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"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 all earthly occupations and pleasures that benumb it. Being awake in body does not guarantee this consciousness, nor does rest required by nature interfere.

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.

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.

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 into hell, I give them what I possess, and I have not yet found a moment when I can say: Now I'm going to work for myself.

And take care about this: however sublime the contemplation, let your prayer always begin and end with self-knowledge.

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.

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.

The world's thy ship and not thy home.

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 being returned or no. Of course, however pure our affection may be, it is quite natural for us to wish it to be returned. But, when we come to evaluate the return of affection, we realize that it is insubstantial, like a thing of straw, as light as air and easily carried away by the wind.

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.

O my God, the more gently you touch, the more you are hidden in the purified souls of those who have made themselves aliens on earth, and whom you hide in the secret of your face.

...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.