Way of perfection / St Teresa of Avila ; translated by E. Allison Peers

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Product DescriptionPublisher: London : Baker Publication date: 1919 Subjects: Lord's prayer Devotional literature Perfection -- Religious aspects Catholic Church God -- Worship and love Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.From Library JournalThe author was a Spanish Carmelite nun in the 16th century. Though designed primarily for others in her order, her guidelines for achieving a deeper sense of spirituality can be followed by anyone, although a good portion of her rules involve a more monastic lifestyle. Though few will go that far, she also provides her personal insights about using prayer to perfect one's relationship with God. The text of this edition has been slightly modernized by former LJ religion columnist Henry Carrigan.Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.Review" . . . the editor succeeds in presenting Teresa's teachings with clarity and grace. Modern readers will welcome this accessible new edition." --Cathleen Medwick, author of Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a SoulFrom the Inside FlapA guide to living by the great truths of Christianity--the simplest and most practical work of Teresa of Avila.From the PublisherA guide to living by the great truths of Christianity--the simplest and most practical work of Teresa of Avila.About the AuthorMother Teresa won many awards, including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. After her death in 1997, a popular movement for her canonization quickly sprung up, and she was beatified in 2003.Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.Chapter IOf the reason which moved me to found this convent in such strict observance.When this convent1 was originally founded, for the reasons set down in the book which, as I say, I have already written, and also because of certain wonderful revelations by which the Lord showed me how well He would be served in this house, it was not my intention that there should be so much austerity in external matters, nor that it should have no regular income: on the contrary, I should have liked there to be no possibility of want. I acted, in short, like the weak and wretched woman that I am, although I did so with good intentions and not out of consideration for my own comfort.At about this time there came to my notice the harm and havoc that were being wrought in France by these Lutherans and the way in which their unhappy sect was increasing.2 This troubled me very much,3 and, as though I could do anything, or be of any help in the matter, I wept before the Lord and entreated Him to remedy this great evil. I felt that I would have laid down a thousand lives to save a single one of all the souls that were being lost there. And, seeing that I was a woman, and a sinner,4 and incapable of doing all I should like in the Lord's service, and as my whole yearning was, and still is, that, as He has so many enemies and so few friends, these last should be trusty ones, I determined to do the little that was in me--namely, to follow the evangelical counsels as perfectly as I could, and to see that these few nuns who are here should do the same, confiding in the great goodness of God, Who never fails to help those who resolve to forsake everything for His sake. As they are all that I have ever painted them5 as being in my desires, I hoped that their virtues would more than counteract my defects, and I should thus be able to give the Lord some pleasure, and all of us, by busying ourselves in prayer for those who are defenders of the Church, and for the preachers and learned men who defend her, should do everything we could to aid this Lord of mine Who is so much oppressed by those to whom He has shown so much good that it seems as though these