Second Mansion — The Practice of Prayer

The Segunda Morada in Teresa's Interior Castle is the mansion of perseverance in oración — the soul hears God's call through sermons, spiritual reading, and holy conversation, yet cannot sustain recollection. Teresa emphasizes that this stage demands perseverancia: the will inclines toward God while the intellect and imagination remain captive to the world's noise. The practice here is discursive meditation (meditación), not yet contemplation, and the soul's chief danger is turning back, which Teresa warns against with reference to Lot's wife.