Chapter 17 Summary and Analysis

Teresa devotes the fifth chapter on the Sixth dwelling to describing another state of rapture in which bravery becomes much more necessary. In it, the soul is whisked away with startling speed like a tiny boat being lifted up by a quickly rising flood of water. This whisking away teaches the soul by quick impression a thousand different things equally hard to explain. The distinction between this rapture and the last is that this one makes living much more painful, seemingly meaningless to her in light of her magnificent revelation. To comfort her, God leaves her a token of her visit, like those the Israelites received when they visited the Promised Land. The first is knowledge of the greatness of God, the second is the humility of clarified self-knowledge and the third is a loss of appetite for worldly things. These...