# Interior Castle Handbook Conversion **Required Reading:** The Interior Castle: Study Edition, _the Fourth Dwelling Places,_ ch. [[tj-ic-ccel-05|1]], [[tj-ic-ccel-05|2]] and [[tj-ic-ccel-05|3]] **Additional** **Reading:** Interpretive notes **Explanatory note:** Teresa begins this stage of the journey with a scriptural reference, Psalm 119:32: “I have run the way of your commandments, _when you have enlarged my heart_.” By means of expansion (awareness/consciousness) the soul is getting closer to the center of God. Teresa also explains the expansion of the soul’s affective capacity; that is, the ability to move beyond personal self-interest and to extend oneself, through compassion and charity, toward others. Such experiences result in a **new kind of self-knowledge:** through the grace of God, one can live in its deepest, created potential, and could experience the previously unknown depth in its own interior personhood (see Entering Teresa’s Interior Castle). ***Note:** Compared to the Way of Perfection, the description of prayer using different terminologies (vocal, prayer of recollection, quiet prayer, etc.) is kept to the minimum in these dwelling places. Teresa’s primary focus is the soul’s experience in finding the center where God dwells. She entrusts herself to the Holy Spirit as she begins to write about the remaining dwelling places.* ## Essential Points to Discuss ### Chapter 1 • “Since these dwelling places are closer to where the King is, their beauty is great.” To come to this stage is truly a blessing and a gift. “For the Lord gives when He desires, as He desires, and to whom He desires. Since these blessings belong to Him, He does no injustice to anyone” ([[tj-ic-ccel-05|IV, 1:2]]). •       Teresa makes a distinction between **“[[spiritual-consolations|consolations]]”** that are acquired by one’s own efforts at prayer and virtuous works, and **“[[spiritual-delights|spiritual delights]]”** that are purely a gift from God. It is interesting to note that she points out that similar feelings of “consolation” can come from happy worldly events because they begin in human nature. On the other hand, “The spiritual delights begin in God, but the human nature feels and enjoy them” ([[tj-ic-ccel-05|IV, 1:4]]). • Teresa quotes a line from Psalm 119 “when you enlarged my heart” to give a better sense of spiritual delights. **[[spiritual-delights|spiritual delights]]** expand the heart ([[tj-ic-ccel-05|IV, 1:5]]) because they are infused by God (supernatural). **[[spiritual-consolations|Consolations]]** do not expand the heart, because they have their roots in human nature (natural) (see IV, 1:5). **Note to the formator:** Be careful not to disparage human effort during prayer. One prays as one is able, while always being ready to let God take the lead. Every stage of prayer is of value and a person will move back and forth continuously. IV, 1:6 gives good advice on flexibility.. •       “…in order to profit by this path and ascend to the dwelling places we desire, the important thing is not to think much but to love much… Perhaps we don’t know what love is. I wouldn’t be very surprised, because it doesn’t consist in great delight but in desiring with strong determination to please God in everything…” ([[tj-ic-ccel-05|IV, 1:7]]).. ### Chapter 2 •       Teresa uses the image of two water troughs to explain the difference between consolations and spiritual delight (two sources of prayer — acquired and supernatural). One trough is filled with the help of aqueducts from far away (acquired) and the other is filled from an abundant spring whose source is located at the trough itself (supernatural). She says the consolations are like the water coming from the aqueducts; they require human effort in the form of meditation, recollection, etc. Spiritual delights are like the abundant spring. They flow from God (in the center) and are accompanied by peace and quiet in the interior part of the soul (see IV, 2:3-4). •       Thus, in the fourth dwelling places, the soul discovers for the first time its own “center” and participates in its expansion of heart. “I was now thinking, while writing this, that the verse mentioned above, ‘when you enlarged my heart,’ - says the heart was expanded. I don’t think the experience is something, as I say, that rises from the heart, but from another part still more interior, as from something deep. I think this must be the center of the soul… For certainly I see secrets within ourselves that have often caused me to marvel. And how many more there must be!” ([[tj-ic-ccel-05|IV, 2:5]]). In finding the center, Teresa bursts out in prayer: _Oh, my Lord and my God, how great are your grandeurs! We go about here below like foolish shepherds, for while it seems that we are getting some knowledge of You it must amount to no more than nothing; for even in our own selves there are great secrets that we don’t understand. I say “no more than nothing” because I’m comparing it to the many, many secrets that are in You, not because grandeurs we see in You are not extraordinary; and that includes those we can attain knowledge of through Your works”_ ([[tj-ic-ccel-05|IV, 2:5]]). • “The very experience of it makes us realize that it is not of the same metal as we ourselves but fashioned from the purest gold of the divine wisdom. Here, in my opinion, the faculties are not united but absorbed and looking as though in wonder at what they see” ([[tj-ic-ccel-05|IV, 2:6]]). **Note:** Teresa reminds the reader again of the concept of “who we are” and the soul’s marvelous capacity for God. • Teresa adds that the true value of prayer is in the effects and deeds that follow: “It seems clear to me that the will must in some way be united with God’s will. But it is in the **effects and deeds** following afterward that one discerns the true value of prayer…” ([[tj-ic-ccel-05|IV, 2:8]]). (emphasis added). • Teresa continues to give practical advice on how to walk in [[spiritual-delights|Spiritual Delights]]: **First**, practice humility; **second**, one must love God without self-interest; **third**, the authentic preparation for these favors is to prepare oneself for unexpected calamity — ready to accept anything that life brings — and imitate the Lord, rather than to desire or expect spiritual delight. One’s own efforts or striving after these delights would be useless anyway, since the favors are a pure gift. Teresa believes the Lord will give spiritual delight and many other favors to those who humble themselves and are detached (see IV, 2:8-10). “*I really believe that whoever humbles himself and is detached (I mean in fact because the detachment and humility must not be just in our thoughts—for they often deceive us—but complete) will receive the favor of this water from the Lord and many other favors that we don’t know how to desire. May He be forever praised and blessed, amen*” ([[tj-ic-ccel-05|IV, 2:10]]). ### Chapter 3 • Although the soul can do nothing to initiate the spiritual delights, it can in fact cultivate a place where such prayerful moments with God can happen. Thus, instead of seeking God in external things, the soul begins to seek God within. Like a good shepherd with a whistle so gentle, God calls the soul to make this inward journey, and the soul recognizes the Beloved’s voice and follows (see IV, 3:2). “… It is a great help to seek God within where He is found more easily and, in a way, more beneficial to us than when sought in creatures...” ([[tj-ic-ccel-05|IV, 3:3]]). • This inward searching takes the form of a “gentle drawing inward (like) a turtle drawing into its shell…so that the soul instead of striving to engage in discourse strives to remain attentive and aware of what the Lord is working in it” ([[tj-ic-ccel-05|IV, 3:3]]-[[tj-ic-ccel-05|4]]). •       Teresa beautifully explains the concept of expansion of the soul with an image of a fount that does not overflow but expands. The more God pours into the soul, the greater its capacity becomes, keeping everything within itself. The soul is not as tied down as it was before in things pertaining to the service of God, but has much more freedom. While the fear of offending God increases, servile fear and worldly fears are gone, and the soul is given great courage (see IV, 3:9). ## **Summary** To grow in this way (interior prayer and self-knowledge) requires an ongoing dedication to change one’s habits and behaviors. Human growth in the deepest sense is the continuous exploration of human potentiality, especially the capacity to love. Compassion — the impulse to love and serve others as well as self — is possible only through the full integration of wisdom of the heart and dilation of its capacity to feel deeply. Teresa emphasizes that it would be incorrect to think of the “spiritual delights” as merely a set of experiences with no lasting effect in the soul. Having known through experience the healing power of God’s grace, the soul can now move towards joy and true delight in God and others (see Entering Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle). “_The Carmelite Secular will make sure to have special times set apart for prayer, as times of greater awareness of the Lord’s presence and an interior space for a personal and intimate meeting with Him. This will lead to prayer as an attitude of life, that will ‘always and everywhere recognize God..., seek His will in every event, see Christ in all people whether they be a relative or a stranger, and make correct judgments about the true meaning and value of temporal things both in themselves [self-knowledge] and in their relation to humankind’s final goal. Thus, they will achieve a union of contemplation and action in history, integrating faith and life, prayer and action, contemplation and Christian commitment_” (OCDS Const. Art. 20). --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation II Year B: The Interior Castle (The Seven Dwelling Places)* (US National Formation Program, 2024).