In one of the church's darkest hours, Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) allowed neither illness nor threat of death to stop her from calling men and women to walk in the peace and light of Christ.

Known for her devotion to unceasing prayer, her fervour for God, and her desire to be like Christ, Teresa wrote that the Christian life is both meaningless and powerless apart from prayer.

'Souls without prayer,' she said, 'are like people whose bodies or limbs are paralysed: they posses feet and hands but they cannot control them.' In A Life of Prayer, she invites believers to enrich their interior lives with the presence of Christ-to experience God in all things of life through prayer.

Dr. James M. Houston, editor of the Classics of Faith and Devotion series, is a highly acclaimed scholar and pioneer in the field of evangelical spirituality. He came to North America from England in 1968 to lead Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, a worldwide centre of spiritual formation.