How to Enter — Mental Prayer Is the Door

Teresa is emphatic: "the way to enter the castle is through the daily practice of mental prayer." Without mental prayer, you remain outside the castle or stuck in the outer rooms. Mental prayer is not complicated — it's a conversation with God using your mind and heart, not just rote words. (Ep 192, 412)

Catechism sources (PD) teaches:

When we trespass we enter places we should not, or where we are.

(Source: baltimore_catechism.txt)

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches:

Or take this explanation: The Jews were influenced by a kind of human sympathy for John, whom they were reluctant to see made subordinate to Christ, on account of the many marks of greatness about him; his illustrious descent in the first place, he being the son of a chief priest; in the next,.

(Source: catena_aurea_john.txt)

Doctrinal Foundation

T2.C.010 (De fide (defined dogma)): The human person is composed of two essential principles: a material body and a spiritual, immortal soul. The rational soul is the substantial form of the body. Each human soul is immediately created by God.

• Scripture: And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
• Aquinas: The soul is united to the body as its form. Indeed, the intellectual soul, since it can subsist of itself, is not a form whose being depends on matter.

T2.C.011 (De fide (defined dogma)): The rational soul of each human being is spiritual and immortal. It does not perish with the death of the body but continues to exist and will be reunited with the body at the general resurrection.

• Scripture: And the dust return into its earth, from whence it was, and the spirit return to God, who gave it.
• Aquinas: The human soul, which we call the intellectual principle, is incorruptible... The intellectual soul is per se subsistent, and cannot be corrupted.
• Councils: We condemn and reprobate all who assert that the intellectual soul is mortal... since the soul is not only truly of itself and essentially the form of the human body... but is also immortal.
• Fathers: The soul is immortal: for it is not the soul that dies, but the body through the departure of the soul.

From the Sources

St. Thomas Aquinas (catena_aurea_john.txt):

Or take this explanation: The Jews were influenced by a kind of human sympathy for John, whom they were reluctant to see made subordinate to Christ, on account of the many marks of greatness about him; his illustrious descent in the first place, he being the son of a chief priest; in the next, his hard training, and his contempt of the world. Whereas in Christ the contrary were apparent; a humble birth, for which they reproach Him; Is not this the carpenter’s son? an ordinary way of living;.

St. Thomas Aquinas (catena_aurea_john.txt):

Whence it is evident that even those who inquired of John, Why baptize you then? had Him among them. Or, the words, There stands one among you, are to be understood of mankind generally. For, from our character as rational beings, it follows that the word g exists in the center of us, because the heart, which is the spring of motion within us, is situated in the center of the body.

St. Teresa of Avila (book_of_foundations.txt):

First Mass said on the Feast of the Most Holy.

Trinity, 1576 . 204 XXIV. The Foundation of S. hea ‘of Carmel in the City of Seville : : : eee!

XXV. S. Joseph of Seville . : , ; ; i A228 XXVI. S. Joseph of Seville. Of the first nun who entered

the house 239 XXVII. The Foundation Sane Monastery of S. Joseph i in Gana 247 XXVIII. The Foundation of Villanueva de la Jara -, 1-205

XXIX. The Foundation of S. Joseph of our Lady of La Calle i in

St. Teresa of Avila (book_of_foundations.txt):

Saint was patient and gentle, and exercised her authority as if she had none; nevertheless she intended to be obeyed, and accordingly on the first chapter day the nuns On entering the choir saw the image of our Lady in.

al 5 . - . the seat of the prioress, and S. Teresa sitting at her feet.

The rebellious nuns were struck by a heavenly terror, and changed their minds : all signs and all desires of dis-

Additional Sources

St. John of the Cross (ascent_of_mount_carmel.txt):

The first cause of this night, the privation of the desire in all things .

CHAPTER IV. The necessity of passing truly through the dark night of sense, which is

the mortification of the desire, in order to enter on the road of union with God A a : i : . ‘ ‘

CIIAPTER V. Continuation of the same subject. Proofs from scripture of the necessity of drawing near unto God aha the dark might of mortified ee desires.

St. John of the Cross (ascent_of_mount_carmel.txt):

The necessity of freedom from all. desires, however slight, for the divine union . . . " t . . 7 . . . . 45 The nature of those desires which suffice to injure the soul, ° - §1 , How the soul enters by faith into the night of sense. ° ° « 55 Explanation of the second line of the stanza . ° ° ° 5 - 60 Explanation of the last lines 4» = 5 www gl lw BOOK II.

St. Francis de Sales (03_catholic_controversy.txt):

But above all I beg you never to let other passion enter your spirits than the passion of Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, by which we all have been redeemed and shall be saved, unless we are wanting on our part; since he desires that all.

St. Francis de Sales (03_catholic_controversy.txt):

PRETENDED CHURCH LEAVES BOTH THEM AND THEIR FOLLOWERS WITHOUT EXCUSE. First, then, your ministers had not the conditions required for the position which they sought to maintain, and the enterprise which they undertook.

St. Ignatius of Loyola (autobiography_oconor_1900.txt):

This was his first trial besides what has already been narrated, and it came upon him suddenly one day as he was entering the church. He was accustomed to hear Mass daily, and to assist at Vespers and Compline--devotions from which he derived much consolation.

St. Ignatius of Loyola (autobiography_oconor_1900.txt):

On noticing all this, he was surprised, wondering what could be the import of these changes which he had never before experienced, and he said to himself, "What new kind of life is this upon which I am entering?"

Catechism sources (PD) (baltimore_catechism.txt):

When we trespass we enter places we should not, or where we are forbidden to go. So when we sin we go where we should not go, viz., out of the path of virtue that leads to God, and into the way of vice that leads to the devil.

Catechism sources (PD) (baltimore_catechism.txt):

"Almighty," i.e., having all might or power; because He can do whatever He wishes. He can make or destroy by merely wishing. "Creator." To create means to make out of nothing. God alone can create. When a carpenter makes a table, he must have wood; when a tailor makes a coat, he must have cloth. They are only makers and not creators. God needs no material or tools. When we make anything, we make it part by part; but God makes the whole at once.