Life of St Teresa of Jesus

Life of St Teresa of Jesus

Project Gutenberg's The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, by Teresa of Avila
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Title: The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
Author: Teresa of Avila
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8120] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 16, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE
OF ST. TERESA OF JESUS ***

Produced by Elizabeth T. Knuth

The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

Transcriber's Note: Corrections suggested in the Corrigenda, p. [viii] of
the original text, have been made. Section number added for L 3.9,
since both the translator's preface and the index refer to it. Footnotes
gathered at the ends of chapters. Typographical errors in two Scriptural
quotations have been corrected: In L 21 note 10, I have changed "Quæ
præparavit Deus iis qui" to "Quæ præparavit Deus his qui;" and in L 29
note 12, I have changed "As the longing of the heart" to "As the
longing of the hart."

The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
Re-imprimatur. + Franciscus Archiepiscopus Westmonast.
Die 27 Sept., 1904.

The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel.
Written by Herself.
Translated from the Spanish by David Lewis.
Third Edition Enlarged.
With additional Notes and an Introduction by Rev. Fr. Benedict
Zimmerman, O.C.D.
London: Thomas Baker. New York: Benziger Bros. MCMIV.

Contents.
Chap.
Introduction to the Third Edition, by Rev. B. Zimmerman
St. Teresa's Arguments of the
Chapters

Preface by David Lewis
Annals of the Saint's Life
Prologue
I. Childhood and early Impressions--The Blessing of pious
Parents--Desire of Martyrdom--Death of the Saint's Mother
II. Early Impressions--Dangerous Books and Companions--The Saint is
placed in a Monastery
III. The Blessing of being with good people--How certain Illusions
were removed
IV. Our Lord helps her to become a Nun--Her many Infirmities
V. Illness and Patience of the Saint--The Story of a Priest whom she
rescued from a Life of Sin
VI. The great Debt she owed to our Lord for His Mercy to her--She
takes St. Joseph for her Patron
VII. Lukewarmness--The Loss of Grace--Inconvenience of Laxity in
Religious Houses
VIII. The Saint ceases not to pray--Prayer the way to recover what is
lost--All exhorted to pray--The great Advantage of Prayer, even to
those who may have ceased from it
IX. The means whereby our Lord quickened her Soul, gave her Light in
her Darkness, and made her strong in Goodness
X. The Graces she received in Prayer--What we can do ourselves--The
great Importance of understanding what our Lord is doing for us--She
desires her Confessors to keep her Writings secret, because of the
special Graces of our Lord to her, which they had commanded her to
describe

XI. Why men do not attain quickly to the perfect Love of God--Of Four
Degrees of Prayer--Of the First Degree--The Doctrine profitable for
Beginners, and for those who have no sensible Sweetness
XII. What we can ourselves do--The Evil of desiring to attain to
supernatural States before our Lord calls us
XIII. Of certain Temptations of Satan--Instructions relating thereto
XIV. The Second State of Prayer--Its supernatural Character
XV. Instructions for those who have attained to the Prayer of
Quiet--Many advance so far, but few go farther
XVI. The Third State of Prayer--Deep Matters--What the Soul can do
that has reached it--Effects of the great Graces of our Lord
XVII. The Third State of Prayer--The Effects thereof--The Hindrance
caused by the Imagination and the Memory
XVIII. The Fourth State of Prayer--The great Dignity of the Soul raised
to it by our Lord--Attainable on Earth, not by our Merit, but by the
Goodness of our Lord
XIX. The Effects of this Fourth State of Prayer--Earnest Exhortations
to those who have attained to it not to go back nor to cease from Prayer,
even if they fall--The