 Welcome to The Commentaries, a podcast series from Tan in which you'll learn how to read and understand history's greatest Catholic works from today's greatest Catholic scholars. In every series of The Commentaries, your expert host will be your personal guide to not just read the book, but to live the book, shining the light of its eternal truths into our modern darkness. Tan commentaries.com to get your copy of the book and to subscribe for access to all the great reading plans, new episodes, bonus content and exclusive deals for listeners of The Commentaries. Welcome back to The Commentaries series on St. Teresa of Avila's interior castle. I'm Father Timothy Reed and today is day 14 in our series. So far we've looked into the first four chapters of the six mansions, having looked at chapters three and four last time, and today we're going to examine chapters five, six and seven. Now keep in mind, as I've said in previous podcasts, that St. Teresa was in the six mansions during a very busy time in her life. She was occupied with founding new monasteries all over Spain and she was also going through what St. John of the Cross calls the dark night. Moreover, her time in the six mansions covered nearly 15 years of her life. So it was a very considerable portion of her life. Now last month we spoke at length about the locutions, raptures and ecstasies that are often experienced in the six mansions and we're going to continue that conversation today. So let's jump into chapter five. Now in chapter five, St. Teresa discusses a variation of a rapture, what she calls flight of the spirit. Now in this phenomenon, it seems that the soul is carried away with an alarming speed and an intensity that cannot be resisted. Again, Teresa speaks of this as a tremendous favor, although it would be terrifying if God did not grant us the courage necessary to endure it. Now in a sense, God forces the soul to abandon itself into his omnipotent hands. But as he does, the soul is granted many favors such as knowledge of very many things. The soul is shown light that is completely different from earthly light and afterwards it is loved with great peace and tranquility. And in particular, Teresa says the soul is left with a greater perception of God's greatness, greater self-knowledge and humility, and contempt for earthly things, accepting those things consecrated to the service of God. Of this experience, she writes in paragraphs 10 and 11, with the swiftness of a bullet fired from a gun, an upward flight takes place in the interior of the soul. So noiseless, it is to manifest of movement to be any illusion, and the soul is quiet outside itself. At least that is the impression made upon it. Great mysteries are revealed to it meanwhile, and when the person returns to consciousness, she is so greatly benefited that she holds all those world's goods as filth compared to what she has seen. This fourth earthly life is grievous to her, and what used to please her now remains uncared for and unnoticed. Those children of Israel who were sent on first to the land of promise brought back tokens from it. So here our Lord seems to seek to show the soul something of the land to which it is traveling, to give it courage to pass through the trials of its painful journey now that it knows where it must go to find rest. You may fancy that such profit could not thus quickly be obtained, yet only those who have experienced what signal benefits this favor leaves in the soul can realize its value. Now Teresa believes that we can be confident that such experiences are only from God because neither the devil nor our imagination could reproduce the peace, calm and good fruits that are left in the soul. St. Teresa also believes that anyone who experiences a flight of the Spirit would not dare offend God after seeing his grandeur. These souls are also filled with tremendous gratitude, a desire to serve others, an acute awareness of their own faults and failings, as well as a sense of one's own spiritual poverty. Now both imaginative and intellectual visions are associated with this type of rapture. Moreover, like other raptures, this type is not easily forgotten except through one's own fault. Now, because of the intensity of the experiences and the graces that come with it, St. Teresa expresses several times the need for courage. Furthermore, as we get into chapter 6, St. Teresa speaks of how the soul who experiences flight of the Spirit simply wants to die and be with God. She writes at the very beginning of chapter 6, These sublime favors leave the soul so desirous of fully enjoying him who has bestowed them that life becomes a painful though delicious torture and death is ardently longed for. Such a one often implores God with tears to take her from this exile where everything she sees wearies her. Now these souls may also experience fear that the devil will trick them into doing something offensive to the Lord whom it loves so much. And so the soul in this state who experiences this seeks only to obey our Lord and resign itself completely into his hands, letting him give what he wants. St. Teresa goes on, The soul feels she would prefer to be cut in pieces rather than willfully commit a venial sin yet is greatly grieved at seeing that she cannot avoid unwittingly falling into a great number. God bestows on such people so intense a desire neither ever to displease him and however small a matter nor to commit any avoidable imperfection that were there no other reason, they would try to avoid society and they greatly envy those who live in deserts. On the other hand, they seek to live amidst men in the hopes of helping if but one soul to praise God better. Now these words should chastise us just a little, I mean truly how many of us take such great pains to avoid even venial sin, how many of us are ever really conscious of displeasing God, at least on a regular basis. And so St. Teresa is certainly giving us something to work for here. Now in speaking of the ardent desires of the soul to see God at this stage of the spiritual life, Teresa cautions that these desires really should be checked rather than encouraged. And she says one's reason should conform itself to God's will. She also gives some very practical advice for those who are naturally sensitive and emotional namely that they could deceive themselves about the source of their tears and end up too weak to pray or keep their religious rule. Ultimately Teresa says in paragraph 10 of chapter 6, I think it best for us to place ourselves in the presence of God, contemplate his mercy and grandeur and our own vileness and leave him to give us what he will, whether water or drought, for he knows best what is good for us. Thus we enjoy peace and the devil will have less chance to deceive us. Now at the end of chapter 6, St. Teresa discusses another prayer experience, a feeling of jubilation and a prayer that the soul does not understand. In this gift the soul desires to praise God unceasingly and to get others to do the same. The soul enjoys an intense joy in God that it wants to share with others. And St. Teresa concludes chapter 6 by praying that God will often grant this type of prayer which causes a soul to be forgetful of self such that it can neither think nor speak of anything but praising God. We now move into chapter 7 which deals with suffering for one's sins. St. Teresa begins his chapter by writing, It may seem to you sisters that souls to whom God has communicated himself in such a special manner may feel so sure of enjoying him forever as no longer to require to fear or to mourn over their past sins. Those of you will be most apt to hold this opinion who have never received the like favors. Souls to whom God has granted these graces will understand what I say. This is a great mistake. For sorrow for sin increases in proportion to the divine grace received and I believe will never quit us until we come to the land where nothing can grieve us anymore. So in other words as the graces and extraordinary favors from our Lord increase as we move through the interior castle so too does one's suffering over past sins and this suffering lasts until one dies. And while the intensity of this particular suffering increases and decreases yet the sins remain like the mire in the riverbed and dwell constantly in the memory making a heavy cross to bear. Now this suffering is not a matter of worrying about what punishments it will endure because of its sins rather the soul simply has the pain of knowing that it has been so ungrateful to the one who deserves so much. There's no fear of hell just the fear of offending God again. Now St. Teresa believes it is good for a soul to be reminded of how miserable it was in the past because of its sins and this too should give us pause. For do we really think much of our past sins? Do we ever give sufficient thought to how we've offended God? Now though others think are wrong, Teresa holds firm to her conviction that even at this advanced point in the spiritual life favored souls should continue to meditate on the humanity of Christ which so often forms the meditations of one in the first three mansions and not focus simply on his divinity which she says really belongs to the angels. We live in a corporal world and therefore it is good to derive some consolation from thinking about our Lord, his mother and the saints and all that they suffer. However, as a soul grows in contemplation, discursive meditation upon Jesus' life and passion becomes more difficult. While we might like to be completely taken up in contemplation, it is impossible to live constantly in that delight. In fact, Teresa thinks it is unhealthy to be in a constant state of absorption and says that those souls who feel in danger of being that way should ask for demanding tasks to do. Those souls who are able to meditate discursively on the humanity of Jesus should continue to do so because it's not going to impede growth in prayer. Teresa teaches us that once a soul reaches the seventh mansions, the most interior part of the interior castle, there's very little need to try to incendal within oneself a greater love for God because Christ is at that point one's constant companion. And so until we've reached that point, we should strive to obey the commandments and think upon our Lord's life, death and all that we owe him. We've now covered seven of the eleven chapters St. Teresa devotes to the sixth mansions. Now in the past several chapters, Teresa has given us great commentary on the extraordinary prayer experiences that God often gives to souls in the sixth mansions. And while there are so many graces given to the souls who make it this far inside the interior castle, there is also much suffering to bear with. What is important is to keep our eyes fixed on our Lord and on His most adorable will, and to seek to do His will, to do whatever is pleasing to Him in whatever situation we find ourselves. That completes our podcast for day 14. Thank you so much for listening. Join us next time as we continue working our way through the sixth mansions. Until then, let us pray with St. Teresa. Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things are passing away. God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices. Amen. May God bless you and may St. Teresa intercede for you. This has been an episode of The Commentaries, a podcast brought to you by Tan. 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