I have started reading "The Interior Castle" St Theresa of Avila,
and have read the first chapter, anyone who wants to join in reading this book with me is welcome, as I could use some help understanding it ( it was written for nuns or women only). I read this book because I find quotes of St Theresa full of uncommon wisdom and common sense "I want to see God, and to see God I must die". I think this saint can aid one in developing a life of contemplative prayer. I will read the other books on the list in time.
What the writer says:---
So far she says, that unless we consider who it is that we address in prayer, that He is Almighty God, and we the "worms", that our prayer is not to be considered as prayer. We address Him with the ease we would address a slave of ours.
The first mansion is the basement of the castle.
It is where souls who are still worldly enter, but those who have some taste of God, who think of the welfare of their souls every now and then, who pray "a few times a month" ( pray as in St Theresas meaning )
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Conclusion I draw:
The first mansion is the state of those who can be likened to those who after a long lapse in faith, hear again the gospel and receive it willingly, or who receive an infusion of the holy spirit through sincere confession, or who do some good deed and are rewarded by grace, or who abstain from sin and receive the enlightenment of the holy spirit as a result, drawing them ever closer to God, who is in the 7th mansion, inside the castle, the fortress of the faith.
:reading: