 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 the Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila. I'm Father Timothy Reed and today, day 11, we continue examining the fifth mansions of the Interior Castle. Now last time in chapters 1 and 2, we study the Prayer of Union, St. Teresa's famous analogy of the silkworm and the necessary suffering that accompanies the transformation process of the soul. And today, we are going to delve into chapters 3 and 4 of the fifth mansions. Now once the soul enters into the Prayer of Union, St. Teresa states that it is so important to keep striving to move forward, otherwise one will grow careless and turn aside from the heavenly path, which is the keeping of the commandments. However, even if one loses his or her fervor, God's grace on that soul is not wasted. Teresa writes, For while it keeps to the right path, this soul, with its ardent desires and great virtues, helps others and kindles their fervor with its own. Yet even after having lost this, it may still long to benefit others and delight to make known the mercy shown by God to those who love and serve Him. Now St. Teresa speaks of herself as an example in a veiled way of how she grew lukewarm at prayer, but God still used her to inspire and help others. She writes, I knew a person to whom this happened, although greatly erring, she longed that others should profit by the favors God had bestowed on her and taught the way of prayer to people ignorant of it, thus helping them immensely. God afterwards bestowed fresh light upon her. Indeed, the prayer of union had not hitherto produced the above effects in her. How many people there must be to whom our Lord communicates Himself and who like Judas are called to the apostleship and make kings by Him as was Saul, yet who afterwards lose everything by their own fault. We should learn from this that if we would merit fresh favors and avoid losing those we already possess, our only safety lies in obedience and in following the law of God. St. Teresa also says that just because the person isn't granted the prayer of union, that soul is not without hope. She says, with the help of divine grace, true union can always be attained by forcing ourselves to renounce our own will and by following the will of God in all things. So in other words, a prayer experience is not what we're going after with. Union with God's will is really what we should be striving for. Now the prayer of union proceeds from union with God's will, and the person who is united with God's will always finds peace. Teresa states of union with God's will, the happy soul which has attained it will live in this world and in the next without care of any sort. No earthly events can trouble it unless it should see itself in danger of losing God or should witness any offense offered to him. Neither sickness, poverty, nor the loss of anyone by death affected, except that are the persons useful to the Church of God, for the soul realizes thoroughly that God's disposal is wiser than its own desires. Now once again, we have to ask ourselves, do I actively seek God's will in my life? Am I consciously striving to do God's will in all things? You see, until we do this, we won't be saints. Now keep in mind that union with God's will doesn't eliminate suffering in our lives, but suffering is lessened and passing, affecting only senses and faculties and not the depths of the soul. However, the Saint tells us that the silkworm must die and add a cost to self. Being in the prayer of union helps us to die to self. Dying to self outside of that union is much more difficult. But if we do the hard work of dying to self in order to be united to God's will, there will be great rewards afterwards. And so this is why we have to work against the enemies of self-love, self-esteem, judging others, and a lack of charity towards others. Teresa states so strongly that God's will for us is that we may become quite perfect and so be made one with Him and with His Father. She says, Our Lord asks but two things of us, love for Him and for our neighbor. These are what we must strive to obtain. If we practice both these virtues perfectly, we shall be doing His will and so shall be united to Him. Now in paragraph 8, Saint Teresa says that the way we know we love God is revealed by our love for our neighbor. She writes, I think the most certain sign that we keep these two commandments is that we have a genuine love for others. We cannot know whether we love God, although there may be strong reasons for thinking so, but there can be no doubt about whether we love our neighbor or not. Be sure that in proportion as you advance in fraternal charity, you are increasing in your love of God. For His Majesty bears so tender an affection for us that I cannot doubt He will repay our love for others by augmenting in a thousand different ways, that which we bear for Him. We should watch most carefully over ourselves in this matter, for if we are faultless on this point, we have done all. I believe human nature is so evil that we could not feel a perfect charity for our neighbor unless it were rooted in the love of God. Now once again, there is great food for thought here. We often hear the same message in the readings at Mass, but do we really apply them to how we live our life? Our Lord expects acts of charity from us. That's spelled out in Matthew 25. Teresa gives examples of how her sisters can serve each other, and she really pushes this issue because if we fail to love our neighbor, we are lost. We cannot do God's will and enter into the prayer of union without loving our neighbor. This is why we must beg our Lord for a perfect love of our neighbor. And it will cost us though, just as it cost Jesus his very life. Now let's move into chapter 4. In this last chapter of this mansion, which was written after a five-month hiatus, St. Teresa uses a different metaphor to describe the prayer of union. Perhaps drawing from the spiritual conferences she would have heard from St. John of the Cross, Teresa employs marital imagery from the song of songs to convey her point. And she'll use this imagery for the next two mansions as well. Now Teresa admits that this analogy is a rather coarse one. For here we are dealing with purely spiritual matters, and the joy found in the prayer of union is so much greater than what married couples can experience physically. Now in the prayer of union, here in the fifth mansions, the soul has not yet reached the point of betrothal and marriage. The prayer of union in the fifth mansions is more akin to courtship, where the prospective spouses meet and get to know one another. She writes, I think this union does not attain as far as the spiritual espousals, but resembles the preliminaries that take place when two people are contemplating a betrothal. Their suitability and willingness for the alliance are first discussed, then they may be allowed to see one another sometimes so as to come to a decision. Thus it is in the spiritual espousals, and the preliminary agreement has been made, and the soul thoroughly understands what great advantages she will gain. Having resolved to fulfill the will of her spouse in all things, and to do all she can to please him, his majesty, who knows well whether this is so in reality, wishes in return to gratify his bride. He therefore bestows this favor upon her, visits her, and draws her into his presence as he wishes her to know him better. We might compare the prayer of union to a visit for at last but a very little while. There is no longer any question of deliberation, but the soul in a secret manner sees to what a bridegroom it is betrothed. The senses and faculties could not in a thousand years gain the knowledge thus imparted in a very short time. The spouse, being who he is, leaves the soul far more deserving of completing the espousals as we may call them. The enamored soul and its love for him makes every effort to prevent their love being frustrated. Should it grow neglectful and set its affections on anything except our Lord, it will forfeit everything. This loss is as great as are the favors the soul has continually received, which are precious beyond description. Saint Teresa tells us that the Lord is very prepared to grant these favors because there are less souls who care about his honor and who therefore would even desire them, and so he wants to give us this. Now, let's talk a little bit about spiritual warfare. Even at this wonderful state of union, the soul in the Fifth Mansions must be careful not to fall away from the Lord, for the devil loves to pull these souls away from God. In some ways, the Fifth Mansions represent the last place of real sustained battle against the evil one. While it is possible for souls in the Sixth and Seventh Mansions to fall away from God, the devil is less inclined to go after them, because he fears them more and doesn't want to suffer such a great loss of those souls conquering him. But in the Fifth Mansions, the devil will still work with all his cunning to steal a soul away from this union with God, and he will do this because if he can defeat a soul at this stage, he can plunder many other souls who would have been positively affected had the soul in the Fifth Mansion persevered, and she uses as her example Judas. If someone like Judas, who shared our Lord's very company and was numbered amongst the Apostles, can fall away, so can we. Remember, as Saint Teresa says in Paragraph Seven, no enclosure can be too strict for Satan to enter, nor any desert too remote for him to visit. Besides, God may permit him to tempt the soul to prove its virtue, for as he intends it to enlighten others, it is better for it to fail in the beginning than when it might do them great harm. Now, we fight the devil at this stage by staying united to God's will. However, we must be aware of how the devil will use skilled deceptions, and under some guys of good confuse the soul in little matters, and slowly darken the intellect, cool that person's zeal and increase their self-love, and in that way draw it away from God. We fight by asking God to sustain us in prayer, never trusting in ourselves, walking with special care and attention with regard to our progress and virtue, especially in our love for neighbor. Now, to be sure, the devil has an uphill battle here, and the Lord will give that soul many, many interior warnings. I just remember Saint Teresa herself fell away at this level, and so she writes, In conclusion, let us strive to make constant progress. We ought to feel great alarm if we do not find ourselves advancing, for without doubt the evil one must be planning to injure us in some way. It is impossible for a soul that has come to this state not to go still farther. For love is never idle. Therefore, it is a very bad sign when one comes to a standstill in virtue, she who aspires to become the spouse of God himself, and has treated with his majesty, and come to such an understanding with him, must not leave off and go to sleep. So in the fifth mansions, we are now coming into the final stages of the interior life. Saint Teresa makes use of two very important analogies in these fifth mansions to describe the prayer of union, that of the silkworm and then, of course, the nuptial imagery we just discuss. The silkworm that changes into a butterfly is Christological in nature and points out for us the transformation we experience in Christ, beginning with our baptism and the steady practice of our faith vis-a-vis the sacraments and good spiritual practices. The nuptial analogy is Trinitarian in nature and it shows us how our union with the Godhead is a matter of being drawn in love into that interpersonal relationship that exists between the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity. The personal choice to love God by conforming to His will even in the smallest matters and by loving our neighbors as ourselves is both transformative for our souls and it entices our Lord to unite us to Himself. Now at this point, we are now prepared to move forward into spiritual betrothal, which takes place in the sixth mansions which we will begin next time. This concludes our podcast for day 11. Thank you for listening and let's conclude with our prayer of St. Teresa. Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things are passing. 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. To follow the show, study more of the greatest Catholic classics and to support The Commentaries and other great free content from Tan, visit tancommentaries.com to subscribe and use coupon code COM25 to get 25% off your next order, including the interior castle and countless more spiritual works to deepen your interior life and guide you to heaven.