Quotes from Teresa of Avila

for mental prayer is nothing else, in my opinion, but being on terms of friendship with God, frequently conversing in secret with Him Who, we know, loves us.

In fact, all of your theological concepts may only serve to cool the fire of love in the will.

you will never lack so much of the water of comfort that your thirst will be intolerable;

Let us look at our own shortcomings and leave other people's alone; for those who live carefully ordered lives are apt to be shocked at everything and we might well learn very important lessons from the persons who shock us. Our

Do you suppose, daughters, that He is alone when He comes to us? Do you not see that His most holy Son says: "Who art in the Heavens"? Surely such a King would not be abandoned by His courtiers. They stay with Him and pray to Him on our behalf and for our welfare, for they are full of charity.

Each partner, in fact, shares in the honor and dishonor of the other.

For only the body would die, whereas the loss of a soul is a great loss which is apparently without end;

We should pray most regularly for those who give us light.

The mind's continual keeping in the presence of God 8 and the concentration of its thoughts on Him would so enrage the fiend that, although he might try the experiment once, he

It is by humility that the Lord allows Himself to be conquered so that He will do all we ask of Him

Of the good things they do many will pass unnoticed, or will even not be considered good at all; but they need not fear that any evil or imperfect thing they do will be overlooked.

let us desire that not our wills, but His will, be done.74 If we have not progressed as far as this, then, as I have said, let us practise humility, which is the ointment for our wounds; if we are truly humble, God, the Physician,75 will come in due course, even though He tarry, to heal us.

Remember that true humility consists in being ready for what the Lord wants to do with you and happy that he should do it, and in considering yourselves unworthy to be called his servants.

The Lord has no body now on earth but yours, no hands now but yours, no feet now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which His compassion looks out to the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless His people.

The soul is like a fountain built near its source and the water of life flows into it, not through an aqueduct, but directly from the spring. Its love is now free from servile fear: it has broken all the bonds which previously hindered its progress;

if it is prayer at all, it must be accompanied by meditation.

she might even be so zealous about religious observances as to be unable to see her own faults;

our faculties seem to be making war upon us, as if they were resentful of the war made upon them by our vices.

the Lord knows everyone as he really is and gives each his work to do -- according to what He sees to be most fitting for his soul, and for His own Self, and for the good of his neighbor.

If I were to give advice, I would say to parents that they ought to be very careful whom they allow to mix with their children when young; for much mischief thence ensues, and our natural inclinations are unto evil rather than unto good.

Give me, if you will, prayers; Or let me know dryness, An abudance of devotion, Or if not, then barrenness. In you alone, Sovereign Majesty, I find my peace, What do you want of me? Yours I am, fo ryou I was born: What do you want of me?

Any unrest and any strife can be borne, as I have already said, if we find peace where we live; but if we would have rest from the thousand trials which afflict us in the world and the Lord is pleased to prepare such rest for us, and yet the cause of the trouble is in ourselves, the result cannot but be very painful, indeed almost unbearable.

that you may reap humility from your dryness, instead of the disquietude the devil strives to cause by it. I believe that where true humility exists, although God should never bestow consolations, yet He gives a peace and resignation which make the soul happier than are others with sensible devotion.

Let us realize, my daughters, that true perfection consists in the love of God and of our neighbour, and the more nearly perfect is our observance of these two commandments, the nearer to perfection we shall be.