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I Theresa Rosemary Lawson started writing these poems in my English Class at Community College of Philadelphia in 1997.

When, in 1858, Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin arrived with four other sisters at the first IHM foundation in Pennsylvania, St. Joseph's Convent in Susquehanna County, she spent several weeks settling the sisters and organizing the school. Before she returned to the Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, she took a side trip to New York City. She brought back for each sister, "A kind of pocket book in which she would write all the prayers of her own selection and which suited her own devotion." The present volume is Theresa's application of that helpful practice.What might be learned about Mother Theresa from these prayers? They are a study of a soul totally dedicated to God's will, and to the Providence of God, as she constantly affirmed her trust in God. We are overwhelmed with her awareness of her slightest fault, her repentance, her forgiveness of others, and her continued remembrance of the souls in purgatory.Her many and varied prayers to Our Lady testify to her deep love of, and dependence on the Blessed Virgin Mary to ease her sufferings. Her amazing grasp of the theology of the various parts of the Holy Mass is reflected in her prayers before and after the Offertory, Consecration, Communion, and other parts of the liturgy.It is obvious that the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary have their spiritual roots in a contemplative foundress, Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin. On the occasion of the 2015 Gathering of the Oblate Sisters of Providence and the IHM Sisters from Monroe, Immaculata, and Scranton, we are happy to share this unique treasure.

Teresa of Avila wrote several books during her life that have become spiritual classics. Interior Castle (1577) unveils a profound spiritual vision in which Teresa saw the soul as ""a castle made of a single diamond . . . surrounded by six mansions the soul must traverse on its journey to the center of the castle and union with God."" One approached the seventh mansion in the center, where the King of Glory dwells, by going through the other mansions of Humility, Practice of Prayer, Meditation, Quiet, Illumination, and Dark Night. In each of the seven mansions readers will experience a deepening desire to know God more intimately by conforming their wills to His will.