The Way of Prayer: A Commentary on Saint Teresa's Way of Perfection

by Father Gabriel

This acclaimed commentary on Saint Teresa of Avila's classic work, Way of Perfection , discusses the various forms of Christian prayer, with an emphasis on Teresa's meditation on the Our Father. The author, a renowned expert on Carmelite spirituality, includes many quotations from Saint Teresa and Saint John of the Cross, which have been conformed to the most current authorized translations. Teresa of Avila reformed the Carmelite order in the sixteenth century. Seeing Teresa in deep prayer, her first companions asked her to teach them how to pray. The apostles made the same request of "Teach us to pray." Jesus answered by teaching the Our Father. Teresa responded to her sisters by writing Way of Perfection , which contains an extended commentary upon the Lord's Prayer. As Jesus did in his Sermon on the Mount, Teresa, in her Way of Perfection , first teaches the necessary dispositions for prayer before teaching the different kinds of prayer. Named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970, Teresa united not only prayer and the apostolate, but contemplation and the apostolate, for contemplation is a particular kind of prayer that tends toward the most sublime intimacy with our Lord.

Genres: Catholic, Prayer, Theology, Spirituality, Religion

207 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 13, 2016

Reviews

[booklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

January 2024: Listened to this a second time in preparation for being Formator for our Formation I group. I got so much more out of it this time. I want to listen to it at least one more time before February, outlining the various types of prayer to prepare (a) handout(s) for our sessions.


June 22, 2023: Fr. John Magdelene Suenram from the Carmelite Center in Dallas gave three talks to our community this past weekend on mortification. One of them was specifically taken from the writings of Teresa of Ávila, especially, The Way of Perfection. It reminded me that I have forgotten SO much about this amazing book from our foundress. Since I have been meaning to read this commentary on her first book on prayer, I thought it would be good to start with this and it was!

There were phrases and words Father used which I do not remember hearing before, but I will never forget now, such as: 'Penance without love is the penance of the beasts.' Other things I recalled immediately but was glad to hear them again, such as: to keep before us our aim, the desire to remain with Him alone. Our motivation is love. How do we prove our love for God? By spending time with Him and by our attentiveness to prayer. Prayer is the special way of the Carmelites!

And, the three things Teresa stresses that help us to possess inwardly and outwardly the peace our Lord recommended are: 1) love for one another; 2) detachment from all created things and 3) true humility, which she insists, though it is last, is the main practice and embraces all the others.

There is much more to this book, but I confess I raced through this just to get to The Way of Perfection but will keep this close by and may add more to the review later as I go through Teresa's book. This is an excellent guide!

[Kaylee Ireland · Rating 5 out of 5]

an alternative title for this book may be ‘the way of perfection for dummies’. Fr Gabriel brought out many of the wonderful insights from Teresa’s ‘Way of Perfection’ in a way that does not intimidate readers who desire to be holy & saints. This book causes the reader to look at themselves honestly in their spiritual life & where the Lord is desiring to go deeper for our own holiness.

[Diego Estrada · Rating 5 out of 5]

¡GRAN LIBRO! Creo que me ayudó a entender o recordar los highlights de “Camino de Perfección”. Hay unas partes que creo son muy duras y para los escrupulosos no es lo mejor…

Capítulos cortos y muy profundos la verdad. Si quieres dirección en tu oración y tienes miedo a leer a Sta Teresa, this is the way!