31Way of Perfection, ch. xxviii, 9. 32In her Life St. Teresa likened God to a diamond (ch. xl, 14); and elsewhere (ch. xi, 10) the soul to a garden wherein our Lord takes His delight. 33St. John xiv. 2: ‘In domo Patris mei mansiones multæ sunt.’ St. John of the Cross uses the same comparison: ‘If the soul shall overcome the devil in the first combat, it shall then pass on to the second; and if it shall be victorious there also, it shall then pass on to the third; and then through the seven mansions, the seven degrees of love, until the Bridegroom shall bring it to the “cellar of wine” of perfect charity.’
(Ascent of Mount Carmel, bk. ii. ch. xi. 7.) 34Prov. viii. 31: ‘Deliciæ meæ esse cum filiis hominum.’ 35Gen. i. 26: ‘Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram.’ 36Way of Perf. ch. xxviii. 37St. John of the Cross on the words of his stanza: ‘In the inner cellar of my Beloved have I drunk.’ ‘Here the soul speaks of that sovereign grace of God in taking it into the house of His love, which is the union or transformation of love in God...
The cellar is the highest degree of love to which the soul can attain in this life, and is therefore said to be the inner. It follows from this that there are other cellars not so interior; that is, the degrees of love by which souls reach to this, the last. These cellars are seven in number, and the soul has entered them all when it has in perfection the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, so far as it is possible for it.... Many souls reach and enter the first cellar, each according to the perfection of its love, but the last and inmost cellar is entered by few in this world, because therein is wrought the perfect union with God, the union of the spiritual marriage.’
A Spiritual Canticle, stanza xxvi. 1-3. Concept. ch. vi. (Minor Works of St. Teresa.) 38St. Matt. xx. 15: ‘Alit non licet mihi quod volo, facere? an oculus tuus nequam est, quia ego bonus sum?’ 39St. John ix. 2: ‘Quis peccavit, hic, aut parentes ejus, ut cæcus nasceretur?’ 40Imitation, bk. II. ch. 1: ‘Regnum Dei intra vos est.’ Luke. xvii. 21. The Imitation is one of the books which according to St. Teresa’s Constitutions, (§ 7) every prioress was bound to provide for her convent. 41Gen. xix. 26: ‘Respiciensque uxor ejus post se, versa est in statuam salis.’ 42Way of Perf. ch. xxi. 6; xxix. 4. 43St.
John v. 5: ‘Erat autem quidam homo ibi triginta et octo annos habens in infirmitate sua.’ 44St. Matt. vi. 21: ‘Ubi enim est thesaurus tuus ibi est et cor tuum. 45Many an ancient castle was provided with a bear-garden where rare animals were kept for the amusement of the inhabitants. This may have supplied the material for St. Teresa’s comparison. 46Life, ch. xxxviii. 31; ch. xl. 15. 47Ps. i. 3: ‘Et erit tamquam lignum quod plantatum eat secus decursus aquarum.’ 48Way of Perf. ch. xxviii. 9. 49In this as in most other cases when the Saint speaks of ‘a person she knows,’ she means herself.
Life, ch. xl, 15. 50cxxvi. 1: ’Nisi Dominus custodierit civitatem, frustra vigilat qui custodit eam.’ 51Life, ch. xxxviii. 33; ch. xl. 15, 16. 52Life, ch. x. 2 sqq. Constitut. 2, 6. 53Way of Perf.. ch. xxviii. 1. 54The palmito here referred to is not a palm, but a shrub about four feet high and very dense with leaves, resembling palm leaves. The poorer classes and principally children dig it up by the roots, which they peel of its many layers until a sort of kernel is disclosed, which is eaten, not without relish, and is somewhat like a filbert in taste.
See St. John of the Cross, Accent of Mount Carmel, bk. ii. ch, xiv, 3. 55Supra, § 3. 56Life, ch. viii. 6, x. 4, xxiii. 3-5. Way of Perf. ch. xxxix. 1. 57Life ch. xiii. 23. Way of Perf. ch. x. 4. Castle, M. iii. ch. ii. 8. Concep. ch. ii. 20. Const. 21. 58Life ch. xxxi. 23. 59No doubt the Saint often used this excellent comparison in her verbal instructions, but it occurs nowhere else in her writings. 60Way of Perf. ch. x. 5; xxxix. 4; Rel. iii. 12. 61The Saint must frequently have spoken on the subject, but she never treated it more fully than in this place.
Way of Perf. ch. xii. 7. Life, ch. xiii. 11, 14 sqq. Visitation of convents. 62Way of Perfection, ch. ii. 3. Visit. 20-22, 34, 36. 63’It is terrible to think what harm a Prioress can do! For although the Sisters witness things which scandalize them (of which there are plenty here!), yet they think it would be sinning against obedience to see any harm in them.’ (Letter to Father Gracian, written at Malagon at the beginning of December, 5579. Letters, Vol. III.)
Source: Interior Castle (CCEL)