Chapters
00:00:00 Show Opener
00:30:13 Introduction
00:08:34 Six Mansions Chapter XI Introduction
00:11:47 Review of the Mystical Experiences in the Sixth Mansions
00:27:15 Chapter XI Outline
00:28:12 I. Introducing a Deeper Rapture
00:28:46 1. Favors increase the soul’s desire for God.
00:30:50 2. The dart of love.
00:44:14 3. Spiritual sufferings produced.
00:45:23 II. Teresa's Own Experience with this Grace
00:46:18 4. Its physical effects.
00:54:22 5. Torture of the desire for God.
00:59:23 III. Intensity of These Trials
00:59:39 6. These sufferings are a purgatory.
01:00:57 7. The torments of hell.
01:05:34 8. St. Teresa’s painful desire after God.
01:11:48 IV. State of the Soul in the Grace
01:12:06 9. This suffering irresistible.
01:17:17 10. Effects of the dart of love.
01:21:55 11. Two spiritual dangers to life.
01:22:38 12. Courage needed here and given by our Lord.
01:26:26 Conclusion, closing comments and pontifications
Opening show music - Meagan Wright - My Inheritance
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Show Notes
The Sixth Mansions Chapter 11 audio mp3 - Discerning Hearts read by Kristin McGreggor
Commentary Notes
1. Favors increase the soul’s desire for God.
This chapter parallels her testimony in her book Life, ch. xxix. Titled, "Of Visions. The Graces Our Lord Bestowed on the Saint. The Answers Our Lord Gave Her for Those Who Tried Her."
Worth the read as you study chapter xi of the Sixth Mansions.
2. The dart of love.
378 Life, ch. xxix. 17. (Transverberation.)
379 Ibid. ch. xxix. 13, 14. Rel. viii. 16-19.
In nos 2., Saint Teresa writes on her transverberation experience, she calls the fiery darts of love,
While the soul is thus inflamed with love, i t often happens that, from a passing thought or
spoken word of how death delays its coming, the heart receives, it knows not how or whence, a
blow as from a fiery dart.378
Saint Teresa is referring to an account in her autobiography manuscript, , Life, ch. xxix. 17.
378 Life, ch. xxix. 17. (Transverberation.)
17. I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it, even a large one. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying.440
In nos 2., Saint Teresa writes on her transverberation experience,
I do not say that this actually is a ‘dart,’ but, whatever it may be,
decidedly it does not come from any part of our being.379
Saint Teresa tries to explain the fiery dart analogy of this particular grace.
379 Ibid. ch. xxix. 13, 14.
13. These other impetuosities are very different. It is not we who apply the fuel; the fire is already kindled, and we are thrown into it in a moment to be consumed. It is by no efforts of the soul that it sorrows over the wound which the absence of our Lord has inflicted on it; it is far otherwise; for an arrow is driven into the entrails to the very quick,434 and into the heart at times, so that the soul knows not what is the matter with it, nor what it wishes for. It understands clearly enough that it wishes for God, and that the arrow seems tempered with some herb which makes the soul hate itself for the love of our Lord, and willingly lose its life for Him. It is impossible to describe or explain the way in which God wounds the soul, nor the very grievous pain inflicted, which deprives it of all self-consciousness; yet this pain is so sweet, that there is no joy in the world which gives greater delight. As I have just said,435 the soul would wish to be always dying of this wound.
14. This pain and bliss together carried me out of myself, and I never could understand how it was. Oh, what a sight a wounded soul is!—a soul, I mean, so conscious of it, as to be able to say of itself that it is wounded for so good a cause; and seeing distinctly that it never did anything whereby this love should come to it, and that it does come from that exceeding love which our Lord bears it. A spark seems to have 255fallen suddenly upon it, that has set it all on fire. Oh, how often do I remember, when in this state, those words of David: "Quemadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum"! (psalm 41:2) They seem to me to be literally true of myself.
Psalm 41:2 ESV
2 the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
More information on her experience with the grace of transverberation is documented in Relations, a journal that compiles her discussions with her confessors and other spiritual advisors on her experiences.
Relation viii. 16-19. Relation VIII Addressed to F. Rodrigo Alvarez
16. Another prayer very common is a certain kind of wounding;705 for it really seems to the soul as if an arrow were thrust through the heart, or through itself. Thus it causes great suffering, which makes the soul complain; but the suffering is so sweet, that it wishes it never would end. The suffering is not one of sense, neither is the wound physical; it is in the interior of the soul, without any appearance of bodily pain;
462
but as I cannot explain it except by comparing it with other pains, I make use of these clumsy expressions,—for such they are when applied to this suffering. I cannot, however, explain it in any other way. It is, therefore, neither to be written of nor spoken of, because it is impossible for any one to understand it who has not had experience of it,—I mean, how far the pain can go; for the pains of the spirit are very different from those of earth. I gather, therefore, from this, that the souls in hell and purgatory suffer more than we can imagine, by considering these pains of the body.
17. At other times, this wound of love seems to issue from the inmost depth of the soul; great are the effects of it; and when our Lord does not inflict it, there is no help for it, whatever we may do to obtain it; nor can it be avoided when it is His pleasure to inflict it. The effects of it are those longings after God, so quick and so fine that they cannot be described and when the soul sees itself hindered and kept back from entering, as it desires, on the fruition of God, it conceives a great loathing for the body, on which it looks as a thick wall which hinders it from that fruition which it then seems to have entered upon within itself, and unhindered by the body. It then comprehends the great evil that has befallen us through the sin of Adam in robbing us of this liberty.706
18. This prayer I had before the raptures and the great impetuosities I have been speaking of. I forgot to say that these great impetuosities scarcely ever leave me, except through a trance or great sweetness in our Lord, whereby He comforts the soul, and gives it courage to live on for His sake.
19. All this that I speak of cannot be the effect of the imagination; and I have some reasons for saying this, but it would be wearisome to enter on them: whether it be good or not is known to our Lord. The 463effects thereof, and how it profits the soul, pass all comprehension, as it seems to me.
3. Spiritual sufferings produced.
4. Its physical effects.
Saint Teresa writes here in nos. 4 that she was mildly incapacitated from her experience.
Not that any pain is felt by the body at the moment, although, as I said, all the joints are dislocated so that for two or
three days afterwards the suffering is too severe for the person to have even the strength to hold a pen;380 indeed I believe that the health becomes permanently enfeebled in consequence.
She refers us back to her manuscript in Life. When this happened to St. Teresa she was unable to write for twelve days.
380 St. John of the Cross, Obscure Night, bk. ii. ch. i. (in fine); Spiritual Canticle, stanza xiii; xiv-xv. (in fine). Ribera, Acta SS. p. 555 (in fine). Rel. viii. 13. Life, ch. xx. 16.
Saint Teresa refers to her account from Life, ch. xx. 16.
16. O Jesus! oh, that some one would clearly explain this to you, my father, were it only that you may tell me what it means, because this is the habitual state of my soul! Generally, when I am not particularly occupied, I fall into these agonies of death, and I tremble when I feel them coming on, because they are not unto death. But when I am in them, I then wish to spend therein all the rest of my life, though the pain be so very great, that I can scarcely endure it. Sometimes my pulse ceases, as it were, to beat at all,—so the sisters say, who sometimes approach me, and who now understand the matter better,—my bones are racked, and my hands become so rigid, that I cannot always join them. Even on the following day I have a pain in my wrists, and over my whole body, as if my bones were out of joint. Well, I think sometimes, if it continues as at present, that it will end, in the good pleasure of our Lord, by putting an end to my life; for the pain seems to me sharp enough to cause death; only, I do not deserve it.
Rel. viii. 13.
13. By impetus I mean that desire which at times rushes into the soul, without being preceded by prayer, and this is most frequently the case; it is a sudden remembering that the soul is away from God, or of a word it has heard to that effect. This remembering is occasionally so strong and vehement that the soul in a moment becomes as if the reason were gone, just like a person who suddenly hears most painful tidings of which he knew not before, or is surprised; such a one seems deprived of the power of collecting his thoughts for his own comfort, and is as one lost. So is it in this state, except that the suffering arises from this, that there abides in the soul a conviction that it would be well worth dying in it. It seems that whatever the soul then perceives does but increase its suffering, and that our Lord will have its whole being find no comfort in anything, nor remember that it is His will that it should live: the soul seems to itself to be in great and indescribable loneliness, and abandoned of all, because the world, and all that is in it, gives it pain; and because it finds no companionship in any created thing, the soul seeks its Creator alone, and this it sees to be impossible unless it dies; and as it must not kill itself, it is dying to die, and there is really a risk of death, and it sees itself hanging between heaven and earth, not knowing what to do with itself. And from time to time God gives it a certain knowledge of Himself, that it may see what it loses, in a way so strange that no explanation of it is possible; and there is no pain in the world—at least I have felt none—that is equal or like unto this, for if it lasts but half an hour the whole body is out of joint, and the bones so racked, that I am not able to write with my hands: the pains I endure are most grievous.
5. Torture of the desire for God.
She is like one suspended in mid-air, who can neither touch the earth nor mount
to heaven; she is unable to reach the water while parched with thirst and this is not a thirst that can
be borne, but one which nothing will quench nor would she have it quenched save with that water
of which our Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman, but this is not given to her.381
381 St. John iv. 15. Life, ch. xxx. 24. Way of Perf. ch. xix. 4 sqq. Concept. ch. vii. 7, 8. Found. ch. xxxi. 42. See note, Life, ch. i. 6.
Life, ch. xxx. 24.
24. I call to remembrance—oh, how often!—that living water of which our Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman. That Gospel459 has a great attraction for me; and, indeed, so it had even when I was a little child, though I did not understand it then as I do now. I used to pray much to our Lord for that living water; and I had always a picture of it, representing our Lord at the well, with this inscription, "Domine, da mihi aquam." - ("Lord, give me this water")
Way of Perfection, ch. xix. 4. on the properties of water,
The third property of water is that it satisfies and quenches thirst. Thirst, I think, means the desire for something which is very necessary for us—so necessary that if we have none of it we shall die. It is a strange thing that if we have no water we die, and that we can also lose our lives through having too much of it, as happens to many people who get drowned. Oh, my Lord, if only one could be plunged so deeply into this living water that one’s life would end! Can that be? Yes: this love and desire for God can increase so much that human nature is unable to bear it, and so there have been persons who have died of it. I knew one person who had this living water in such great abundance that she would almost have been drawn out of herself by raptures if God had not quickly succoured her. She had such a thirst, and her desire grew so greatly, that she realized clearly that she might quite possibly die of thirst if something were not done for her. I say that she would almost have been drawn out of herself because in this state the soul is in repose. So intolerable does such a soul find the world that it seems to be overwhelmed, 64but it comes to life again in God; and in this way His Majesty enables it to enjoy experiences which, if it had remained within itself, would perforce have cost it its life.
6. These sufferings are a purgatory.
382 St. John of the Cross, Obscure Night, bk. ii. ch. xii.
7. The torments of hell.
In nos. 7, Teresa wrote,
Let us remember, sisters, how those who are in hell lack this submission to the divine will
and the resignation and consolation God gives such a soul and the solace of knowing that their
pains benefit them, for the damned will continually suffer more and more; (more and more, I mean
in regard to accidental pains383).
383 Marginal note in the Saint’s handwriting. The ‘substantial’ pain of hell consists in the irrevocable loss of God, our last end and supreme Good; this is incurred from the first moment in its fullest intensity and therefore cannot increase. The physical pain with which the bodies will be afflicted when united to the souls after the general resurrection may vary, but will neither increase nor abate. The ‘accidental’ pain of the damned arises from various causes, for instance from the ever-increasing effects of evil actions, and therefore increases in the same proportion. Thus a heresiarch will suffer keener accidental pain as more and more souls are lost through his false teaching.
8. St. Teresa’s painful desire after God.
This occurred when she unexpectedly heard some verses to the effete that life seemed unending; she was engaged in conversation at the time, which was on the last day of Easter. All Eastertide she had suffered such aridity as hardly to realize what mystery was being celebrated.384
384 Rel. iv. 1. Concept. ch. vii. 2. Isabel of Jesus, in her deposition in the Acts of Canonisation (Fuente, Obras, vol. vi. 316) declares that she was the singer. The words were: Véante mis ojos, Dulce Jesús bueno: Véante mis ojos, Y muérame yo luégo. Fuente, l.c. vol. v. 143, note 1. Œuvres, ii. 231. (Poem 36, English version.) There is a slight difference in the two relations of this occurrence. In Rel. iv. St. Teresa seems to imply that it happened on Easter Sunday evening, but here she says distinctly: ‘Pascua de Resurreccion, el postrer dia,’ that is, on Easter Tuesday, April 17, 1571, at Salamanca.
Relation iv. 1.
1. I found myself the whole of yesterday in great desolation, and, except at Communion, did not feel that it was the day of the Resurrection. Last night, being with the community, I heard one of them singing how hard it is to be living away from God. As I was then suffering, the effect of that singing on me was such that a numbness began in my hands, and no efforts of mine could hinder it; but as I go out of myself in raptures of joy, so then my soul was thrown into a trance through the excessive pain, and remained entranced; and until this day I had not felt this. A few days previously I thought that the vehement impulses were not so great as they used to be, and now it seems to be that the reason is what I have described; I know not if it is so. Hitherto the pain had not gone so far as to make me beside myself; and as it is so unendurable, and as I retained the control of my senses, it made me utter loud cries beyond my power to restrain. Now that it has grown, it has reached this point of piercing me; and I understand more of that piercing which our Lady suffered; for until to-day, as I have just said, I never knew what that piercing was. My body was so bruised, that I suffer even now when I am writing this; for my hands are as if the joints were loosed, and in pain.You, my father, will tell me when you see me whether this trance be the effect of suffering, or whether I felt it, or whether I am deceived.
2. I was in this great pain till this morning; and, being in prayer, I fell into a profound trance; and it seemed to me that our Lord had taken me up in spirit to His Father, and said to Him: "Whom Thou hast given to Me, I give to Thee;"665 and He seemed to draw me near to Himself. This is not an imaginary vision, but one most certain, and so spiritually subtile that it cannot be explained. He spoke certain words to me which I do not remember. Some of them referred to His grace, which He bestows on me. He kept me by Him for some time.
9. This suffering irresistible.
Saint Teresa wrote, in nos.9,
Evidently this fear arises from human infirmity, for the soul’s longings for death do not abate meanwhile nor can its sorrows be stilled or allayed until God brings it comfort.386 This He usually does by a deep trance or by some vision whereby the true Comforter consoles and strengthens the heart, which thus becomes resigned to live as long as He wills.387
385 Compare the words ’Que muero porque no muero’ in the Glosa of St. Teresa. Way of Perf. ch. xlii . 2. Castle, M. vii. ch. iii. 14.
386 Way of Perf. ch. xix. 10. Excl. vi.; xii. a.; xiv.
Why do you suppose, daughters, that I have tried, as people say, to describe the end of the battle before it has begun and to point to its reward by telling you about the blessing which comes from drinking of the heavenly source of this living water? I have done this so that you may not be distressed at the trials and annoyances of the road, and may tread it with courage and not grow weary; for, as I have said, it may be that, when you have arrived, and have only to stoop and drink of the spring, you may fail to do so and lose this blessing, thinking that you have not the strength to attain it and that it is not for you.
387 See the two versions of the poems written by the Saint on her recovery from the trance into which she was thrown, beginning ‘Vivir sin vivir in me’ and the poem, ’Cuan triste es, Dios mio’ (Poems 2, 3, and 4, English version). See also St. Teresa’s poem, ‘Ya toda me entregué y dí.’ (Poem 7, English version).
Struck by the gentle Hunter
And overthrown,
Within the arms of Love
My soul lay prone.
Raised to new life at last,
This contract ’tween us passed,
That the Beloved should be mine own,
I His alone.
10. Effects of the dart of love.
In nos. 10, Saint Teresa wrote,
Seeing what she has gained, the sufferer would gladly
endure frequently the same pains388
We are referred back to Relation viii 17 for this footnote.
388 Rel. viii. 17.
389 Acta SS. p. 64, n. 229.
11. Two spiritual dangers to life.
12. Courage needed here and given by our Lord.
390 St. Matt. xx. 22: ‘Potestis bibere calicem quem ego bibiturus sum?’
Matthew 20:22 ESV
22 Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.”
391 St. Matt. xxvi. to: St. Mark xiv. 6; St. John xii. 7. Way of Perf. ch. xvi. 7; xvii. 4. Excl. v. 2-4.
John 12:7 ESV
7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it[b] for the day of my burial.
Supplemental References on the Interior Castle
Interior Castle: The Classic Text with Spiritual Commentary - My favorite reference.
Fire Within: Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross and the Gospel on Prayer -excellent reference!
Into the Deep: Finding Peace Through Prayer - Dan Burke great book!
The Essential Teresa of Avila - Interior Castle, Life, Way of Perfection in Modern English!!!
Cosmology and Demonology in Genesis 1-11: The Serpent, Divine Council, and Regional Spirits
Now on Audible!!!!
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Rev. Mike
