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To love Jesus, to be His victim of love – the more weak and wretched we are, the more fitted we are for the operations of this consuming and transforming love.

I cannot be downcast, since in everything that happens to me, I see the loving hand of Jesus.

His Majesty couldn't grant us a greater favor than to give us a life that would be an imitation of the life His beloved Son lived.

I am content, nay, full of joy, to be without all consolation. I should be ashamed if my love were like that of earthly brides who are ever looking for gifts from their bridegrooms, or seeking to catch the smile which fills them with delight. Therese, the little Spouse of Jesus, loves Him for Himself. . . .

Our Lord thirsts for our love. He suffered from Bethlehem to Calvary and forged chains by which to live in the tabernacle together with us. Don't we have a little love for this Divine Beggar?

It is in prayer that the soul learns to know Jesus and thus to love him. Since love cannot be satisfied with difference but with equality, the result is union in similarity.

A work done without a feeling of pleasure is more pleasing to God than many others done with great delight and feeling. Therefore, when you find yourself in a state of dryness and depression, be glad and exult that God has deigned to give you those greater gifts and sweetest viands that He is wont to offer to those who are dearer to Him and more beloved by Him.

Along how many paths, in how many ways, by how many methods You show us love!

When a soul is happy, living in close union with God, so as to make its life an intimate friendship with the Divine Master, when it knows how to find Him in its inmost depths, then it is never lonely again, and it feels the need of solitude in order to enjoy the Presence of the Guest it adores. You must give Him His rightful place in your heart, which He has made capable of loving so passionately; if you realized how good He is, how He is all love!

Rather than continually dwelling on her misery and worthlessness, she merely let all thought of self fall away before the infinite majesty of God; and truly the most profitable and genuine way of despising self is to forget oneself altogether.

from God is Love

Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved.

...Jesus has taken command of my ship and has protected it from encountering other vessels. He has kept me in solitude with Himself. Consequently, my heart, by knowing this Captain, has fallen under the spell of His love, and here He keeps me captive. Oh, I love this prison and this powerful King who keeps me captive; and how I love this Captain who amid the waves of the ocean doesn't allow me to suffer shipwreck.