# Interior Castle Handbook Union — Trinitarian Life (continued in Session Eleven) **Required** **Reading:** The Interior Castle: Study Edition, _the_ _Seventh_ _Dwelling_ _Places,_ ch. 1 and 2 **Additional Reading:** Interpretive notes; Gaudium et Spes 22 (Appendix A) **Explanatory note:** In the seventh dwelling places, Teresa returns to the metaphor of the butterfly, and she describes how after the waves of trial, sufferings and raptures (which the soul experienced in the sixth dwelling places), it has now found repose in Christ. “‘For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain’ [Phil 1:21]. The soul as well, I think, can say these words now because this state is the place where the little butterfly… dies, and with the greatest joy because its life is now Christ” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 2:5]]). “The butterfly, we recall, was the new self, freed from the restraints of the cocoon… Now in the seventh dwelling places, the initial metamorphosis of the silkworm into the butterfly undergoes another radical change. Teresa refers to this with two key words: death (it dies with supreme happiness) and life (Christ lives in it) … that its life is now Christ” (Interpretive notes, pg. 426; second edition, pg. 397). **Word Incarnate**: “The ultimate goal, then, of Teresa’s journey, the spiritual marriage, is a union with Christ, now no longer living as the divine Logos but as the Word incarnate, risen and connoted by the attributes of his earthly adventure, especially those of his resurrection. With the passing of time, the soul understands more clearly that its life is Christ” (General Introduction, pg. 23, second edition, pg. XXXVII). ## Essential Points to Discuss •       Teresa observes: “when our Lord is pleased to have pity on this soul that he has already taken spiritually as his betrothed, because of what it suffers and has suffered through its desires, he brings it, before the spiritual marriage is consummated, into his dwelling place, which is this seventh [dwelling places]. For just as in heaven, so in the soul His Majesty must have a room where he dwells alone. Let us call it another heaven” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 1:3]]). •       For, in the seventh dwelling places, all raptures cease. The wisdom of God now flows wordlessly into the soul; union is no longer fleeting; the soul now lives in the ongoing presence of God. Here, instead of experiencing God partially, the soul is brought fully into the Trinitarian nature of God. •       “In this seventh dwelling place the union comes about in a different way: our good God now desires to remove the scales from the soul’s eyes and let it see and understand, although in a strange way, something of the favor he grants it. When the soul is brought into that dwelling place, the Most Blessed Trinity, all three Persons, through an intellectual vision, is revealed to it through a certain representation of the truth … and through an admirable knowledge the soul understands as a most profound truth that all three Persons are one substance and one power and one knowledge and one God alone” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 1:6]]). •       “You may think that as a result the soul will be outside itself and so absorbed that it will be unable to be occupied with anything else. On the contrary, the soul is much more occupied than before with everything pertaining to the service of God; and once its duties are over it remains with that enjoyable company” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 1:8]]). •       “Clearly, the soul will be truly helped in every way to advance in perfection… Such was the experience of this person, for in everything she found herself improved, and it seemed to her, despite the trials she underwent and the business affairs she had to attend to, that the essential part of her soul never moved from that room” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 1:10]]). •       Teresa goes on to explain: “Between the spiritual betrothal and the spiritual marriage the difference is as great as that which exists between two who are betrothed [they can be separated] and two who can no longer be separated” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 2:2]]). “…just as those who are married cannot be separated…” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 2:3]]). •       “The **spiritual** **betrothal** is different, for the two often separate. And the union is also different because, even though it is the joining of two things into one, in the end the two can be separated and each remains by itself … Let us say that the union is like the joining of two wax candles to such an extent that the flame and the wax are all one. But afterward one candle can easily be separated from the other and there are two candles” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 2:4]]). •       “In the **spiritual** **marriage**, the union is like what we have when rain falls from the sky into a river or fount; all is water, for the rain that fell from heaven cannot be divided or separated from the water of the river. Or it is like what we have when a little stream enters the sea; there is no means of separating the two. Or, like the bright light entering a room through two different windows; although the streams of light are separate when entering the room, they become one” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 2:4]]). •       Two Pauline expressions summarize the thoughts of Teresa: “‘… he that is joined or united to the Lord becomes one spirit’ with him, and is referring to this sovereign marriage, presupposing that His Majesty has brought the soul to it through union” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 2:5]]). Teresa quotes Paul again: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 2:5]]). It is here that Teresa announces the death of the butterfly which she introduced in the fifth dwelling places. “The soul as well, I think, can say these words now because this state is the place where the little butterfly we mentioned dies, and with the greatest joy because its life is now Christ” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 2:5]]). •       Thus, in the seventh dwelling places is the realization of St. Paul’s famous passage: “For now we see as in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12). • “For [Teresa], Christian holiness does not consist in an ethical fact of personal perfection; rather, it has as its characteristic the trait of an intimate living together of two persons: Christ and the human person... ‘... this secret union takes place in the very interior center of the soul which must be where God himself is, and in my opinion, there is no need of any door (senses and faculties) for him to enter’” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 2:3]]; Interpretive notes, pg. 414; second edition, pg. 385). •       “In her _Life_, when Teresa begins to experience visions of Christ, she speaks of him as being beside her. ‘It seemed to me that Jesus Christ was always present at my side’ (L 27:2). Now, in this final stage, the experiences of Christ are not of him at her side but within her, in the deepest center of her being” (Interpretive notes, pg. 415; second edition, pgs. 385-386). “…the soul always remains with its God in that center” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 2:4]]). •       Teresa further observes that the soul is always at peace in that center even though there are trials and suffering all around it. “The king is in his palace and there are many wars in his kingdom and many painful things going on; …even though they cause [the soul] some pain, the suffering is not such as to disturb it and take away its peace” ([[tj-ic-ccel-08|VII, 2:11]]). **Note:** In the innermost chamber there dwells the King — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Initially the soul cannot perceive this center, still less enter it. In the tradition of Carmel, prayer is seen as an inward journey toward the center. The transforming love of the King radiates from the center, drawing the soul towards itself. _“It_ _should_ _be_ _known_ _that_ _the_ _Word,_ _the_ _Son_ _of_ _God,_ _together_ _with_ _the_ _Father and the Holy Spirit, is hidden by His essence and His presence in_ _the_ _innermost_ _being_ _of_ _the_ _soul..._ _Oh,_ _then,_ _soul,_ _most_ _beautiful_ _among_ _all creatures, so_ _anxious to_ _know the dwelling_ _place of_ _your_ _Beloved_ _so_ _you may go in search of Him and be united with Him, now we are telling_ _you_ _that_ _you_ _yourself_ _are_ _His_ _dwelling_ _and_ _His_ _secret_ _inner_ _room_ _and hiding_ _place._ _There_ _is_ _reason_ _for_ _you_ _to_ _be_ _elated_ _and_ _joyful_ _in_ _seeing that_ _all_ _your_ _good_ _and_ _hope_ _is_ _so_ _close_ _as_ _to_ _be_ _within_ _you,_ _or better, that you cannot be without Him. ‘The Kingdom of God is_ _within_ _you.’_ _‘You_ _are_ _the_ _temple_ _of_ _God’”_ (Lk. 17:21 and 2 Cor. 6:16) (St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle Stanza 1: 6-7). --- # Links [[tj-ic-guide-11|Effects of Prayer. (continued from Session Ten)]] --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation II Year B: The Interior Castle (The Seven Dwelling Places)* (US National Formation Program, 2024).