Interior Castle

[franciscanheart]

I am reading [u]Interior Castle[/u] right now (by St. Teresa of Avila). It is so beautiful! I admire her humbleness though I am often taken aback by some statements to those who are not her sisters. I have to remind myself that I am not that soul but it was necessary at some point to discuss the souls that did exist in such a fashion. I am beyond that point now and have been for some many pages but I thought I'd mention that anyway. Believe it or not I think the Introduction took me longer to get through than the actual reading has. It was probably due to all of the dates and names and places. I caught on really quickly to the time frame that she actually wrote the book in but still, oddly enough, was shocked to discover the actual time. She is amazing!

St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us!

[Era Might]

She was good friends with St. John of the Cross. His feast is tommorow.

[franciscanheart]

wow i guess it is tomorrow. i should be getting to bed. the feast of St John of the Cross is also my birthday

[Era Might]

Happy birthday. : Edited December 13, 2005 by Era Might

[franciscanheart]

Thanks

[franciscanheart]

but anyway... back to [u]Interior Castle[/u].... its really good!

[Piccoli Fiori JMJ]

You should be getting a box in a few days. I sent it on Monday.

[Ave Maria Totus Tuus]

i wanna read that, but i still have "The Way of Perfection" sititng on my shelf. Yay for Christmas break!! Gives me plenty of time to read!!

[franciscanheart]

yeah im supposed to be getting way of perfection soon but since i already had interior castle i figured

.oO(why not just jump right into it full force?)

and so i did. and im glad that i did. : she references way of perfection in her book so im sure once i read it ill understand a little bit more but so far im not having any problems. its great!!

[Tink]

[color=#ff0066]Hey, is it absolutely necessary to read the introduction? Can I read it after the rest of the book? For some reason I've never taken to prologues/introductions much... : .[/color]

[franciscanheart]

i feel ya. the one really good thing about the intro (though i will admit that it happened probably in the first two pages of it) was it layed out the whole book for me. it told me briefly about each castle which was nice. towards the end it was all dates and names and places. i was glad to be done!

[jiyoung]

The priest in charge of the discernment group I go to insists that this book would be perfect for me.

[franciscanheart]

[quote name='jiyoung' date='Dec 13 2005, 10:13 PM']The priest in charge of the discernment group I go to insists that this book would be perfect for me.
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read it! im serious when i say it is SO good. its seriously one of the best books ive read in a while (or well at least theologically/mystically/however speaking)

[philothea]

Agreed. Fabulous book. One of my favorites. I always keep my copy at hand.

Along with being profound, informative, and beautiful, St. Teresa's writing is, well... very normal too. A little scatterbrained. Goes off on all sorts of tangents and forgets what she was talking about. It's cute.

I didn't like [i]The Way of Perfection[/i] so much, but that is probably because I am not going to be a nun. I like Teresa's autobiography tons.

Edited December 14, 2005 by philothea

[franciscanheart]

man i dont know why i set that book down but i did and i picked it up again tonight and i was like dang how did i set this down for so long?!?! haha


sooooo good.... im going to type out one of the passages i really liked tonight...

[Myles Domini]

I have a tough job deciding between 'the Dark Night of the Soul' and the 'Interior Castle' in terms of #1 favourite theology book--by all reckonings the Summa Theologiae is probably #3 . Often it comes down to my mood on the day, a capricious way of choosing I know but...anyone who's read both works will know why its difficult to arbitrate between the two.

INXC
Myles

PS) I never much dug the way of perfection either Philothea. Maybe its because I was destined not to be a nun either
PPS) The Life is

[franciscanheart]

dark night of the soul is awesome.

[beatty07]

Teresa is awesome. How can somebody who levitates in prayer be so practical and down-to-earth? I love her writing style, it's like she's chatting with you over coffee.

[franciscanheart]

"And so I repeat that it is a very good thing - excellent, indeed - to begin by entering the room where humility is acquired rather than flying off to the other rooms. ... As I see it, we shall never succeed in knowing ourselves unless we seek to know God: let us think of His greatness and then come back to our own baseness; by looking at His purtiy, we shall see our foulness; by meditating upon His humility we shall see how far we are from being humble."

and there was something else... ill have to find it again....

[franciscanheart]

[quote name='beatty07' date='Dec 20 2005, 12:40 AM']Teresa is awesome.  How can somebody who levitates in prayer be so practical and down-to-earth?  I love her writing style, [b]it's like she's chatting with you over coffee.[/b]
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yeah! haha... its kinda weird how she addresses you... im like hey whats up you really awesome saint who is like talking to me from heaven....