In 1577, St. Teresa of Avila completed what is heralded as her seminal work on mental prayer, meditation, and contemplation in the Interior Castle. This
The other day I was feeling disgusted at the depravity of our culture. I am an idealist. I would like the world to be perfect,
Editor’s Note: As we approach the Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel this coming week, it is appropriate to consider a Carmelite prayer. Our
Dear Father John, in the first part of your book, The Better Part, you mention something about preparing for tomorrow’s meditation the night before. I
Dear Saint Teresa, I have read a number of books on prayer that advocate methods of suppressing, shutting down, or eliminating thinking altogether during prayer.
MENTAL PRAYER: The form of prayer in which the sentiments expressed are one’s own and not those of another person, and the expression of these
MEDITATION: Reflective prayer. It is that form of mental prayer in which the mind, in God’s presence, thinks about God and divine things. While the
Prayer of Simplicity: What is it? (Part I of III) Dear Father John, I’ve heard that the prayer of simplicity is a kind of a
What is Spiritual Theology? There is a lot of diverse opinions on this topic. Probably the best explanation is provided by Jordan Aumann, O.P., in
Recently, Dan received an interesting question and after we talked about it, I asked whether I might respond. Here is the question: “Is the terminology
