 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. Visit 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. Welcome back to The Commentaries series on St. Teresa Vavilas' Interior Castle. I'm Father Timothy Reed, a diocese and priest in secular Carmelite in Charlotte, North Carolina, and today is day 13 in our series. Last time we began our study of the sixth mansions covering the first two chapters, and today we will continue studying this longest section of the book. Now keep in mind that Teresa is writing about her own mystical experiences here. In this section of the book, she's referring to personal experiences that cover 14 to 15 years of her life. And it was a particularly painful period of her life because her confessors really didn't understand her. And in addition to having all of these ecstatic experiences, she was busy founding monasteries all around Spain, and so she was dealing with all of the sufferings that entailed. She was also going through what St. John of the Cross calls the dark night of the soul. And this, all on top of these incredible mystical experiences that she didn't quite understand. In fact, there's a very helpful introductory note by the editor at the beginning of chapter three of the 10 edition of this book that I highly encourage you to read because it'll help you understand a little better what Teresa experienced. This editor's note defines and makes distinctions between corporal, imaginary, and intellectual visions and locutions, and it's definitely worth your time to read. So let's get into chapter three. St. Teresa spends the third chapter discussing the phenomenon of locutions, which can be quite dangerous as it is easy to mistake an illusion for a bona fide locution. So Teresa tells us that locutions can be from God, from the devil, or from one's imagination. The very safest thing to do is to try to ignore them, but she does tell us how to determine if a locution is authentic. So the first and surest sign that a locution comes from God is that the words that are heard affect what they say. So for example, if one is experiencing great distress and then a locution is heard that says, be not troubled. If a profound peace overtakes the soul, this is a sign of its authenticity. A second sign is simply that a great calm and a devout and peaceful recollection, which along with the desire to praise God, are left in the soul. A third sign is that the person remembers the words for a very long time, and the soul maintains a certitude, a confidence, that the words will be accomplished in some way even if it seems impossible by human standards. Now, I think we can presume that St. Teresa herself received many locutions that were not immediately fulfilled, and thus she says that we must believe that God has the power to accomplish things that seem incomprehensible to our minds. In paragraph 16, Teresa tells us that locutions that come from one's imagination or from the devil, on the other hand, will not produce the same interior joy, peace, and certitude in the soul, even if the locution happens when one is in deep prayer. So in other words, it is possible to receive an inauthentic locution in prayer. So because of this, St. Teresa wisely counsels us always to share the locutions with a confessor or spiritual director, even if the signs of authenticity are present. If the locution is from God, God will give the priest faith that they are divine. If not, then one has no reason to feel bound by the locution and can forget about them. St. Teresa continues, I think it would be very dangerous to act against our confessor's advice and to prefer our own opinions in such a matter. Now in paragraph 19, St. Teresa also discusses a special form of locution that involves an intellectual vision and takes place in the innermost depths of the soul. She describes the recipient as hearing the words of the Lord with its spiritual hearing distinctly. It's as if a person is speaking. She says, the way in which the Spirit perceives these words and the results produced by them convince us that they cannot in any way come from the devil. Their powerful after-effects force us to admit this and plainly show they do not spring from the imagination. So this locution, if authentic, leaves the soul with certitude about its authenticity. The soul remembers every syllable of this type of locution. She also says the locution happens unexpectedly and may concern things the person has never even thought about. When it is authentic, the soul seems to listen to the words. She says a great depth of understanding is given to the recipient. In fact, Teresa says, these communications, without any further explanations, frequently give us to understand far more than is implied by the words themselves. If a recipient of such a locution has doubts about its authenticity, he or she should consult a confessor and while the devil is able to counterfeit some things, he cannot reproduce the sense of peace and delight that come with authentic locutions. Now through these locutions, humility is often granted to the soul. Teresa writes in paragraph 25, if the soul receives favors and caresses from our Lord, let it examine carefully whether it rates itself more highly in consequence. Unless self-abasement increases with God's expressions of love, they do not come from the Holy Spirit. When they are divine, the greater the favors, the less the soul esteems itself and the more keenly it remembers its sins. It becomes more oblivious of self-interest, the will and memory grow more fervent in seeking solely God's honor with no thought of self. It also becomes unceasingly careful not to deviate deliberately from the will of God and feels a keener conviction that instead of meriting such favors, it deserves hell. Wow. Now, St. Teresa also tells us in the last paragraph of this chapter that authentic locutions cannot be ignored because God compels the mind to listen. Now let's move on to chapter 4. In beginning this section, St. Teresa tells us of the necessity of fortitude if we wish to be united with our Lord. And this is because He is so great and we are so weak. Teresa says that in spiritual betrothal, God allows us to have raptures in order to draw us out of our faculties. And this is to protect the soul from death when it experiences God. To see Him with our senses could lead us to death. Now she then begins parsing out different types of rapture and how they work. She speaks of how God works upon our soul even when we're not in prayer, touching it from within. She speaks of how the raptured soul has never been more alive to spiritual things nor soul full of light and of knowledge of His majesty as it is now. The different things the Lord does to the raptured soul are remembered forever and are often beyond full articulation because they deal with the grandeur of God. She does distinguish between imaginative and intellectual vision. St. Teresa states in paragraph 5, while the soul is in the suspension, our Lord favors it by discovering to its secrets such as heavenly mysteries and imaginary visions which admit of description afterwards because they remain so imprinted on the memory that it never forgets them. But when the visions are intellectual, they are not thus easily related. Some of those received at such a time being so sublime that it is not fitting for man while living in this world to understand them in a way that can be told. Although when the use of the faculties returns, much can be described of what was seen in the intellectual vision. Now regardless of this type, whether it's imaginative or intellectual, the visions are quite efficacious in helping a soul love, honor, and desire God all the more. Teresa also encourages them to see what a great grace authentic raptures are. I believe God ravages the soul wholly to himself as being his very own and his bride and shows her some small part of the kingdom she has thus won. Our saint also mentions that the Lord loves to give these ecstatic gifts and that he would give them to all of us if we loved him as he loves us. And so St. Teresa continues by describing some of the effects of rapture, namely long-lasting absorption and inability to move or speak, seeming lack of breathing, coldness, and the extremities. But regardless of the physical phenomena, the will remains awake to God's love and unattached to any creature. She writes in paragraph 18, This supreme state of ecstasy never lasts long, but although it ceases, it leaves the will so inebriated and the mind so transported out of itself that for a day or sometimes for several days such a person is incapable of attending to anything. But what excites the will to the love of God? Although wide awake enough to this, she seems asleep as regards all earthly matters. Teresa teaches us that raptured souls wish they had a thousand lives to spend for God. They also have a great desire to do penance, to suffer, and to be occupied in God according to his will. And Teresa also discusses the embarrassment that can happen when raptures happen publicly. But she says, if you're embarrassed, this can be a sign of pride. And yet she writes, We have now covered four of the 11 chapters St. Teresa devotes to the six mansions. Obviously the fact that she devotes so much time to these mansions attests to their importance but the amount of writing devoted to the six mansions also reflects the fact that she spent nearly 15 years here in her spiritual life. And it reflects as well the complexity of what takes place within the soul that's in the six mansions. The simple rule to remember about studying these mansions is that the increased sufferings one receives here correspond to an increase in favors. God allows this suffering so that the soul will desire him all the more and be fully prepared for full union with him in the seventh mansions. That's an interesting little axiom there that as the favors increase, the sufferings increase. As the sufferings increase, the favors increase gives us just a little bit to think about when suffering comes into our life. Indeed, whenever God allows suffering in our life, even if we're not in the six mansions, it's because there's a greater good that he wants to bring out of it. Well, that completes our podcast for day 13. Thank you so much for listening. And join us next time as we continue working our way through these magnificent 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. 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.