The Book of Her Foundations is the least read, the least quoted, the least known of St. Teresa's works. Why this is so is probably because people do not think it is a spiritual book. But as you read on, you find that St. Teresa grew in holiness, not in spite of obstacles such as being entangled in lawsuits, mired down in disputes over dowries, tied up in interminable bureaucratic red-tape, and having to deal with unscrupulous businessmen, but because of these difficulties. None of these challenges impeded her spiritual growth. This study guide will help us to see how Teresa grew in holiness in the marketplace as much as in the cloister, perhaps even more so. None of us has been called to found convents, but like Teresa all of us are called to practice virtue and grow in holiness within the fray of daily life.

The Way of Transformation is a play on the title of St. Teresa’s classic The Way of Perfection. Written for her Discalced Carmelite nuns, it is nonetheless considered Teresa’s “operations manual” for anyone genuinely committed to the spiritual life. But by “perfection” she doesn’t intend the futile pursuit of idealized flawlessness, as some might think. Rather, Teresa means achieving an authentic human fulfillment—a true becoming of that person we are meant to be. Offering a fresh perspective on St. Teresa’s thought, Father Mark O’Keefe draws our attention to the central fact that she considers the virtues—especially love of neighbor, detachment, and humility—as the essential and ever-relevant foundation for her spirituality of prayer. This very human Doctor of the Church teaches that—whether in the 16th century or the 21st— prayer is intimately and necessarily linked with personal transformation. Authentic prayer is never divorced from our daily living: God, Teresa reminds us, “walks among the pots and pans.” With attention-catching quotations, helpful questions for personal reflection or group discussion, and its comprehensive index, The Way of Transformation is an excellent resource for any serious student of St. Teresa of Jesus and a must-read for everyone looking to explore Christian spirituality and prayer more deeply and authentically.

"The Divine Romance is a commentary on St. Teresa of Ávila's four major prose works: Book of Her Life, Way of Perfection, Interior Castle, and Foundations. It offers a new interdisciplinary approach to Teresa's texts, proposing that the form in which Teresa's spiritual theology is presented in her writings is narrative. The introduction provides biographical data about Teresa and places Teresa and her writing in the context of her time. The book also includes a bibliographical guide to the works about Teresa that have been published in the last ten years." --book jacket, inside front flap.

An Irish quarterly review.