Library ----- Table of Contents

A Preface: Interior Castle

 

Oh Heavenly Father who sits on the throne of my soul

Help, your sinful steward. I did not know.

Those were dark arts, claiming to come from thee.

Books upon books written by angels acting as thee.

I assumed to speak to you in soliloquy,

But now as I sit in the courtyards of my home,

I see how I’ve been evicted from my own soul

By Satan, by evil spirits, and uncounted ghouls.

 

This is my sin. I assumed my words as yours,

And now as I look upon my works to purge,

They are all vain, all of it.

But why, Father, pray, let me race to thee,

Who sits in the innermost room of the castle in me.

Though I let the demons in, though they kicked me out,

Let your mercies, your power stand triumph,

As this pitiful servant retakes the gifts you gave.

 

In the outer court, are all vipers and snakes,

But Father, be my King,

St. Micheal be my General.

Father, from the inner rooms, expel the evil.

From the outer, I’ll lay siege.

Let us retake the castle of my soul within me.

 

I’ll keep this note short. The Fireplace Dialogues of a Mad Scientist are a collection of wax-philosophical essays that I compiled three years ago during a much more pathetic time in my life. Ever since I’ve given myself to praying rosaries, I feel much more alive albeit in the morbid sense of what may be gained through martyrdom. Because of this, I am looking back on all these terrible essays to rewrite and thereby purge them by the fires of God.

Nonetheless, it was the original essays, much of the works which I did whilst living in mortal sin which opened the door for the demons to come in and evict me out of the home which is my soul.

Greater detail in how this may happen may be found in the works of St. Teresa of Avila, especially her autobiography, but if my own personal experience may be of value I’ll add it here. If you think you’re talking to Jesus, then for His sake doubt. The evil one has fooled many by urging them to abuse God’s gift of imagination. Talking to yourself in the third person soon becomes talking with evil spirits, but by the time you perceive such things it’s often already too late. At this, you must enter the fight to reclaim your soul, and throne of God which the rooms of the soul leads to can only then be accessed through much penance, prayer, and meditation on the life of Christ.

In essence, if one really wants to speak to God, or know if they’re speaking to God, then it will be God when speaking who shall leave no room for doubt. Examples of how one ought to behave when in the presence of God may be found in the first chapters of Luke, whereby our most Holy Mother Mary was troubled at the saying which Gabriel gave to her. From the Mother of God, we have our example. It is most pleasing to God to be troubled, to doubt whether messages come from God or not until God Himself utters the phrase, “Be not afraid.”