Beginning a Deeper Prayer Life with Saint Teresa of Avila - Second Mansions - TOG EP 124

How does the soul know it has entered the Second Mansions stage of prayer life? What kind of struggles and warfare does the soul embrace as it tries to move deeper into Jesus? Over the last three episodes of The Interior Castle, we acquired our fundamental knowledge of prayer life and the practice of His presence, and we are invited to move into the Second Mansions.

Timeline:

00:00:00  Show Intro - Growing in Prayer to the Second Mansions

 00:01:15 Recap on the First Mansions

 00:01:59 Second Mansions Chapter 1 Introduction

 00:05:10 Second Mansions Chapter 1 Overview

 00:14:03 Paragraph 1 - Saint Teresa wrote elsewhere on this subject

 00:15:04 Paragraph 2

 00:15:45 Paragraph 3

 00:18:52 Paragraph 4 - Self-Knowledge in the Second Mansions

 00:21:05 Paragraph 5 - How God speaks to us in the Second Mansions

 00:21:42 Paragraph 6 - Persevering and waiting on the Holy Spirit

 00:22:37 Paragraph 7 - The faculties of the soul and spiritual warfare

 00:23:32 Paragraph 8 - Spiritual warfare on the soul in the Second Mansions

 00:24:57 Paragraph 9 - The will and the love for Jesus

 00:25:33 Paragraph 10 - The soul begins a relationship with Jesus

 00:27:32 Paragraph 11 - Trials in the Second Mansions

 00:28:25 Paragraph 12 - Associate with people who are farther in the castle 

 00:29:17 Paragraph 13 - Do not petition Jesus for spiritual favors!

 00:32:11 Paragraph 14 - Spiritual desires leads to a weak foundation in prayer!

 00:32:51 Paragraph 15 - Submitting to Jesus’ will builds a strong foundation!

 00:38:02 Paragraph 17 - Place your trust in the mercy of God!

 00:39:41 Spiritual Exercises - Practicing Second Mansions Teresan Prayer

 00:41:27 Conclusion and Review of the Second Mansions 

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Show Notes

The Second Mansions MP3 audio from Discerning Hearts

The Interior Castle PDF (Zimmerman translation) from Discerning Hearts

Till Next Time

I pray you found this information valuable to your prayer life.

God Bless

Rev. Mike

Beginning a Deeper Prayer Life with Saint Teresa of Avila - Prayer of Recollection - TOG EP 123

We're diving into Saint Teresa's fascinating treatise on prayer - The Interior Castle. As we wrap up the First Mansions chapters 1 and 2, we take a slight but necessary detour into Saint Teresa's other books, Life and Way of Perfection, to identify a method of prayer she calls recollection. The soul must understand and implement the prayer of recollection to progress from the First Mansions into the Second Mansions. 

Timeline:
00:00:00  Show Intro - Growing in Prayer to the Second Mansions
00:01:56  Recap on Prayer in the First Mansions
00:03:30  Prayer Life in the Second Mansions
00:06:55  Saint Teresa refers back to her earlier writings in Life and Way
00:09:43  What is the ascetical prayer of recollection?
00:21:08  Implementing the prayer of recollection
00:27:24 Spiritual Exercises I. Where’s Jesus?
00:31:10 Spiritual Exercises II. Meeting Jesus at the Fountain
00:35:40 Spiritual Exercises III. Meeting Jesus at the Breakroom Watercooler
00:37:51 Teresan Recollection Comments and Review
00:48:09 Conclusion

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Show Notes

Life of Saint Teresa - her first treatise on prayer

Way of Perfection - another treatise on she wrote on prayer

Paragraph 1 - Notes

Let us now come to consider who the souls are that enter the second Mansions and what they do there. I want to say very little to you about this, because elsewhere I have written of it at length,

Life Chapter XI

Life Chapter XII

Life Chapter XIII

Way of Perfection Chapter XX - XXIX

Recollection (Practicing His Presence) is discussed in detail in Way of Perfection XXIX.

Returning to what I was saying, I should like to be able to explain the nature of this holy companionship with our great Companion, the Holiest of the holy, in which there is nothing to hinder the soul and her Spouse from remaining alone together, when the soul desires to enter within herself, to shut the door behind her so as to keep out all that is worldly and to dwell in that Paradise with her God. I say “desires”, because you must understand that this is not a supernatural state but depends upon our volition, and that, by God’s favour, we can enter it of our own accord: this condition must be understood of everything that we say in this book can be done, for without it nothing can be accomplished and we have not the power to think a single good thought. For this is not a silence of the faculties: it is a shutting-up of the faculties within itself by the soul.

Till Next Time

I pray you are blessed by this content and you learn to incorporate Teresan recollection in your prayer time.

God Bless

Rev. Mike