In this classic of Christian mysticism, a Carmelite nun describes her struggles and ultimate union with God. St. Teresa recounts her childhood, spiritual crises, and embrace of the contemplative life.
The works of Spanish nun SAINT TERESA OF AVILA (1515-1582) rank among the most extraordinary mystical writings of Roman Catholicism and among the classics of all religious traditions... and her own life story is considered one of the finest autobiographies in any language. From her carefree childhood through her life as an ascetic Carmelite nun, from her visions of Satan through her worship of God, this is her passionate yet earthy retelling of her struggles with temptation, her work founding and ruling convents, and her devotion to God.Hailed by those seeking spiritual succor as one of the most accessible guides to achieving a closer relationship to God through prayer, this extraordinary book remains a commanding entry to numinous Christianity.
St. Teresa of Avila, one of the most interesting and important figures in the history of the Catholic Church, was also one of the most candid, entertaining, and brilliant correspondents of her century. This selection of letters offers a unique “behind the scenes” look at this most charming Doctor of the Church with details of her life not originally meant for the public. St. Teresa’s formal works—The Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection—were written with an eye toward censors. Her personal correspondence, however, tell the story of her life in vivid detail, including her struggles to reform the Carmelite order; Spanish mysticism in its formation; and the extraordinary range of relationships she maintained with priests, theologians, royalty, fellow religious, advisors, and friends. The letters begin when St. Teresa was forty-six—six years after she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila, Spain—and continue until her death twenty-one years later. She exhibits worries, troubles, sadness, joy, triumphs, and questions throughout. Recipients of these letters, and the people discussed in them, include some of the famous and fascinating figures of late sixteenth-century Catholic Europe: St. John of the Cross; María Enríquez de Toledo y Guzmán, the Duchess of Alba; St. Peter Alcantara; St. John of Avila; Ana de Mendoza, the Princess of Eboli; and Jerónimo Gracián de la Madre de Dios. The story these letters tell is one of enduring importance to the history of the Church. From nascent beginnings to more detailed plans, it is possible throughout St. Teresa of Avila: Her Life in Letters to witness the birth of Spanish mysticism, the reform of the Carmelite Order, and the experiences of contemplative prayer and meditation that resulted in The Interior Castle.
This volume contains two of Teresa's most popular works: The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle. Shortly after writing The Book of Her Life for her confessor, St. Teresa wrote The Way of Perfection at the request of her nuns who were eager to learn about prayer and contemplation. Throughout this work she teaches her nuns about prayer and also teaches us. Toward the end of her life, after she had experienced both the spiritual betrothal and spiritual marriage, Teresa wrote The Interior Castle, her own panoramic view of her relationship with God, from the lowest stages to the highest. Teresa here demonstrates her great gift for writing about that relationship and attracting us to explore the possibility of pursuing it. Along with these two classics, Volume Two also includes one of Teresa's minor works, her Meditations on the Song of Songs.
This book contains Book of Her Foundations and Minor Works. Includes general and biblical index. In 1573, while staying in Salamanca to assist her nuns in the task of establishing one of her seventeen monasteries, Teresa began composing the story of their foundation. The Book of Her Foundations comprises the major portion of Volume Three. This book not only tells the story of the establishment of her monasteries but, characteristic of Teresa, digresses into counsels on prayer, love, melancholy, virtuous living and dying, plus other teachings of the Mother Foundress. This book also has an excellent introduction, chronology, and map of Teresa's foundations and journeys. Five of her brief works, including her poetry, complete ICS Publications' third volume of her Collected Works. Includes general and biblical index.
This book contains Book of Her Life, Spiritual Testimonies, and Soliloquies.Includes general and biblical index.This is the second edition of Volume One of The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, first woman doctor of the church. The translators have taken full advantage of all that recent scholarship has contributed to a better understanding of Teresa and her writings. This volume includes her first major work, The Book of Her Life, and two of her shorter works, the Spiritual Testimonies and the Soliloquies. Clear and contemporary, this rendering captures Teresa's spirit while remaining faithful to her thought. Includes general and biblical index.
This volume contains two of Teresa's most popular works: The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle. Shortly after writing The Book of Her Life for her confessor, St. Teresa wrote The Way of Perfection at the request of her nuns who were eager to learn about prayer and contemplation. Throughout this work she teaches her nuns about prayer and also teaches us. Toward the end of her life, after she had experienced both the spiritual betrothal and spiritual marriage, Teresa wrote The Interior Castle, her own panoramic view of her relationship with God, from the lowest stages to the highest. Teresa here demonstrates her great gift for writing about that relationship and attracting us to explore the possibility of pursuing it. Along with these two classics, Volume Two also includes one of Teresa's minor works, her Meditations on the Song of Songs. Nothing provided
Born in the Castilian town of Ávila in 1515, Teresa entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation when she was twenty-one. Tormented by illness, doubts and self-recrimination, she gradually came to recognize the power of prayer and contemplation - her spiritual enlightenment was intensified by many visions and mystical experiences, including the piercing of her heart by a spear of divine love. She went on to found seventeen Carmelite monasteries throughout Spain. Teresa always denied her own saintliness, however, saying in a letter: 'There is no suggestion of that nonsense about my supposed sanctity.' This frank account is one of the great stories of a religious life and a literary masterpiece - after Don Quixote, it is Spain's most widely read prose classic.
St. Teresa of Avila is not a lofty, inaccessible saint; she’s a companion, and has been taking Christians on a journey through their own interior “castles” for hundreds of years. Honest, humorous, and insightful, her devotional and spiritual reflections show readers how to open up themselves to God in new ways. This journey through Teresa’s life and writings will engage readers for a full year, with carefully chosen daily selections from the broad range of her writings—letters, poems, memoirs, as well as spiritual and theological musings. Bangley makes all of these writings accessible—and essential—in these new translations into contemporary English.
Contains Letters from 1578 to 1582 Includes Biographical Sketches, Sources for the Biographical Sketches and Index. More Information This second and final volume of St. Teresa's correspondence begins with the year 1578, a most troubling time for Teresa. A keen observer of the reality around her as well as within, Teresa in these letters focuses light on many of the struggles in both the Carmelite order and the church of sixteenth-century Spain. She introduces us to major personalities who have left their mark on history. Through her letters historians gain a better knowledge of the chronology of events in Teresa's life and how she related to the diverse people she had dealings with. A number of everyday particulars that compilers and editors of those times considered unimportant are today prized. Her worries, her troubles and triumphs, her expressions of sadness and joy, are all present here. With a compelling spontaneity, these letters disclose a Teresa in a complex variety of circumstances. The extraordinary gifts of grace bestowed by God on this Spanish Madre fortified her for a demanding ministry of service which entailed heavy responsibilities and that drew her contemplative soul into a whirl of activities. Because of the limited means of travel and communication in the sixteenth century, the organization of a reform like hers, with its unavoidable business matters, had to be dealt with chiefly through correspondence, a chafing duty that became one of Teresa's greatest trials. She often repeated that letter-writing was her biggest burden, a wearisome task that cost her more than all the miserable roads and bad weather experienced on her journeys through Spain. With its endnotes, biographical sketches, and above all, fresh translation, this second volume of Teresa's Collected Letters opens again another door into the fascinating world of this saint, one of the greatest women history has known.
Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD, and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD. Contains Book of Her Foundations and Minor Works. In 1573, while staying in Salamanca to assist her nuns in the task of establishing one of her seventeen monasteries, Teresa began composing the story of their foundation. The Book of Her Foundations comprises the major portion of Volume Three. This book not only tells the story of the establishment of her monasteries but, characteristic of Teresa, digresses into counsels on prayer, love, melancholy, virtuous living and dying, plus other teachings of the Mother Foundress. This book also has an excellent introduction, chronology, and map of Teresa's foundations and journeys. Five of her brief works, including her poetry, complete ICS Publications' third volume of her Collected Works.
The acclaimed modern translation of St. Teresa of Avila's classic book on spiritual awareness and guidance Celebrated for almost five centuries as a master of spiritual literature, 16th-century saint Teresa of Avila is one of the most beloved religious figures in history. Overcome one day by a mystical vision of a crystal castle with seven chambers, each representing a different stage in spiritual development, Teresa immediately wrote The Interior Castle. Probably her most important and widely studied work, it guides the spiritual seeker through each stage of development until the soul's final union with the divine. Free of religious dogma, this modern translation renders St. Teresa's work a beautiful and practical set of teachings for seekers of all faiths in need of spiritual guidance. It also places this classic book on spirituality —"a gem of mystical literature made accessible and relevant to the modern spiritual seeker" –Sharon Salzberg—in a contemporary context, reasserting its literary importance even after more than 400 years.
Saint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered to be, along with John of the Cross, a founder of the Discalced Carmelites. In 1622, forty years after her death, she was canonized by Pope Gregory XV, and in 1970 named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI. Her books, which include her autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus, and her seminal work, El Castillo Interior (The Interior Castle), are an integral part of the Spanish Renaissance literature as well as Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practices as she entails in her other important work Camino de Perfección (The Way of Perfection). This book provides a collection of letters written by St. Teresa of Avila. You can purchase other religious works directly from Wyatt North Publishing.
Born in the Castilian town of Avila in 1515, Teresa entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation when she was twenty-one. Tormented by illness, doubts and self-recrimination, she gradually came to recognize the power of prayer and contemplation—her spiritual enlightenment was intensified by many visions and mystical experiences, including the piercing of her heart by a spear of divine love. She went on to found seventeen Carmelite monasteries throughout Spain. Teresa always denied her own saintliness, however, saying in a letter: "There is no suggestion of that nonsense about my supposed sanctity." This frank account is one of the great stories of a religious life and a literary masterpiece—after Don Quixote, it is Spain's most widely read prose classic. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
This devotional book is made up of her sayings from Teresa's masterpiece The Interior Castle. It is the perfect pocket-/purse-sized gift book for those who have a devotion to St. Teresa and to Carmelite spirituality in general.
The words of Saint Teresa of Ávila speak to the heart so directly that even four hundred years after her death she seems like our contemporary. Few people have ever written of the spiritual path with such immediacy, down-to-earth wisdom, and humor. Mother Tessa Bielecki has brought together here short selections from Teresa's collected works—including The Way of Perfection, The Interior Castle, her autobiography, poetry, meditations, and letters—to create a living portrait of Teresa and her exuberant spirituality. Teresa's striving for divine union was inseparable from her passionate involvement in the hardships and joys of the everyday—which makes her an eminently worthy model for modern people who seek to integrate spirituality and the rest of life.
Deeply spiritual and profoundly human, this 16th-century masterpiece is the work of a revered saint. Teresa of Avila visualized the soul as a many-faceted diamond, with the ecstasy of divine communion at its center. Her insights into prayer and meditation as the keys to fulfillment have inspired generations of readers.
This book is one of the most well-known, and certainly one of the most well-loved of the Spiritual classics. It reads like an instruction manual on the deeper life of prayer, meditation and soaking in the presence of God.This book is an important milestone in the spiritual literature for its sheer frankness and practicality. She delves here into the experience of closer communion with God, with helpful tips and cautions; the problems with dry periods, what they may mean and what to do in the midst of them; the importance of following Christ into the depths, yet remaining accountable, and many more of the delicate, triumphant, and also realistic aspects of pursuing God.In this book St. Teresa lays out the mysteries of sweetness in prayer, the prayer of quietude, union with God; she explores prophetic utterances, raptures, the "flight of the spirit", visions of the mind and visions of the imagination, and being drawn into the chamber of God's presence to become the literal bride in the earth.
The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself" is the autobiographical account of Saint Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, a prominent 16th century Spanish mystic, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation. Like many of her writings her autobiography has a didactic tone as it intends to instruct the reader on how to live a more devout Christian life in the manner put forth by the Catholic Church. A classic work of Christian mysticism "The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself" is a must read for anyone seeking a more contemplative life and a closer and more spiritual connection with God through prayer and religious devotion.
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