In describing the spiritual journey, Saint Teresa of Avila, in contrast to her spiritual confrere, Saint John of the Cross, invokes the image of an interior castle. It maps out a journey not upward, but inward.
The image of an interior dwelling-place has antecedents, for example, the inner cell of the heart of Saint Catherine of Siena. However, Saint Teresa uniquely employs the metaphor of an interior castle in a highly developed manner. Her account is based on the extraordinary fullness of her mystical experience, so that her book has no precedent in the spiritual literature.
In the first chapter of The Interior Castle, Saint Teresa exclaims:
Today while beseeching our Lord to speak for me because I wasn’t able to think of anything to say nor did I know how to begin to carry out this obedience, there came to my mind what I shall now speak about, that which will provide us with a basis to begin with. It is that we consider soul to be like a castle made entirely out of a diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in heaven there are many dwelling places. [Saint Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” I, 1 in The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Volume II, translated by Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D. and Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1980), page 283]
She continues: “Well, let us consider that this castle has, as I said, many dwelling places: some up above, others down below, others to the sides; and in the center and middle is the main dwelling place where the very secret exchanges between God and the soul take place.” [Ibid., page 284]
The way inside the castle, she explains, is through prayer: “Insofar as I can understand the door of entry to this castle is prayer and reflection.” [Ibid., page 286]
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ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
Those who are familiar with the history of mystical theology will readily recognize how remarkable and unusual was Saint Teresa of Avila’s chart of spiritual progress at the time or indeed ever since. There was nothing quite like it at the time, even though it might have contained some elements that are found in earlier mystical treatises.
ReplyDeleteSaint Teresa’s schema further highlights the special charism of the Carmelites—a life of prayer and progress in contemplation as a way to union with God in love. The Church needs Saint Teresas in the beating contemplative heart of the Mystical Body of Christ.
Gonzalinho