We are going to talk about this important work of Saint Teresa of Jesus (or of Ávila), representative of the summits of Christian mysticism. One of the most impressive books in Western religious literature, although surely less than 1% of Christians know it.
Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada, as her name was in society, was born in 1515 in Ávila, Spain, into a wealthy family. She was passionate about chivalric books and the lives of the saints. Despite the opposition of her father, she decides to enter religious life. She was a young woman of great determination, a great imagination and an admirer of heroic lives. Although she had much intellectual interest, she lived in a time when women were not allowed to pursue higher education.
She was a nun of high spirituality and a stoic vocation, coming to reform the Order of Carmel (which at the time had a very deficient spirituality), those who followed her were recognized as the Order of the Discalced Carmelites when they were rejected and persecuted by your own order. Together with Saint John of the Cross, they constitute a solid representation of high Christian spirituality, being considered a Doctor of the Catholic Church.
We are aware that some Christian churches that have emerged recently repudiate those characters called “saints”, but considering that the three years of the public life of Jesus Christ happened some 20 centuries ago, we must recognize that what he taught us, It comes to us first through the apostles, then through the Fathers of the Church and finally through the Saints and the magisterium of the Church, so knowing these 20 centuries of Christian tradition is of great cultural and spiritual wealth.
Santa Teresa had written several works when a superior ordered her to write a treatise on spirituality. Despite not wishing to do so (due to previous problems with the Inquisition), she obediently wrote the manuscript of Las Moradas or Interior Castle between June 2 and November 29, 1577.
It is an impressive work carried out by a woman without university studies. It represents the different states or spiritual levels. She begins exposing in the first mansions the mentality of the people of the lowest spiritual level (almost animal), up to the levels of greater development or sanctity, in the seventh mansion in which she speaks of the fusion with God. Written in an old Castilian, it causes the astonishment of current intellectuals, who wonder how this woman from more than four centuries ago could make this treatise on the human mind (even before the development of psychology as a science). Unfortunately, about this saint, almost the only thing that Christians know is her prayer: “Let nothing disturb you.”
This book also caused a stir, in addition to its high level of teaching, we cannot forget that it was written by an “illiterate” woman and not by a famous theologian. She logically was taken to the inquisition to judge her, because there were serious doubts as to whether what she wrote was an offense against Christian doctrine. But when they questioned her, summarizing, her response was: I am a poor illiterate nun and if you who are the authority of the church understand that I have written nonsense and falsehoods, please delete or change what you like and if you deem it necessary, even burn the whole book. The representatives of the inquisition, seeing such a display of humility and recognizing that there could be a lot of teaching in the book, appointed a commission to analyze it, but almost all the corrections they made were spelling or style, because when analyzing it theologically, they could not classify it as heresy.
The “Reformer of Carmel” carried out multiple foundations of religious convents throughout Spain, and supernatural gifts are attributed to her, for example, the nuns who shared prayer with her commented that she often levitated when praying, despite drinking measures to prevent this from happening, leaving multiple written testimonies of this event.
Santa Teresa was very opposed and even persecuted, because it seems easier to fight against the light than to accept it, since this acceptance could lead to a commitment to overcome. Thus, intellectual or spiritual laziness pushes to attack what is admired.
We can understand the levels of consciousness lower than us, being able to even catalog them, but not the higher ones; against these, it will only be possible to know that they are superior without having an idea of how much they are. So for the Saint to write what she wrote, she had to live it personally.
Unfortunately we know little about our own conscience, because we seem to have no time to analyze ourselves, therefore, we do not understand spirituality well, which is the maximum capacity of the human mind. The Mansions are a true treatise on spirituality and teach us that living in the Truth, meeting in Heaven and being with God is all the same