The Way of Perfection: A Study Edition

Study prepared by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD. Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD and Otilio Rodriguez, 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 edition—with its introduction, commentary, notes, discussion questions, and glossary—provides what is needed to assist contemporary readers in making these applications and delving more deeply into the text's spiritual riches. Includes a fully linked Index.


Over the centuries, the book's appeal has reached far beyond the walls of Carmelite monasteries, and The Way of Perfection has become a spiritual classic. More and more today, Teresa's instructions speak to all those interested in prayer, providing them with basic guidelines for praying and showing how to avoid potential pitfalls. But as the readership and interest grow, so does the need for some help in working with this sixteenth-century text.