We live in a world in which love is condemned: it is called weakness, something to be overcome. Some say: never mind love, develop your strengths; let everyone be as strong as possible; let the weak perish … [But] we shall not give up on love. -Bl. Titus Brandsma
Oh, how sweet Your presence will be to me, You Who are the supreme good! I must draw near You in silence pleased to unite me to You in … I rejoice in Your arms. Now I ask You, Lord, do not abandon me at any time in my recollection,…
Spiritual substance cannot be communicated to the senses, and anything imparted to the sense, especially in this life, cannot be pure spirit, since sense is incapable of it. -St. John of the Cross
One could believe that it is because I haven’t sinned that I have such great confidence in God. Really tell them, Mother, that if I had committed all possible crimes, I would always have the same confidence; I feel that this whole multitude of offenses would be like a drop…
Humility consists in complete recognition of one’s own nothingness in all things. A leather bag is best filled by being laid flat on the ground, and a bucket at a well does not fill with water unless it is lowered. As for me, I remain empty for want of being…
You know well that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them. -St. Therese
Contemplation is perceived more frequently in the will under the form of love, than in the intellect under the form of knowledge. – St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein)
It is in the effects and deeds following afterward that one discerns the true value of prayer. -St. Teresa of Avila
O sweetest Star of heaven! O Virgin, spotless, blest, Shining with Jesus’ light, guiding to Him my way! O Mother! ‘neath thy veil let my tired spirit rest, For this brief passing day! – St. Therese
Then gradually, he becomes very small and humble; he grows patient and indulgent toward the splinter in strange eyes because the beam in his own is brought into being; and, finally, he also learns to be patient with himself in the inexorable light of the divine Presence and to surrender…