This famous spiritual classic makes known St. Teresa's wonderful combination of common sense, strong Catholic Faith, and amazing spiritual energy. In this book, she shares her own ardent spirit, encouraging us in our efforts to serve God and assuring us that these efforts will be rewarded far beyond what we could ever imagine. St. Teresa gives many fascinating insights into the spiritual life regarding relatives, confessors, health, the snares of Satan, supernatural vs. natural love, and more. She also explains what contemplation is and how it differs from ordinary mental and vocal prayer. In the process, she analyzes the Our Father phrase by phrase, explaining how to transform our vocal prayer into mental prayer. St. Teresa assures us that those who practice this simple mental prayer may hope that God will grant them the "prayer of quiet," which is the beginning of contemplation and of God's heavenly "Kingdom" enjoyed even on this earth.

A Study Edition, with Introduction, Commentary, Discussion Questions, Glossary, and a fully linked Index. St. Teresa of Avila is an unsurpassed teacher of Christian prayer and spirituality, and in The Way of Perfection she is at her best. Now, with the help of this study edition, everyone can enjoy the benefits of her wisdom. In The Way of Perfection, St. Teresa gives practical counsels and advice on prayer, destined originally for the few nuns who embraced the reformed Carmelite life she established. As a handbook for spiritual formation, it presented them with the basic Christian spirituality undergirding their Constitutions and Rule. Over the centuries, the book's appeal has reached far beyond the walls of Carmelite monasteries, and The Way of Perfection has become a spiritual classic. More and more today, Teresa's instructions speak to all those interested in prayer, providing them with basic guidelines for praying and showing how to avoid potential pitfalls. But as the readership and interest grow, so does the need for some help in working with this sixteenth-century text. The principles and teachings in Teresa's book, first presented within the limited horizons of her own situation, clearly lend themselves to broader applications, and can work well in all walks of life. This study edition-with its introduction, commentary, notes, discussion questions, glossary, and a fully linked Index-provides what is needed to assist contemporary readers in making these applications and delving more deeply into the text's spiritual riches.

God has worked into every human heart a deep desire for perfection. That desire is manifested in the admiration which all men have for excellence in the different objects or pursuits to which they attach value. In the believer who yields himself wholly to God, this desire fastens itself upon God's wonderful promises, and inspires a prayer like that of M'Cheyne: "Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be made." The more we learn to desire this full conformity to God's will, for the consciousness that we are always pleasing to Him, we will see that all this must come as a gift direct from heaven. This gift is the full outbirth in us of the life of God, the inbreathing of the Holy Spirit of Jesus in those who are wholly yielded to His indwelling and rule. Trusting ever less to men's thoughts and teachings, we will retire often into the secret of God's presence, in the assurance that the more we see God's face, and hear the secret voice that comes direct from Him, "BE PERFECT," the more will the Holy Spirit dwelling within us unfold the heavenly fulness and power of the words, and make them, as God's words, bring and give and create the very thing He speaks. In the hope that these simple meditations may help some of God's children to go on to Perfection, I commit them and myself to the Blessed Father's teaching and keeping. by Andrew Murray