Chapter 8 Summary and Analysis

The third and final chapter on the Third Dwelling opens with an explanation of the Prayer of Recollection. She describes it as the state in which the soul retreats from the senses and begins to rebuild the temple where it can go to worship. She refers to it as something that was lost and is being remembered. She describes the process by asking the reader to imagine that the soul has gone outside the castle and has been spending enough time outside it that it has picked up habits. When it remembers the beautiful place it has left, it turns back to the castle and has to shed all of the habits it has developed. When the King recognizes that the desire to return is here, He calls the soul back into communion with Him, and the old habits fall away...