“To watch in prayer”- this is to say the same thing that Elijah said with the words, “to stand before the face of God.” Prayer is looking up into the face of the Eternal. We can do this only when the spirit is awake in its inmost depths, freed from…
Courage, my sister, the yoke of a Carmelite is necessarily very light or very heavy in proportion as one’s courage bears it or one’s cowardice drags it. – Teresa of St. Augustine, OCD
To obtain the granting of requests that we have at heart, there is no better means than that of directing the energy of our prayer to asking for what is most pleasing to God. – St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein)
If I had been rich, I would have found it impossible to see a poor person going hungry without giving him my possessions. And in the same way, when I gain any spiritual treasures, feeling that at this very moment there are souls in danger of being lost and falling…
And take care about this: however sublime the contemplation, let your prayer always begin and end with self-knowledge. – St. Teresa of Avila
Death can hold no bitterness for the soul that loves. It brings with it all the sweetness and delights of love. There is no sadness in the remembrance of it when it opens the door to all joy. -St. John of the Cross
To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul. It is Jesus alone who can give such value to our actions. Let us then love Him with all our heart. -St. Therese
The world’s thy ship and not thy home. – St. Therese
It should be noted here that, when we desire anyone’s affection, we always seek it because of some interest, profit or pleasure of our own….When this truth is put to them, they laugh at the distress which had been assailing them in the past as to whether their affection was…
Ordinarily this contemplation, which is secret and hidden from the very one who receives it, imparts to the soul, together with the dryness and emptiness it produces in the senses, an inclination to remain alone and in quietude. -St. John of the Cross