Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and there is only one Glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things…
We must let ourselves be transformed into one and the same image with Him, and that, quite simply, by loving all the time. -St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
Just as the angels in heaven incessantly sing His praises, so does a Carmelite echo those praises here on earth, whether near to the tabernacle where God who is Love lives imprisoned, or in the intimate depths of her soul’s heaven, where faith tells her God dwells. Our vocation’s objective…
Love is swift, sincere, pious, pleasant and delightful; strong, patient, faithful, prudent, long-suffering, courageous, and never seeking itself: for where a man seeks himself, there he falls from love. -St. Therese
When the soul is so deeply rooted in Him, the divine sap flows freely through it, and everything that is imperfect, commonplace, unspiritual, is destroyed … the soul that is thus divested of itself and clothed with Jesus Christ, need no longer fear anything either from relations with the external…
We object when He hands us the chalice of His suffering. It is so difficult for us to resign ourselves to suffering. To rejoice in it strikes us as heroic. What is the value of our offering of self if we unite ourselves each morning only in word and gesture,…
But because being one with Christ is our sanctity, and progressively becoming one with him our happiness on earth, the love of the cross in no way contradicts being a joyful child of God. Helping Christ carry his cross fills one with a strong and pure joy, and those who…
Oh my Lord, how certain it is that anyone who renders You some service soon pays with a great trial! And what a precious reward a trial is for those who truly love You if we could at once understand its value! – St. Teresa of Avila
As the soul abode in solitude, abandoning all created help and consolation in order to obtain fellowship and union with the Beloved, it deserved thereby the peace of solitude in the Beloved, in whom it reposes alone, undisturbed by any anxiety. -St. John of the Cross
When things that are irritable or disagreeable befall me, instead of assuming an air of sadness, I respond by a smile. At first I was not always successful, but now it is a habit which I am very happy to have acquired. – St. Therese