If you read St.Teresa's autobiography you need to be patient with her. She describes her life from earliest childhood to middle age. As she describes her life she will interrupt with a prayer to God for a paragraph or two. I tried reading this book when I was in my 20's and had no patience for it and set it aside. But in my 40's I found it to be very profound. She describes her embarrassment at the spirtual gifts she was given and how she fought them. This book really showed me the power of the printed word because here I was an American woman of 21st century reading about the spirtual experiences of a Spanish woman of the 16th century.