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CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V

Continues speaking of confessors: of the importance of their being learned and of how we should behave towards them . . . 34
A "confessor" is a priest who hears a person's confession and provides spiritual guidance. The author emphasizes that they must be "learned"—meaning well-educated in theology—so they can provide sound advice and avoid leading souls into error through simple ignorance.

CHAPTER VI

Returns to the subject of perfect love . . . . . 40

CHAPTER VII

Continues to treat of spiritual love, and gives advice how to obtain it . . . . . . . . . . 46

CHAPTER VIII

Treats of the great advantage of detaching ourselves from all created things, whether interior or exterior. Of the great benefits gained by those who have left the world by severing themselves from their relatives, and how they will meet with far truer friendship instead of that which they have given up . . . . . . 56
"Detaching" is the spiritual practice of releasing one's emotional or physical dependency on anything that might distract from God. "Created things" refers to anything in the material or emotional world—such as wealth, family, or personal reputation—that is not God Himself.

CHAPTER IX

Those who have given up the world benefit by doing so and gain truer friends: this, however, does not suffice unless we forsake ourselves also . . . . . . 59

CHAPTER X

That this abnegation is not enough unless we also are detached from ourselves: how this virtue and humility go together . . . 63
"Abnegation" refers to self-denial or the renouncing of one's own will and ego in order to better serve God's will.