Spiritual Engagement and Satan's Counterattack — The Interior Castle

Teresa resumes the little dove metaphor, explaining that prayer of union resembles spiritual betrothal rather than final marriage: God and the soul have agreed on the alliance, He visits briefly, and the soul secretly knows its Bridegroom in a way the senses could never learn in a thousand years. Yet this is precisely the danger zone. Before spiritual nuptials in the next mansion, the betrothed know one another only by sight, and the devil spares no pains to prevent the wedding. Teresa warns souls who have come this far not to grow careless, for they are not yet strong enough for temptation.

She knew advanced souls reclaimed by Satan's subtlety; all hell leagues together against them because one person's fall entails the perdition of many more, as martyrs and founders like Dominic, Francis, and Ignatius proved when their fidelity drew multitudes to God. Religious enclosure offers no guarantee: Judas walked with Christ Himself. The devil enters under pretext of good, leading souls through trivial defects into self-love until they follow their own will instead of God's. God may permit temptation to prove virtue early, before others could be harmed.

Safeguards are constant prayer, never trusting ourselves, and watching whether we advance in love of neighbor, desire to be least, and ordinary duties. God does not abandon such souls easily but sends secret warnings when they drift. Standing still in virtue is a very bad sign, for love is never idle. Teresa previews the sixth mansions, where Christ's brides see how little our service compares with the reward He offers.