 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. Tancommentaries.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. Greetings and welcome to the commentary series on the interior castle by the great Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic Saint Teresa of Avila. I'm Father Timothy Reed and I am the spiritual assistant to the community of secular Carmelites in Charlotte, North Carolina and it is a pleasure to walk you through this magnificent book. Now today is day one of our series and beginning with day two we'll be covering the first mansions which begin in chapter one in the Tan edition of the book. But before we get into the actual pages of this beautiful work, let us begin with a look at the historical significance and influence of Saint Teresa of Avila and the interior castle. Written in 1577 at the behest of her confessor the interior castle is perhaps the most well known of Saint Teresa's writings and it stands today as one of the greatest treatises on the mystical life in the history of the church. I mean truly this is a book that every Catholic should read at some point if you're at all serious about the spiritual life. The genesis of this book can be found in a visit by Teresa to the Carmelite monastery that she founded in Toledo Spain. While there and speaking to her spiritual director Teresa lamented over the fact that the Spanish Inquisition had confiscated her autobiography the book of her life some years earlier. They were suspect at that time of really any type of mysticism. And so her spiritual director Father Jerome Gratian commanded her to recall as much as she could from her autobiography and to write it down without naming herself in it. Providentially as it was written at least a decade after her autobiography the interior castle is a fuller and more mature reflection on her mystical experiences. Saint Teresa began writing the interior castle in Toledo on June 2nd 1577 which was Trinity Sunday and she completed it on the vigil of the Feast of Saint Andrew November 29th 1577. Now by mid-July of 1577 she had written the first four mansions and she had begun the fifth but she had to stop writing until November so really she wrote this book in a very short amount of time often in the early morning or late evening and at times spending time writing it after experiencing some form of ecstatic prayer. Now keep in mind that Saint Teresa suffered from very poor health. She was also 62 at this point which was considered elderly at the time. The saint also had many exterior troubles to deal with in her newly founded carmels throughout Spain because there were these legislative battles between Madrid and Rome. There were many ecclesiastical authorities that wanted to suppress this reform of the Carmelite order that Teresa had begun and they wanted to limit Teresa's activities and so there was this constant stress and anxiety for Teresa and her followers. So writing this book was quite a chore for Teresa and it was undertaken only out of obedience. For Teresa knew well the power obedience has of making things easy which seem impossible but even though this work was undertaken amidst great suffering Saint Teresa derived great joy and even peace from writing it. In fact one of the sisters one of the nuns in Toledo declared that she often saw Teresa writing generally after Holy Communion her face resplendent with such rapidity and so absorbed in her occupation that she seemed undisturbed by and in fact quite unconscious of any noise that was made. Now this magnificent spiritual work is divided into seven main sections each conceived of as a mansion or dwelling place within a greater interior castle that is representative of both a person's soul and the journey of that soul toward God through the interior life. The first three mansions detail what is achievable through a person's own efforts to grow in holiness and a life of prayer with the help of God's grace of course. The second four mansions concern the mystical elements of the spiritual life in which the Lord comes to actually pray within a soul. So in other words these mansions deal with contemplation what we call supernatural prayer. In these chapters Saint Teresa parses out many forms and and types or degrees of this infused mystical form of prayer. Now according to her biographer and confessor Father Diego Deyepis Saint Teresa told him that on the eve of Trinity Sunday 1577 God showed her how the entire book was to be laid out. As it says in the introduction he showed her a most beautiful clove of crystal in the shape of a castle with seven rooms the seventh situated in the center being occupied by the king of glory resplendent with the most exquisite brilliancy which shone through and adorned the remaining rooms. The nearer these lay to the center the more did they partake of that wondrous light. It did not however penetrate beyond the crystal for everything round about was a mass of darkness and impurity full of toads and vipers and other venomous animals. She was still admiring this beauty which by the grace of God dwells in a soul when low the light suddenly disappeared and the crystal where in the king of glory was still residing became opaque and as dark as coal emitting an intolerable odor the venomous animals formerly held in check outside obtained admittance into the castle and that my friends is the state of a soul immortal sin. While Saint Teresa may have indeed received this vision in 1577 she does make references to the soul being compared to a great castle or mansion in both her autobiography and another book the way of perfection and these books were written in the 1560s so this wasn't a new image for her but let's talk about Teresa's description of the interior castle and go through a quick synopsis of each of the seven mansions. Now in describing the seven mansions and make up the interior castle Saint Teresa teaches us that they represent only types and they allow for a wide range of variations and this is because the spiritual life is unique for each soul relying upon each person's own capacities. In Teresa's own words although I have only mentioned seven mansions yet each one contains many more rooms above below and around it with fair gardens fountains and labyrinths besides other things so delightful. One enters into the castle through prayer which is a door that opens up into the mystery of God and at the same time is a means of communing with God. So prayer is what actuates our personal relationship with God who is present in the very depths of our souls. Now this book is basically a tour of the castle in which Saint Teresa takes the reader through the various mansions describing the types of souls who have made it to that point and what can be expected in each mansion. So let's go through them. The first mansions in this outer area of the castle there is little of the glowing light from the king's royal chambers that can be seen here. Souls that are in the first mansions are new to the spiritual life and they're still enticed and distracted by the things of the world. Teresa describes these souls by noting that though not in a state of mortal sin these souls are so worldly and preoccupied with earthly riches honors and affairs that even if it sincerely wishes to enter into itself and enjoy the beauties of the castle it is prevented by these distractions and seems unable to overcome so many obstacles. As we move on to the second mansion she says that here are found souls that have begun to practice prayer and who are more receptive to God's graces especially those graces which come through external means like homilies and books and good friendships. As one of these mansions learns to conform to God's will the evil in one's life is more keenly felt and gradually conquered and yet Teresa is very clear that perseverance is required if we are to move forward and that takes us into the third mansions. The saint tells us for those souls who do persevere to this point here they are growing in the love of God such that they even guard against venial sins, practice penance and recollection, seek to use their time well, they practice works of mercy and charity and they act prudently in their everyday life. So Teresa says that people in these mansions are good Christians whom God will not deny access into the final mansions if they so desire. But beware the possibility of turning away from God remains for them as some attachments to wealth honor and worldly concerns usually remain within us. As for the fourth mansions it is here that mystical infused prayer begins with a passive experience of recollection rather than a concerted personal effort to meditate. But even though infused prayer begins here distractions are still going to be present and so Saint Teresa makes some distinctions between what she calls sweetness in prayer which begin in our human nature and end in God and spiritual consolations which begin in God and overflow to human nature. So it's in this section that Saint Teresa further elaborates on her famous analogy of a filling a water basin that she first discussed in the book of her life and that will cover in a later podcast. The fifth mansions. It is in this dwelling place my friends that human faculties are suspended in what Teresa calls the prayer of union, giving the soul a certitude of union with the Lord. This is a section in which Teresa employs the famous analogy of the silkworm to describe death and new life in Christ. And it is here as well that Teresa begins her final analogy of marriage and its preparatory stages to describe the soul's union with God. She also focuses on growth in the virtues of charity and humility and fidelity to one's everyday tasks. As for the sixth mansions this is the longest part of the book and this is the part of the book that focuses on the many mystical phenomena that Teresa experienced such as raptures and transports and ecstasies and locutions and so forth. She also gives us guidelines to determine their veracity. This section also deals with the tremendous sufferings that a soul goes through in order to become the spouse of the Lord. In fact, Teresa cautions her readers that much courage is needed to progress through these mansions to deeper union with our Lord. The seventh mansions. St. Teresa explains that the seventh mansions are really in some way just a continuation of the sixth such that there is no closed doors between them. It's just that in the seventh mansions the scales are removed from a soul's eyes so that soul can see the favors the Lord has performed for it. So this is the place of true spiritual marriage for the soul. Then at this point a person lifted up to these exalted mystery no longer falls into ecstasy but rather experiences ecstasy as a proper object, as something con-natural. Now in the final chapter of the book, St. Teresa explains that the whole purpose for all these marvelous gifts and favors from God is that one might live like Christ and she says that the fruit of the spiritual marriage with God must be good works. In the coming podcast we are going to work our way through each of these mansions in detail but until then I encourage you to think about your own spiritual life and the progress that you've made so far. Do you have any idea of how far you've made it inside the interior castle? Are there any exterior indications in your life that you're making progress through the interior castle? Have you even made it inside yet? Or are you still contending with the toads, vipers and other vermin that are trying to keep you from engaging in the spiritual life? Most importantly, are you engaging in prayer on a daily basis? And I ask this because this is the means by which we enter the interior castle and make our way toward God. So that brings us to the end of day one and our study of the interior castle. Thank you so much for listening and for joining me on your journey to grow deeper in the spiritual life. Next time we'll begin our discussion of the first mansions. So to finish, let's pray the famous prayer of 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 of Avila intercede for you. 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.