CONTENTS. Prologue 1 I. Childhood and early Impressions — The Blessing of pious Parents — Desire of Martyrdom — Death of the Saint's Mother 2 II. Early Impressions — Dangerous Books and Companions — The Saint is placed in a Monastery 6 III. The Blessing of being with good People — How certain Illusions wore removed 12 IV. Our Lord helps her to become a Nun — Her many Infirmities 15 V. Illness and Patience of the Saint — The Story of a Priest whom she rescued from a Life of Sin 22 VI. The great Debt she owed to our Lord for His Mercy to her — She takes S. Joseph for her Patron 30 VII. Lukewarmness — The Loss of Grace — Inconvenience of Laxity in Religious Houses 37 VIII. The Saint ceases not to pray — Prayer the way to recover what is lost — All exhorted to pray — The great Advantage of Prayer, even to those who may have ceased from it 51 IX. The Means whereby our Lord quickened her Soul, gave her Light in her Darkness, and made her strong in Goodness 58 X. The Graces she received in Prayer — What we can do ourselves — The great Importance of understanding what our Lord is doing for us — She desires her Confessors to keep her Writings secret, because of the special Graces of our Lord to her, which they had commanded her to describe 63 XI. Why Men do not attain quickly to the perfect Love of God — Of four Degrees of Prayer — Of the first Degree — The Doctrine profitable for Beginners, and for those who have no sensible Sweetness 70 XII. What we can ourselves do — The Evil of desiring to attain to supernatural States before our Lord calls us 80 XIII. Of certain Temptations of Satan — Instructions relating thereto 84 XIV. The second State of Prayer — Its supernatural Character 96 XV. Instructions for 'those who have attained to the Prayer of Quiet — Many advance so far, but few go farther 103 XVI. The third State of Prayer — Deep Matters — What the Soul can do that has reached it — Effects of the great Graces of our Lord 113 XVII. The third State of Prayer — The Effects thereof — The Hindrance caused by the Imagination and the Memory 119 XVIII. The fourth State of Prayer — The great Dignity of the Soul raised to it by our Lord — Attainable on Earth, not by our Merit, but by the Goodness of our Lord 124 XIX. The Effects of this fourth State of Prayer — Earnest Exhortations to those who have attained to it not to go back, nor to cease from Prayer, even if they fall — The great Calamity of going back 132 XX. The Difference between Union and Rapture — What Rapture is — The Blessing it is to the Soul — The Effects of it 142 XXI. Conclusion of the Subject — Pain of the Awakening — Light against Delusions 158 XXII. The Security of Contemplatives lios in their not ascending to high Things if our Lord does not raise them — The Sacred Humanity must be the Road to the highest Contemplation — A Delusion in which the Saint was once entangled 164 XXIII. The Saint resumes the History of her Life — Aiming at Perfection — Means whereby it may be gained — Instructions for Confessors 176 XXIV. Progress under Obedience — Her Inability to resist the Graces of God — God multiplies His Graces 186 XXV. Divine Locutions — Delusions on that Subject 191 XXVI. How the Fears of the Saint vanished — How she was assured that her Prayer was the Work of the Holy Spirit 203 XXVII. The Saint prays to be directed by a different Way — Intellectual Visions 208 XXVIII. Visions of the Sacred Humanity and of the glorified Bodies — Imaginary Visions — Great Fruits thereof when they come from God 219 XXIX. Of Visions — The Graces our Lord bestowed on the Saint — The Answers our Lord gave her for those who tried her 230 XXX. S. Peter of Alcantara comforts the Saint — Great Temptations and Interior Trials 239 XXXI. Of certain outward Temptations and Appearances of Satan — Of the Sufferings thereby occasioned — Counsels for those who go on unto Perfection 252 XXXII. Our Lord shows S. Teresa the Place which she had by her Sins deserved in Hell — The Torments there — How the Monastery of S. Joseph was founded 265 XXXIII. The Foundation of the Monastery hindered — Our Lord consoles the Saint 274 XXXIV. The Saint leaves her Monastery of the Incarnation for a time, at the Command of her Superior — Consoles an afflicted Widow 284 XXXV. The Foundation of the House of S. Joseph — Observance of holy Poverty therein — How the Saint left Toledo 295 XXXVI. The Foundation of the Monastery of S. Joseph — Persecution and Temptations — Great interior Trial of the Saint, and her Deliverance 304 XXXVII. The Effects of the divine Graces in the Soul — The inestimable Greatness of one Degree of Glory 320 XXXVIII. Certain heavenly Secrets, Visions, and Revelations — The Effects of them in her Soul 327 XXXIX. Other Graces bestowed on the Saint — The Promises of our Lord to her — Divine Locutions and Visions 342 XL. Visions, Revelations, and Locutions 356 THE RELATIONS. I. Sent to S. Peter of Alcantara in 1560 from the Monastery of the Incarnation, Avila 373 II. To one of her Confessors, from the House of Dona Luisa de la Cerda, in 1562 386 III. Of various Graces granted to the Saint from the year 1568 to 1571 inclusive 392 IV. Of the Graces the Saint received in Salamanca at the end of Lent 1571 400 V. Observations on certain Points of Spirituality 403 VI. The Vow of Obedience to Father Gratian which the Saint made in 1575 409 VII. Made for Rodrigo Alvarez, S.J., in the year 1575, according to Don Vicente de la Fuente ; but in 1576, according to the Bollandists and F. Bouix 412 VIII. Addressed to F. Rodrigo Alvarez 421 IX. Of certain spiritual Graces she received in Toledo and Avila in the years 1576 and 1577 430 X. Of a Revelation to the Saint at Avila, 1579, and of certain Directions concerning the Government of the Order 439 XI. Written from Palenciain May 1581, and addressed to Don Alonzo Velasquez, Bishop of Osma, who had been, when Canon of Toledo, one of the Saint's Confessors 440 Digitized by Google.

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