Prayer

"Prayer is the key to enter the castle."
This was St. Teresa's words in her book on the Interior Castle.  The soul is likened to a castle with many mansions.  Each mansion represents a state of the soul.  In the center of the mansion is the King.  The only way to reach the inner mansion is through prayer.

The only way to maintain a relationship with God is through prayer.  Without it, our souls dry up and starve and in an effort to quench the thirst and satisfy the hunger, it grabs at anything it finds.  That's the beginning of inordinate attachments.  A person discerning a religious vocation, or anyone who is trying to be united with God, cannot do so without a life of daily prayer.  According to St. Therese, "prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy; finally it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus." (Story of a Soul, 242)  Aren't we all capable of this?