony.”(16) 

            When one enters the Sixth Mansion, they can expect exterior persecutions and trials. Their interior disposition is so in union with God at this point, that the trials are almost welcomed and the persecutions are seen as a benefit.(17) She also describes how the Lord alerts this soul of his presence as if with a “thunder clap” and the soul finds itself “delectably wounded” by God without always knowing how or why.(18) The soul also has the ability to be quickly and utterly calmed by God with a single utterance from Him, such as “Be not troubled.”(19) An extremely interesting point in this chapter was her treatment of “flight of the spirit”(20) which she claims cannot be resisted by the soul, it is an act of God and takes a great amount of courage to be open to the possibility of it happening. Once this flight takes place, it becomes even more difficult for the soul to maintain their worldly existence, but does so out of complete love and surrender to God and never loses its interior joy.(21) This mansion has so many layers and explanations of this union, that it is impossible to touch on them all, but worth the readers time to explore them. 

            Finally, we enter into the Seventh Mansion, the second Heaven, when God has “pity on the soul”(22) and allows it to enter in with Him. Here the scales from the eyes of the soul” are removed and the soul can understand things that it should not be able to, such as the Holy Trinity.(23) The soul belongs to God, she is His bride, happily going about His work. The door is no longer needed to enter, because the soul sees God through an “intellectual vision”, devoid of the senses.(24) The soul and God are one and it is here that the restless butterfly dies, and “Christ is now its life.”(25) 

            Given what I have learned from this writing, St Teresa was not exaggerating when she claimed that one must have great courage to enter in past the first few mansions. The complete submission to God that is required to proceed to the “Interior” is often seen by moderns and secular society as a weakness. But in the end, the joy and peace St Teresa describes transcends this world and all of its false perceptions. This book gives one hope for something better than power, money, honor, and material pleasure. According to her prescriptions, there is great wealth that can be found by anyone who truly seeks union with God. For all of the wonderful bits of wisdom, encouragement and consolations that I gained from this reading, I would highly recommend it.

             

(1)  St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers (ed and translated),Interior Castle(Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2007), 8-9.

(2)  St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 3. 

(3)  St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 121.

(4)  St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 147.

(5)  St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 23.

(6)  St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 40.

(7)  St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 41. 

(8)  St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 49.

(9)  St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 47.

(10)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 57-58.

(11)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 60.

(12)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 63.

(13)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 63. 

(14)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 68.

(15)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 71-73. 

(16)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 81.

(17)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 88.

(18)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 93.  

(19)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 97.

(20)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 110.

(21)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 118. 

(22)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 147. 

(23)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 148-149.

(24)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 152. 

(25)         St Teresa of Avila, E. Allison Peers, Interior Castle, 153.