Chapter 7 Summary and Analysis

The next chapter begins with a discussion Teresa touched on earlier. She had been discussing the physical effects of spiritual consolations, like fits of sobbing and fidgety limbs and says that while she has never experienced such things, she is sure they must be very comforting, as they are manifestations of having basked in the presence of God. Spiritual sweetness, she explains, is quite different.

She begins with the metaphor of water, an element she has spent a good deal of time contemplating. In the case of consolations, water reaches the basin that collects it after following a complicated and carefully engineered collection of conduits. In the case of sweetness, the source of the water is just next to the collecting basin, and it fills it so abundantly, that the water streams out of the basin and forms a continuously bubbling...