Introduction to The Interior Castle: An Audio Study Guide

What is the Interior Castle, and how do you pray when your mind feels like a crowded attic? You already know that visceral tightening—the feeling that you are a spiritual fixer-upper, disqualified from holiness because you are too easily distracted. St. Teresa of Ávila wrote The Interior Castle in 1577 while suffering from severe tinnitus and under the heavy scrutiny of the Spanish Inquisition. She didn't write it for theologians sitting in comfortable libraries; she wrote it for the exhausted and the overwhelmed. In this overture to our One Good Book series, we explore Teresa’s central image: the soul as a diamond or very clear crystal. The spiritual life is not a ladder you climb to reach a distant God. It is centripetal—an inward journey to a King who is already waiting in the center room. You do not have to build the castle with perfect routines. The renovation is a lie. You only have to enter through the gate of prayer and reflection.This episode is for you if you have ever shaken the hourglass to make prayer time go faster, and wondered whether that disqualifies you from Catholic spiritual classics.The gate is ajar. Step over the threshold with us at justonegoodbook.com.