Spiritual marriage is like rain falling from heaven into a river or stream, becoming one and the same liquid, so that the river and rainwater cannot be divided…

Saint Teresa of Avila

Divine Communion

Topic: Immanence & Transcendence

Union may be symbolized by two wax candles, the tips of which touch each other so closely that there is but one light; or again, the wick, the wax, and the light become one, but the one candle can again be separated from the other and the two candles remain distinct; or the wick may be withdrawn from the wax.
But spiritual marriage is like rain falling from heaven into a river or stream, becoming one and the same liquid, so that the river and rainwater cannot be divided; or it resembles a streamlet flowing into the ocean, which cannot afterwards be disunited from it. This marriage may also be likened to a room into which a bright light enters through two windows—though divided when it enters, the light becomes one and the same.

Saint Teresa of Avila

Saint Teresa of Ávila, born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada (28 March 1515 – 4 October 1582), was an influential Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, and a central figure of the Counter-Reformation. Best known for her deep theological insights, she authored several important works that reflect her devotion to a life of contemplative prayer. Known for her mystical experiences, Teresa embraced the spiritual path as a Carmelite nun, where she found the essence of her vocation. Her understanding of contemplative life through mental prayer has had an enduring impact on Christian spirituality, even transcending the confines of her own religious tradition.

In addition to her spiritual contributions, Saint Teresa is remembered for her significant role in reforming the Carmelite Order of her era. Her reformative efforts were a response to a perceived laxity in her order, focusing on the renewal of commitment to solitude and poverty. Along with Saint John of the Cross, she initiated a movement that resulted in the establishment of the Discalced Carmelites, an order that emphasized austerity and the contemplative life. Notably, this significant institutional development occurred posthumously, with neither Teresa nor John alive when the Carmelite Order ultimately separated into two distinct branches.

(1515-1582) Christianity
The Interior Castle

of Avila, St. Teresa. The Interior Castle. [Quoted in The Culturium online article ‘Teresa of Ávila: The Ecstasy of Love’ Sept 9, 2016.]

Saint Teresa of Avila

The Interior Castle

It would not be until her early sixties that Teresa would write her spiritual masterpiece, The Interior Castle, one of the sublimest allegories on the human soul ever to be composed. Immediately, Teresa sets the scene in her work:

“… there came to mind what I shall now speak about, that which will provide us with a basis to begin with. It is that we consider our soul to be like a castle made entirely out of a diamond or of very clear crystal in which there are many rooms, just as in heaven there are many dwelling places.”
—Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle

… Teresa employs a sequential schema for her model of religious perfection, with seven dwelling places stationed along the way: the first three representing the stages of human effort, principally through prayer and the ordinary help of grace; the remaining four dealing with the mystical aspects of the spiritual path.

Teresa is quick to establish, however, the underlying paradox of her analogy:

“It seems I am saying something foolish. For if this castle is the soul, clearly one doesn’t have to enter it since it is in oneself. How foolish it would seem were we to tell someone to enter a room he is already in. But you must understand that there is a great difference in the ways one may be inside the castle.

For there are many souls who are in the outer courtyard—which is where the guards stay—and don’t care at all about entering the castle, nor do they know what lies within that most precious place, not who is within, nor even how many rooms it has. You have already heard in some books on prayer that the soul is advised to enter within itself. Well, that’s the very thing I’m advising.”
—Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle

Spiritual Marriage: Saint Teresa described Spiritual Marriage as follows:
“The Lord appears in the center of the soul, not through an imaginary, but through an intellectual vision (although this is a subtler one than that already mentioned), just as He appeared to the Apostles, without entering through the door, when He said to them: “Pax vobis”. This instantaneous communication of God to the soul is so great a secret and so sublime a favor, and such delight is felt by the soul, that I do not know with what to compare it, beyond saying that the Lord is pleased to manifest to the soul at that moment the glory that is in Heaven, in a sublimer manner than is possible through any vision or spiritual consolation.
It is impossible to say more than that, as far as one can understand, the soul (I mean the spirit of this soul) is made one with God, Who, being likewise a Spirit, has been pleased to reveal the love that He has for us by showing to certain persons the extent of that love, so that we may praise His greatness. For He has been pleased to unite Himself with His creature in such a way that they have become like two who cannot be separated from one another: even so He will not separate Himself from her.”

—Chapter Two of the ‘Seventh Mansion’ in St Teresa’s spiritual classic Interior Castle (Accessed on the website Catholic Treasury at http://www.catholictreasury.info/books/interior_castle/ic29.php).

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Spiritual marriage is like rain falling from heaven into a river or stream, becoming one and the same liquid, so that the river and rainwater cannot be divided…

Saint Teresa of Avila

Divine Communion

Topic: Immanence & Transcendence

Union may be symbolized by two wax candles, the tips of which touch each other so closely that there is but one light; or again, the wick, the wax, and the light become one, but the one candle can again be separated from the other and the two candles remain distinct; or the wick may be withdrawn from the wax.
But spiritual marriage is like rain falling from heaven into a river or stream, becoming one and the same liquid, so that the river and rainwater cannot be divided; or it resembles a streamlet flowing into the ocean, which cannot afterwards be disunited from it. This marriage may also be likened to a room into which a bright light enters through two windows—though divided when it enters, the light becomes one and the same.

Saint Teresa of Avila

(1515-1582) Christianity
The Interior Castle

of Avila, St. Teresa. The Interior Castle. [Quoted in The Culturium online article ‘Teresa of Ávila: The Ecstasy of Love’ Sept 9, 2016.]

Saint Teresa of Avila

The Interior Castle

“… there came to mind what I shall now speak about, that which will provide us with a basis to begin with. It is that we consider our soul to be like a castle made entirely out of a diamond or of very clear crystal in which there are many rooms, just as in heaven there are many dwelling places.”
—Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle

Teresa is quick to establish, however, the underlying paradox of her analogy:

“It seems I am saying something foolish. For if this castle is the soul, clearly one doesn’t have to enter it since it is in oneself. How foolish it would seem were we to tell someone to enter a room he is already in. But you must understand that there is a great difference in the ways one may be inside the castle.

For there are many souls who are in the outer courtyard—which is where the guards stay—and don’t care at all about entering the castle, nor do they know what lies within that most precious place, not who is within, nor even how many rooms it has. You have already heard in some books on prayer that the soul is advised to enter within itself. Well, that’s the very thing I’m advising.”
—Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle

Spiritual Marriage: Saint Teresa described Spiritual Marriage as follows:
“The Lord appears in the center of the soul, not through an imaginary, but through an intellectual vision (although this is a subtler one than that already mentioned), just as He appeared to the Apostles, without entering through the door, when He said to them: “Pax vobis”. This instantaneous communication of God to the soul is so great a secret and so sublime a favor, and such delight is felt by the soul, that I do not know with what to compare it, beyond saying that the Lord is pleased to manifest to the soul at that moment the glory that is in Heaven, in a sublimer manner than is possible through any vision or spiritual consolation.
It is impossible to say more than that, as far as one can understand, the soul (I mean the spirit of this soul) is made one with God, Who, being likewise a Spirit, has been pleased to reveal the love that He has for us by showing to certain persons the extent of that love, so that we may praise His greatness. For He has been pleased to unite Himself with His creature in such a way that they have become like two who cannot be separated from one another: even so He will not separate Himself from her.”

—Chapter Two of the ‘Seventh Mansion’ in St Teresa’s spiritual classic Interior Castle (Accessed on the website Catholic Treasury at http://www.catholictreasury.info/books/interior_castle/ic29.php).

Divine Communion

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Divine Communion

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