The Reformation · c. 1566
The Way of Perfection
Teresa of Ávila · 1515–1582
What it is
Practical instruction for her nuns on detachment, humility, and mental prayer, structured around the Lord's Prayer and full of dry humour about convent life.
Why it lasted
The most accessible of Teresa's works, written because her sisters asked her to explain what she actually did when she prayed.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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