The Way of Perfection: Study Edition [includes Full Text of St. Teresa of Avila's Work, Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD]. This item is unavailable.The Way of Perfection: Study Edition [includes Full Text of St. Teresa of Avila's Work, Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD]

In The Way of Perfection, St. Teresa gives practical counsels and advice on prayer, destined originally for the nuns who embraced the reformed Carmelite life she established. As a handbook for spiritual formation, it presented them with the basic Christian spirituality undergirding their Constitutions and Rule. The principles and teachings in Teresa's book clearly lend themselves to broader applications, and can work well in all walks of life. This study editionwith its introduction, commentary, notes, discussion questions, and glossaryprovides what is needed to assist contemporary readers in making these applications and delving more deeply into the text's spiritual riches.

Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, was a Spanish nun and one of the great mystics and religious women of the Roman Catholic Church. She was the leader of the Carmelite Reform, which restored and emphasized the austerity and contemplative character of the Carmelite order. Canonized in 1622, she was elevated to Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970, the first women to be so honored.