"Whereas Volume I of St. Teresa’s letters covered 31 years, Volume 2 covers only the last five years of her life, from 1578 to 1582. Still there are 243 letters in this collection, as compared to 224 in the first volume. A preponderance of the letters is written to Padre Jerónimo Gracián, as this was the time when the Discalced order was being established and Teresa greatly favored Gracián as its head, when and if it could be separated from the Calced. However, I was about as interested in these politics as I am in the politics of our own day, so that is all I will write about that, except to mention that this was the time when St. John of the Cross was kidnapped by his confreres on the Calced side of the house and held in captivity for seven months from 1577-1578.

What I loved about Teresa’s letters were the many beautiful courtesies she observed such as how she opened her letters:
“Jesus. May the Holy Spirit be with your honor.��
“Jesus. The grace of the Holy spirit be with your paternity, mi padre.��
“To the very magnificent Señor Roque de Huerta, chief forest guard of His Majesty. Jesus be always with your honor, amen.��
“Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be always with your excellency, amen.��
There was great consistency in these openings. For the most part, it was only the addressee’s title which varied. What a good option/reminder to begin letters with the Holy Name of Jesus! I wonder if we did this, if overall our words would be kinder and sweeter.

Another one of her courtesies was the ‘kissing of hands��, which seemed to be an especially tender way to show gratitude, dedication and ultimate affection. Here are just a few of the MANY examples where Teresa employs this highly complementary idiom:
“María de San Jerónimo, who is the one who was subprioress in this house, also kisses your hands.��
“These sisters and Mother Prioress kiss your hands many times; I kiss those of Señora Doña Beatriz.��
“My brother kisses your hands, and little Teresa (his daughter) is very content and as much a little child as ever.��
“Now I kiss your hands an infinite number of times, and I would like to do so through deeds rather than with words.��

Teresa, as you can see was an exuberant and creative letter writer. What it must have been like to get a letter from her! And yet not all of her letters were sweetness and light; she could also show her disfavor. She didn’t hesitate to tell Padre Gracián and her nuns what she thought when she was displeased with them, although usually she would tell someone how much she missed them and their letters and how sad/worried she was when they didn’t write. This was especially true with Padre Gracián and as I have learned how largely he figured in her life I want to know his side of the story so much, I’m going to read his biography next.

Sadly, none of her letters to Fray John of the Cross survive. I wondered about this at first, but I have come to believe that she urged her philosophy of moderation—as is evident in all her other letters to those she loved—and he thought she was being too motherly/soft, so he wanted no trace of this to remain. Most likely the deep love and respect he had for her, saw her getting old and considering the times (the Inquisition) thought her views might not reflect well after her death. His personal leaning was much more spartan than hers. Of course, I could be totally wrong.

One of Teresa’s most infamous letters has earned the title, “The Terrible Letter��. It is Letter 451 written May 30, 1582, when Teresa was in Burgos, the last year of her life, to Madre Ana de Jesús, who was in the process of establishing a new foundation in Granada. Here are a few choice sentences:

“I was amused by the loud complaining of all of you about our Father Provincial and your neglect to keep him informed after the first letter in which you told him that you had made the foundation. And you all acted in the same way with me. �� But down there you're so crafty at not obeying that this latest fact pained me in no small way because of the bad impression it will make in the whole order and also because of the custom that may result by which prioresses will feel independent and will also think up excuses. �� So, the fault is all yours. ... You paid no more heed to our padre than you would have if he hadn't received the office of superior. �� The nuns are very tired and understandably, since they are martyrs in that house and undergo many more trials than you -- although they don't complain as much. �� and the more you suffer from this the more you will serve him. �� Oh, true spirit of obedience, how when seeing someone in the place of God no repugnance is felt toward loving her! For the sake of God, I beg you to take care to inspire souls to be brides of the Crucified, that they crucify themselves by renouncing their own will and the pursuit of childish trifles. �� I am ashamed that in so short a time the discalced nuns are paying attention to these trivialities, and after paying attention to them, making them the topic of their conversations, and that Madre María de Cristo makes such an issue out of it. Either through trials you have all become silly or the devil has introduced hellish notions into this order.��

Teresa’s P.S. was, “Let Mother Subprioress, her two companions, and Padre Fray John of the Cross read this letter addressed to you, for I don't have the head to be writing more.��

I wondered what Venerable Anne of Jesus�� reaction to getting this letter was, so I pulled out the biography, The Life of the Venerable Anne of Jesus: A Companion of St. Teresa of Avila I had of hers and in Chapter 9, The Foundation at Granada, a portion of the letter is included. While all the things Teresa brings up are not addressed, the important point of poor travel conditions over the winter months, meant that nothing could have been communicated between the two convents from the fall of 1581 until the spring of 1582 when Teresa wrote. John of the Cross was there to assist with the foundation and so far as is known offers no recriminations about anything. It seems there were no follow-ons to this letter, only a resolution of the problems mentioned, and the two saintly sisters remained of one spirit until the foundresses�� death shortly thereafter. Chapter 10 in the book cited above goes on to describe Anne of Jesus�� four peaceful years as prioress at Granada. The book claims that though the monastery was founded in poverty, it did not remain so. There are black and white pictures of it today.

There is so much more that I could write about these letters. They reveal a mother’s heart, Teresa’s deep love for her daughters and sons and the Carmelite order, which was based on her love for the Catholic Church and above all else, her love for Jesus. Somehow, I just imagine Teresa saying His Name, His Holy and Sacred Name with such love each time she wrote It. Most people know but it’s still worth repeating the vignette about Teresa telling Jesus that she was Teresa of Jesus and He told her that He was Jesus of Teresa. We cannot begin to fathom His Love.

One final thought, someday, if God lets me live long enough, I would love to sit down with this book, Volume 1, The Divine Adventure: St. Teresa of Avila's Journeys & Foundations, Teresa of Avila: The Book of Her Foundations: A Study Guide and God Speaks in the Night: The Life, Times and Teaching of St. John of the Cross and do an armchair study of all of the monasteries founded by St. Teresa. His Will be done!

St. Teresa of Jesus, pray for us!"

"This book is phenomenal! Once I started it, I could hardly put it down ... so not much sleep the last few nights. I would not call myself a fan of the Jesuits, but then I don’t know enough about them to have an opinion, favorable or not.

I did the back in 2004-5 in a yearlong version called, Retreat in Daily Life, which greatly benefited my spiritual and prayer life. Aside from that, and the Jesuit-trained Spiritual Director I had from then until she died in 2014, I knew little about the order, except that they were founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola to combat the Protestant-heresy, especially in England in the 16th century and they suffered many martyrdoms during that tumultuous time.

Also, I remember reading/hearing they had been suppressed sometime later, but how and why, was not clear. This novel clarified that! If I didn’t have so much other reading to do now, I’d drop everything and dive into nothing else but Jesuit history. Amazing what these brave men suffered when they were evicted, first from Portugal, then France and, as described in this book, from Spain. The Spanish priests were rounded up like criminals with only the clothes on their backs, held captive, loaded on filthy prisoner ships, all their property seized and sent from one place to another like vagabonds because no one wanted them. It is a heart-breaking story.

No time now to write the kind of review this book deserves, but I cannot recommend it highly enough! Although the author refuses to say outright that the suppression of the order in France caused the subsequent bloody Revolution, it does seem the writings of the liberal philosophes (Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, etc.) contributed significantly to an overall lack of faith in Europe especially among the ‘catholic�� monarchs ultimately to their own demise.

Trower tells the little-known story of the bravery of these priests and those devoted to them who suffered unspeakable horrors as well as the devasting destruction of the Reductions in South America where the Jesuits were thought to have hidden vast riches, but in reality, the wealth was in the peaceful life which had been founded for a brief space of time for the native population. A Christian Camelot; its loss a terrible tragedy."

"This is supposed to be his complete FAIRY tales, but it takes a stretch of the imagination to call some of these stories by that name. Still, they were good, obviously some better than others. Want to do a review. Hopefully soon. "

"The author, Carrie Gress, spoke at our OKC Catholic Women's conference this past Saturday and she was just like she sounds in her books, matter of fact, straightforward, informative and unapologetically honest. Well, she did throw in a few caveat apologies for those who might not be aware of how bad some things have gotten.

I told her that I had read her book, The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity and given it a favorable review on ŷ������. She said, "They're very liberal and hate me over there. Without even reading my book, on the first day it's out, they gave it one-star and blasted it." Not just her book, I thought, ANYthing which hints at a conservative position.

Now that I am finished with this, I am still trying to decide how to review it. Visceral impression: dark, depressing, but spot on! I had to put it down sometimes and wondered how such a sweet woman could ever bring herself to write about all that ... that ... muck? And yet, I knew I owed it to her, not to mention all the women out there to make a stab at a review. This is my initial attempt. After Easter, when I am less busy, I hope to come back and do a better job.

Gress begins with Mary Wollstonecraft, her daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and her hideous husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. He was a monster! The author describes their writings, not to mention lifestyles and how these in effect got the whole feminism 'thing' going. It goes downhill from there. Looking back, their contributions seem almost juvenile, yet they set the stage in that they defined what women supposedly wanted and needed.

In the search for 'freedom', women would have to do away with, sacrifice, minimize or deny everything else: parents, especially mother, husband, relationships, family (or any sense thereof), religion, definitely children and even friendships because it was every woman for herself. Envy ruled! This was something that Gress emphasized. She showed how the evil one has used this deadly sin against us every step of the way. Satanism and the occult figures heavily in all this back from the very beginning.

The thing to remember is that most women drawn to the feminist lifestyle are those who come from the street or broken homes. They are largely abused girls who've never known love, stability or anything resembling security, who in turn think such things are expendable, or worse, detrimental to women who want to succeed, and they don't want it for anyone else. Hence, the envy.

Gress traces her devastating history of feminism from the 1800s through an amended version of the usual women's rights story we've heard involving Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and how while they initiated things, they were in the end sidelined by the movement which went on without them.

No story about feminism would be complete without Margaret Sanger, the heroine of the Left, honored as an advocate for woman's birth control and only exposed by those by others as a . Sanger founded The American Birth Control League in 1921; it would become Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942. By the 1930s, licensed physicians performed an estimated 800,000 abortions a year. Sanger never made a secret of the fact that she wanted to get rid of 'undesirables'. And Planned Parenthood has always located their abortion factories in poor (and usually black) communities.

Jumping ahead to the middle of the last century is where Gress' other book The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity expounds the birth of second wave feminism.

Here in, The End of Woman we learn more about these founding mothers (is that an oxymoron? 🤔) and meet some new faces not included in her other book.

Finally, there were some hopeful suggestions at the end, the main one being that we women are still nurturers, (beautiful word!) and our culture needs nurturing more than it needs almost ANYTHING else! So, ladies (and I do mean 'ladies') don't be afraid to give nurturing where and when you see it is needed. Like a pebble thrown into a pond, the ripples will spread!

If you are suffering from depression, don't read this book. If you don't believe that the majority of Western women are living under a delusion, DO read this book! If you already know it, you still might want to read it, to learn the whys, hows and wherefores.

Excellent dense writing throughout. As above, I want/need to do a better review. God willing, I will!

Is that cover ugly or what? Yes, I know, it's supposed to be "great" 'art'. If I looked like that, I call in sick and go back to bed.

PS Be sure to read the quotes I noted. There are so many good points and I couldn't include all of them, but I tried to highlight them so you can benefit from her savvy wisdom, not to mention it allows me to go back to them."