St. Teresa of Avila on Reaching the Seventh Dwelling Place

Spiritual Life, Summer 2006 by Zundel, Alan F

IN THE CHURCH OF ST. MARIA BELLA VITTORIA in Rome, there is a famous statue by Bernini of St. Teresa of Avila in ecstasy being pierced by an angel with a golden spear, a scene based on the account of the episode in her autobiography.1 The association between St. Teresa and exotic mystical experiences such as visions, raptures, and spiritual ecstasies is perhaps as strong as the association of St. John of the Cross with the dark night of the soul. But St. Teresa herself downplayed such experiences as not being the aim of the spiritual life and did not want people to focus on them. Rather, the aim of the spiritual life is something more difficult for the mind to imagine: union of the soul with God.

Teresa must be held partially responsible for feeding the interest in unusual spiritual experiences, as much of her writing is spent discussing them. But because her writings were done hurriedly-often under the order of superiors and without much time for planning and revision-we should be careful in reading them in order to correct for any imbalance of emphasis that resulted from the circumstances of her writing, so that we might fully profit from her spiritual advice.

My aim here is to do a careful reading of Teresa's most important work, The Interior Castle, in order to highlight her description of union with God and her advice on how to reach that state. These elements of the book are found in scattered passages that could easily be lost amid discussion of the more exotic spiritual phenomena. In my analysis, I will focus on what seems to be the most difficult part of the spiritual journey-the passage from the fourth to the seventh dwelling place in the interior castle of the human soul.

The Interior Castle: A Brief Overview

The Interior Castle is based on an extended metaphor of the soul as a castle with many rooms or dwelling places, following Jesus' words in Jn 14:2: "In my Father's house there are many dwelling places":

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.2

Advancement in the spiritual life is represented as moving from the outermost to the innermost of seven dwelling places within the soul. The gate of entry to the castle is "prayer and reflection."3 Inside the castle, the first three dwelling places correspond with the early stages of the spiritual life when much effort must be applied, while the other four correspond with the advanced stages where God's action is more apparent.

First to Fourth Dwelling Places

With the entrance into the first dwelling place comes the beginning of self-knowledge and thus also the virtue of humility. With continued prayer and by striving to give up preoccupation with the things of the world, we progress to the second dwelling place. There the soul must avoid occasions of sin and seek out good influences in order to avoid regressing and also persevere through dryness and distractions in prayer. By the time the soul reaches the third dwelling place, it is careful to avoid sin and engage in virtue, "doing penance and setting aside periods for recollection"; Teresa also states that "there is no reason why entrance even into the final dwelling place should be denied these souls, nor will the Lord deny them this entrance if they desire it."4 Yet "some souls and even many" do not progress because they become greatly disturbed by a minor loss of wealth, honor, or health, rather than accepting such trials in humility.5 To develop humility, Teresa advises those in the religious state to be "prompt in obedience" to their superiors, and those who are not in the religious state to seek out a good spiritual director, "so as not to do their own will in anything."6 They should also look to their own faults rather than the faults of others.

The fourth dwelling place marks a turning point, for "supernatural experiences" begin here.7 There is no rule as to how long it takes to pass through the other dwelling places and arrive at this one, for that is up to God. The soul begins to experience an interior sense of recollection even when the mind is busy and distracted, and at times "spiritual delights" will well up within the soul and the mind will be briefly suspended. This happens by God's grace alone and not because any meditations or reflections are being practiced. What disposes the soul properly to receive such favors is that it is not seeking them but rather is loving God without self-interest and desires to imitate Christ in his suffering. Early in this stage the soul will experience a "gentle drawing inward" of the senses and faculties during prayer, as though summoned within by a shepherd's whistle, with no effort of its own.8 This is a preparation for paying attention to the work of God within:

And without any effort or noise the soul should strive to cut down the rambling of the intellect-but not suspend either it or the mind.... One should let the intellect go and surrender oneself into the arms of love, for His Majesty will teach the soul what it must do at that point. Almost everything lies in finding oneself unworthy of so great a good and in being occupied with giving thanks.9