Teresa of Avila: Ecstasy and Common Sense

The words of Saint Teresa of Ávila speak to the heart so directly that even four hundred years after her death she seems like our contemporary. Few people have ever written of the spiritual path with such immediacy, down-to-earth wisdom, and humor. Mother Tessa Bielecki has brought together here short selections from Teresa's collected works—including The Way of Perfection, The Interior Castle, her autobiography, poetry, meditations, and letters—to create a living portrait of Teresa and her exuberant spirituality. Teresa's striving for divine union was inseparable from her passionate involvement in the hardships and joys of the everyday—which makes her an eminently worthy model for modern people who seek to integrate spirituality and the rest of life.