Publisher's Synopsis
Prologue 7 I. 8 Childhood and early Impressions--The Blessing of pious Parents--Desire of Martyrdom--Death of the Saint's Mother II. 10 Early Impressions--Dangerous Books and Companions--The Saint is placed in a Monastery III. 13 The Blessing of being with good people--How certain Illusions were removed IV. 15 Our Lord helps her to become a Nun--Her many Infirmities V. 20 Illness and Patience of the Saint--The Story of a Priest whom she rescued from a Life of Sin VI. 25 The great Debt she owed to our Lord for His Mercy to her--She takes St. Joseph for her Patron VII. 29 Lukewarmness--The Loss of Grace--Inconvenience of Laxity in Religious Houses VIII. 37 The Saint ceases not to pray--Prayer the way to recover what is lost--All exhorted to pray--The great Advantage of Prayer, even to those who may have ceased from it IX. 41 The means whereby our Lord quickened her Soul, gave her Light in her Darkness, and made her strong in Goodness X. 44 The Graces she received in Prayer--What we can do ourselves--The great Importance of understanding what our Lord is doing for us--She desires her Confessors to keep her Writings secret, because of the special Graces of our Lord to her, which they had commanded her to describe XI. 48 Why men do not attain quickly to the perfect Love of God--Of Four Degrees of Prayer--Of the First Degree--The Doctrine profitable for Beginners, and for those who have no sensible Sweetness XII. 54 What we can ourselves do--The Evil of desiring to attain to supernatural States before our Lord calls us XIII. 57 Of certain Temptations of Satan--Instructions relating thereto XIV. 64 The Second State of Prayer--Its supernatural Character XV. 68 Instructions for those who have attained to the Prayer of Quiet--Many advance so far, but few go farther XVI. 74 The Third State of Prayer--Deep Matters--What the Soul can do that has reached it--Effects of the great Graces of our Lord XVII. 78 The Third State of Prayer--The Effects thereof--The Hindrance caused by the Imagination and the Memory XVIII. 81 The Fourth State of Prayer--The great Dignity of the Soul raised to it by our Lord--Attainable on Earth, not by our Merit, but by the Goodness of our Lord XIX. 86 The Effects of this Fourth State of Prayer--Earnest Exhortations to those who have attained to it not to go back nor to cease from Prayer, even if they fall--The great Calamity of going back XX. 92 The Difference between Union and Rapture--What Rapture is--The Blessing it is to the Soul--The Effects of it XXI. 102 Conclusion of the Subject--Pain of the Awakening--Light against Delusions XXII. 106 The Security of Contemplatives lies in their not ascending to high Things if our Lord does not raise them--The Sacred Humanity must be the Road to the highest Contemplation--A Delusion in which the Saint was once entangled XXIII. 113 The Saint resumes the History of her Life--Aiming at Perfection--Means whereby it may be gained--Instructions for Confessors XXIV. 119 Progress under Obedience--Her Inability to resist the Graces of God-- God multiplies His Graces XXV. 122 Divine Locutions--Delusions on that Subject XXVI. 129 How the Fears of the Saint vanished--How she was assured that her Prayer was the Work of the Holy Spirit XXVII. 132 The Saint prays to be directed in a different way--Intellectual Visions XXVIII. 139 Visions of the Sacred Humanity and of the glorified Bodies--Imaginary Visions--Great Fruits thereof when they come from God XXIX. 146 Of Visions--The Graces our Lord bestowed on the Saint--The Answers our Lord gave her for those who tried her XXX. 151 St. Peter of Alcantara comforts the Saint--Great Temptations and Interior Trials XXXI. 158 Of certain outward Temptations and Appearances of Satan--Of the Sufferings thereby occasioned--Counsels for those who go on unto Perfection Plus 19 more chapters!
