TERESA OF ÁVILA · 16TH CENTURY · CARMELITE
The Life of Teresa of Jesus
Summary and key themes of this work
Teresa's spiritual autobiography, written under obedience to her confessors, recounting her life from childhood through the founding of San José. The Life is remarkable for its honesty: Teresa describes her years of failed prayer, her inability to meditate, her fear that her mystical experiences might be diabolical, and her struggle with what she calls a 'divided heart.' She also describes, with characteristic precision, the stages of prayer she experienced — from vocal prayer through the prayer of quiet to the prayer of union — using the famous image of four ways of watering a garden. The Life was seized by the Inquisition and held for years, which tells you something about its power: a woman writing with this much authority about her direct experience of God was, in sixteenth-century Spain, inherently dangerous.
The Life of Teresa of Jesus is a central text in the Christian mystical tradition, offering insight into the spiritual life, the nature of divine union, and the transformation of the soul.
This work is central to the Carmelite tradition, shaping the understanding of the spiritual life and the soul's journey toward union with God.
Selected Passages
Prayer is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends, taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.
It is love alone that gives worth to all things.
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