Castelo Interior ou Moradas

It is absurd to think that we can enter Heaven without first entering our own soulsLast week I spend five days walking on the Camino de Santiago. I know, probably that doesn’t sound terribly impressive to anyone who walked all the way from France, but I still had a great time. Every morning we set out before sunrise, when the lush landscape of Galicia was still shrouded in mist and twilight. We walked on and on, guided by the conch shell signs that point the way. We reached the pilgrim's hoste [...]

Update: I am blogging about this book. Here is the blog address if interested:whatisyourpurposerightnowFirst of all, don't read this book straight through and expect to get meaning from it. This is not one of those books. This is a book that needs to be experienced. There is so much to it, I can't even begin to explain well enough to give it credit. Meditation and pondering are definetely required!I have 78 pages left. I intend to finish it tonight. Then in the morning I've decided to read one s [...]

Interior caslte reviewThe vast majority who try fall by the wayside but St Theresa(Terry) succeeded in opening her inner eye and entering the “straight and narrow gate “ to the Father’s house during her life time, entering the wedding chamber and marrying the Kings of the infinite . Why did Terry succeed where almost all others failed ? 1)Terry had a conviction “Either we are the brides of this great King or we are not.” So what are we waiting for?!2) Terry relied on God’s grace not [...]

In the study of the various aspects of Catholic theology, sometimes we forget that the whole religion thing is really about one thing - loving God and loving each other. In this classic work, St. Theresa of Avila brings us back to these simple truths. In her eyes, the spiritual life, which is the love of God in one's own life, is like a castle with seven "mansions", or levels. In the outer mansions are the things that keep us from God and from love, namely selfishness, self-centeredness, all of [...]

This is a book about prayer written by Saint Teresa of Avila, a 16th century Carmelite nun, mystic and doctor of the Church. In this book, she presents a model of the human soul as a castle cut from a single diamond. This castle is divided into seven groups of mansions, beginning at the outer gate and moving inward toward the center. We enter the castle whenever we pray, for the gate to the outermost mansion is prayer. (Those who never pray remain in a courtyard outside the gate.)As we progress [...]

Although St. Teresa was a 16th century nun, she was as busy as the rest of us when "encouraged" by her spiritual director to write this book for her nuns. I read it as part of a Sunday school class, and I found myself cracking up at how Mirabai Starr captures her. One minute she is fervently advocating for humility and self-expression and prayer and the next she's literally writing I don't where I was. Between opening and managing some 15 or more Carmelite convents, dodging the suspicious Spanis [...]

I've been reading this start-stop skip around fashion since 2012. this time i read it from cover to cover and every reading seemed to be planned by God to come at the right time, just when i needed to read something in particular. Thank You, Lord.

Llegué a este libro desde una curiosidad puramente literaria. Y me gusta la figura de Santa Teresa, o más bien, me gusta y me da curiosidad conocer más sobre ella. Pero este libro me causó más angustia que cualquier otra cosa. Nunca había leído a una mística, por lo cual no tenía idea de lo que encontraría, pero me causó antes que nada como incomodidad. Quizás es que fui a una escuela de monjas durante toda la primaria, o que mis papás me forzaban a ir a la iglesia, como algo necesa [...]

"I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time." - Friedrich Nietzsche O călătorie a sufletului prin cele şapte "Locuinţe" ale "Castelului interior". De menţionat că această operă a fost scrisă pentru "surorile" de acolo care aveau dubii cu privire la rugăciune. Eu începusem să citesc cartea sperând că voi găsi aici întâmplări din viaţa sfintei Tereza. Ce-am găsit, în schimb, a fost un agasant îndemn în a îl lăuda pe Dumnezeu de parcă ar fi un dictator. [...]

I don't know which one is more unfair: leaving this book with 5 stars but with no review, or writing a review which can never ever do it justice, however hard I strive to. The Interior Castle is a spiritual classics; it has been read and enjoyed by millions, and in turn I'm sure it has made many saints! So nothing I write can ever truly describe how awesome this book is!What I can say is this: it's ironic that I only discovered this book very recently, at the order of my spiritual director. Iron [...]

I've spent my adult life appreciating Teresa of Avila's INTERIOR CASTLE second-hand. Her autobiography has long been a favorite but every time I tried INTERIOR CASTLE I got bogged down. I love stories of Teresa's spunky leadership, her bad-mouthing God ("If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few!"), and her belief in an indwelling divinity who spurs on our yearning for connection, and all of that personality and wisdom seemed buried in self-effacing doctrine about humility [...]

Our Lord Jesus Christ told us that in the Father's House there are many mansion, and for our be love saint here, Teressa, these mansions could be seven and they represent the mansions of the soul as it seems to grow, develop and be united with its Beloved the Lord. How close are we getting to the Lord? Are we making some progress? The beautiful thing about Teresa is that she writes as words come to her mind in full spontaneity. So, her words come so genuine, so simple, so real, so much from the [...]

This is an excellent, though a difficult, book and one I feel I will return to in the future. Saint Teresa wrote The Interior Castle relatively late in her life, after years as a nun, and with a lifetime of spiritual discipline behind her. Therefore, she is easily able to identify common pitfalls which present obstacles to spiritual growth and advancement. Her advice is practical and surprisingly relevant to readers some 400 years after the book was written. However, she may easily surpass the a [...]

Teresa of Avila wroteInterior Castleas a way to explain her theory about the soul. I have to admit, the idea of the soul being a castle shaped crystal housing seven mansions inside is pretty cool. The imagery of the soul-crystal darkening after being touched by Lucifer was striking as well. As a person who never fully understood the mystic branches of the Abrahamic faiths, I found the mysticism offered here is fairly accessible. However, the multiple comparisons of disabled individuals to a sinn [...]

I'm not going to "review" a classic. But I will say wow. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castles goes way beyond any spiritual practice or state that I've known existed. It's a whole new world. Again! It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. And that's a good thing. This book is available on YouTube, read in its entirety. That's how I "read" it. Now I need a hard copy.Some new ideas to me were around Jesus' suffering and suffering in general. That is why I need a hard copy; need to go back and read a [...]

This book is considered a spiritual classic. Likening the soul to a castle, Teresa guides the reader through the seven rooms (Mansions) ending with union with God. A good book to read a chapter a day as part of daily Bible and prayer.

Rereading after having read it for the first time at least a decade ago.

Anyone wanting to re-connect with Christian thought and learn about a devotional/rational relationship to God, this is an incredibly beautiful book.

“Few tasks which I have been commanded to undertake by obedience have been so difficult as this present one of writing about matters relating to prayer: for one reason, because I do not feel the Lord has given me either the spirituality or the desire for it….”So Teresa of Ávila (1515 – 1582) begins The Interior Castle (published 1577), a book which became a lucid and beautifully written spiritual classic. A learned woman who had already written several books, Teresa had been instructed [...]

It isn't fair to rate this book until I've read it several times, but a first-time through was difficult. Teresa refers to herself in the third person, presents women as intellectually inferior, and extends a metaphor over 300 pages or so. I trudged. BUT, it will be worth reading again. Teresa says that a touchstone for mystical experience is whether it leaves the person more humble and more committed to the virtues and to loving God. Also, true communion with God, however outré the experience [...]

Many years ago I had a dream about falling off the edge of a cliff and hovering then out in a void, and, as though suspended in empty space, there was a shining city of aquamarine crystal below me. I fell over the centre of the "city", (or large building - I had no idea of its size), contracted to a point and then radiated outward in a state of supreme ecstasy and all-knowingness. I could no longer see, but it was as though I was all-seeing. It was so powerful that when I awoke I thought that I [...]

St. Teresa of Avila is one of my favorite saints. After years of collecting her famous quotes from various other readings, I finally decided to sit down and read perhaps her most famous book, Interior Castle. Overall, Teresa is giving us a kind of roadmap for spiritual development by using the analogy of a castle with multiple rooms to describe the soul and its union with Gode further in we get, the closer we are to that union. This book is not particularly easy to read. At times St. Teresa can [...]

Why read Chicken Soup for Catholics when this work written by a great saint and doctor of the Church is available. Although it was written almost five hundred years ago, its limpid style makes it as readable as anything that has been published in this the 21st century.Teresa offers a guide on how to begin and progress through a long life of prayer. She leads the reader through seven phases referred to as mansions of one's interior castle. The first three phases are of active prayer in which one [...]

The Interior Castles is a very wonderful book on how to get closer to God and how to overcome the trials come upon you. St. Theresa originally wrote this for the sisters in her convent, at the urging of a friend of hers. She says that the way to the "ultimate marriage with God" is through humility and a humble life, and through prayer. She also says that we have to be aware of when God speaks to us, and know when Satan is trying to veer us away from Him.The reason why I gave it only three stars [...]

I made it about 2/3 through and have given up in favor of a "selections from" book my mom loaned me. The style of writing was a bit too dense, tho part of it could be the translation. Every once in awhile a quote would jump out at me, but it was too slow going considering my exploding to read pile.

From what I've heard, this translation of this classic work is one of the more understandable ones. It's difficult material to get through simply because it's so deep. But it's not a classic for no reason! I recommend this for anyone looking to explore more of the mystic's approach to their relationship with God.

You can't read this book quickly. The thoughts are deep. And the translation sometimes makes for slower reading as well. I gave up on the English version, and ordered the original Spanish. It makes so much more sense, but still slow reading. i've had it 3 years and still am not done, but then I don'tread it every day either.

This is probably a better book than I rated it, but I just did not understand it. I have not experienced anything remotely like the raptures St. Teresa talks about, and the run on sentences and rabbit trails leave me lost.

I am always reading this book. There are so many aspects I learn everytime I pick it up.

St. Teresa is painfully 16th century in her writing style but the wisdom imparted is incredible--you just have to not get lost along the way.