Chapter 9 Summary and Analysis

The discussion of the Fifth Dwelling introduces the reader to the concept of the Prayer of Union. Teresa describes it as the state in which one is so deeply in the presence of God that she is removed from her senses and reason. She dies to her own desires in complete absorption in worship and unity with God. Even if the mind were to try to understand the experience she was having, it would not be able to grasp it in any kind of useful way, so it remains stunned and removed from the experience. Nonetheless, she acknowledges a skepticism that remains in the mind about the reality and sacredness of such a foreign experience and calls it a good and healthy thing. It is still possible in the early rooms of the Fifth Dwelling for the soul to be deceived...