Teresa returns to the fourth mansions to describe the prayer of recollection that usually precedes divine consolations. Unlike ordinary meditation, this gathering is supernatural: without retiring or shutting the eyes, the soul suddenly finds solitude as senses loosen and, without any labour of one's own, the interior temple rises for prayer. She compares scattered faculties to castle inhabitants who wandered outside until the King, like a good Shepherd playing sweetly on His pipe, recalls the flock and worldly cares drop away.
Seeking God within avails more than hunting Him among creatures, yet imagining His presence is not the same gift; sometimes the soul enters the castle before it even thought of God, hearing no sound yet tasting delicious recollection. Teresa resists books that order blank minds before God speaks unless He has already suspended the faculties; she agrees with Peter of Alcantara that the mind must act until love calls it inward, for he who reasons less and tries to do least does most in spiritual matters. Petition like a beggar before a rich Emperor, then wait humbly; if the King shows no sign, do not stand inert as a dolt, since forced emptiness worsens dryness and excites imagination.
Human effort avails little in what God reserves; painful restraint harms more than helps, and the soul should abandon itself into His hands, letting faculties work until divinely called higher while forgetting self-interest for God's glory. Recollection does not end meditation, but contrasts with quiet prayer where the spring overflows while the mind staggers bewildered and the will rests united with God; engaging distractions can cost much of the favor. Consolations enlarge the soul like water filling a basin without outlet, producing liberty of spirit, stronger faith, less servile fear, hunger for penance, contempt for earthly pleasure, and deeper humility, yet welfare depends on receiving them continually.
Souls must guard against sin like nurslings leaving the breast; Teresa witnessed falls among those who stopped praying, for the devil would rather gain one of these privileged souls than many lesser ones since their ruin scandalizes others. She exposes counterfeit raptures in weak bodies: women mistaking languor for trance, wasting hours neither insensible nor thinking of God; she prescribes food, sleep, shortened prayer, and active obedience. Overactive imaginations risk dangerous visions here where natural and supernatural mingle and Satan finds rich openings, though genuine favors leave the soul delighted near God for only brief moments while the body suffers no lasting harm.
Coming Up in Chapter 8
Next Teresa enters the fifth mansions, where the prayer of union suspends the soul entirely, deprives the senses for a brief delicious death, and leaves a certitude afterward that no counterfeit trance or director's doubt can ever erase..
