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Summary: Journey Of A Soul
Review: "Interior Castle" is St. Theresa of Avila's classical guide to spiritual perfection. Although written to her Sixteenth Century sisters in the Carmelite order, it is readily understandable by contemporary readers.The premise behind the book is that the road to spiritual perfection consists of passage through seven mansions. The last mansion is the Interior Castle in which God dwells. In each succeeding mansion the soul reaches a higher level of sanctity and the attachment to the world decreases as the soul comes closer to God. Although some portions of the book describe experiences beyond the expectations of modern readers, this work still provides us all with an insight into a way to draw closer to God. While this book does not provide us with the only route to Heaven, I recommend it to all who are searching for guidance in their spiritual journey
Rating:
Summary: Journey Of A Soul
Review: "Interior Castle" is St. Theresa of Avila's classical guide to spiritual perfection. Although written to her Sixteenth Century sisters in the Carmelite order, it is readily understandable by contemporary readers. The premise behind the book is that the road to spiritual perfection consists of passage through seven mansions. The last mansion is the Interior Castle in which God dwells. In each succeeding mansion the soul reaches a higher level of sanctity and the attachment to the world decreases as the soul comes closer to God. Although some portions of the book describe experiences beyond the expectations of modern readers, this work still provides us all with an insight into a way to draw closer to God. While this book does not provide us with the only route to Heaven, I recommend it to all who are searching for guidance in their spiritual journey
Rating: 
Summary: The Holy Mother at her best
Review: A later book of Teresa's, this work is her culmination in that she had achieved further understanding of communion with God; more so than when she wrote her earlier books, such as Way of Perfection. This book is beautifully written, intense and graphic in imagery, and, if such a thing can be said, is a good "practical" manual for mystics. The Saint at her best!
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Summary: St Teresa's Insight into Warfare
Review: By Sister Faith Magdalena, OSF FODC
One of the Christian Classics, St. Teresa of Avilia's journal, Interior Castles, is a work that is experienced on different levels each time the reader "revisits it." Over the years I have read this work many times, and each visit is a new experience bearing fresh revelations. She writes with insight into the various phases of personal human experience. She takes us to places within the human soul and psyche, recognizing the demonic and holy, along with the mundane and the sublime. A contemporary of St. John of the Cross, and a victim of the Inquisition, this Carmelite sister understood the high price exacted for belief and the ultimate cost should one abandon it.
Many modern authors have written on "Spiritual Warfare" and "Demonology", however, in my estimation, "Interior Castles" with its authors' clarity of insight remains fresh and pertinent to contemporary life.
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Summary: Off the beaten path
Review: Classic literature from the 16th Century. Teresa describes the journey toward the center of our soul and God. I would hope that our journey toward the Divine does not digress as much as Teresa does in her description of the journey.
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Summary: Caution! A Bowdlerized Interior Castle
Review: I have no problem with the original Author of this book in the substance of her writing. But the translator, Mirabai Starr, does a great deal of bowdlerization throughout the book. She replaces the word "sin" with words such as "limitation" or "unconciousness", thereby changing the meaning of St. Teresa's prose. If you want a more faithful translation, I suggest you do not look at this particular book.
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Summary: Beautiful treatise on prayer
Review: Interior Castle is a marvelous treatise on prayer, where the soul is likened to a castle in which are housed many mansions, or levels, of prayer. Teresa, known to have experienced ecstacies, was clearly devoted to Jesus Christ and this work is evidence of that. How powerful her words are coming from humble hands and mind! Each mansion is a step in further strengthening the soul to receive Christ's light and grace. This may seem like heavy reading to some, but I have found Teresa easier to read than other Carmelite mystics. Interior Castle is definitely required reading if you are interested in Catholic mysticism.
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Summary: A Mystical and Artistic View of a Soul's Journey !!!
Review: Interior Castle is a wonderfully profound and insightful book enabling the reader to gain a better understanding and perspective of the "levels of faith" and a soul's journey toward union with God. Written over four centuries ago by Teresa of Avila, the book describes the soul as a castle with interior mansions and in each of the mansions, there are many rooms. The journey of the soul is toward the inner most chamber of the castle where God resides. St. Teresa describes the features and characteristics in each of these mansions. One might think of the mansions as "spheres of relationships"; relationship of love of God, love of our neighbor, and love of ourselves. As one moves from mansion to mansion, these relationships of love grow and change just as the features, characteristics, and experiences of God in each of the mansions grow and change. The entire journey can be summarized in St. Teresa's words "All the way to Heaven is heaven, too!".
Rating:
Summary: A Mystical and Artistic View of a Soul's Journey !!!
Review: Interior Castle is a wonderfully profound and insightful book enabling the reader to gain a better understanding and perspective of the "levels of faith" and a soul's journey toward union with God. Written over four centuries ago by Teresa of Avila, the book describes the soul as a castle with interior mansions and in each of the mansions, there are many rooms. The journey of the soul is toward the inner most chamber of the castle where God resides. St. Teresa describes the features and characteristics in each of these mansions. One might think of the mansions as "spheres of relationships"; relationship of love of God, love of our neighbor, and love of ourselves. As one moves from mansion to mansion, these relationships of love grow and change just as the features, characteristics, and experiences of God in each of the mansions grow and change. The entire journey can be summarized in St. Teresa's words "All the way to Heaven is heaven, too!".
Rating:
Summary: This is a classic of spiritual literature.
Review: Interior Castle, by St. Teresa of Avila, is one of the saint's writings that is filled with spiritual insight, charm, and breathtaking closeness to God. Her castle is the God within, and there are outward mansions that must be penetrated to get to this inner treasure. Each mansion is a deepening of one's knowledge of God, and a step further away from one's capture by externality and the world. She describes these inward steps, and leads one onward to union with God (or God carries one onward - at first it is our efforts, than it is God's). Beautiful and illuminating.
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