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The Surest Way To Determine Whether One Possesses The Love Of God Is To See Whether He Or She Loves His Or Her Neighbor. These Two Loves Are Never Separated. Rest Assured, The More You Progress In Love Of Neighbor The More Your Love Of God Will Increase.

-Teresa Of Avila

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The Surest Way To

Teresa Of Avila

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The Surest Way To Determine Whether One Possesses The Love Of God Is To See Whether He Or She Loves His Or Her Neighbor. These Two Loves Are Never Separated. Rest Assured, The More You Progress In Love Of Neighbor The More Your Love Of God Will Increase.

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The Soul Of The Just Man Is But A Paradise, In Which, God Tells Us, He Takes His Delight. What Do You Imagine, Must That Dwelling Be In Which A King So Mighty, So Wise, And So Pure, Containing In Himself All Good, Can Delight To Rest? Nothing Can Be Compared To The Great Beauty And Capabilities Of A Soul; However Keen Our Intellects May Be, They Are As Unable To Comprehend Them As To Comprehend God, For, As He Told Us, He Created Us In His Own Image And Likeness.

Our Soul Can Find In The Blessed Sacrament All The Joys And Consolations It Desires.

Be Happy When You Are Blamed And Accused Wrongly, For Then You Have The Chance To See All The Bitter, Hostile Or Self-pitying Responses That Your Sinful Soul Wants To Spew Out - As If These Puny Things Could In Any Way Defend You! Watch And See If Any Of These Poisons Come Out Of You When Your Spirit Is Pricked By An Accusation. Only Then Can You See Yourself As You Are, And Confess Thy Sin That Is Within You And Forsake Yourself Again Into The Lord's Care.

It Constantly Happens That The Lord Permits A Soul To Fall So That It May Grow Humbler.

Out Of Suffering Comes The Serious Mind; Out Of Salvation, The Grateful Heart; Out Of Endurance, Fortitude; Out Of Deliverance Faith. Patient Endurance Attends To All Things.

It Is Here, My Daughters, That Love Is To Be Found - Not Hidden Away In Corners But In The Midst Of Occasions Of Sin. And Believe Me, Although We May More Often Fail And Commit Small Lapses, Our Gain Will Be Incomparably The Greater.

May God Protect Me From Gloomy Saints.

It Is Love Alone That Gives Worth To All Things.

All Things Must Come To The Soul From Its Roots, From Where It Is Planted.

Don't Let Your Sins Turn Into Bad Habits.

Souls Without Prayer Are Like Bodies, Palsied And Lame, Having Hands And Feet They Cannot Use.

If You Seek To Carry No Other Crosses But Those Whose Reason You Understand, Perfection Is Not For You.

Don't Imagine That, If You Had A Great Deal Of Time, You Would Spend More Of It In Prayer. Get Rid Of That Idea; It Is No Hindrance To Prayer To Spend Your Time Well.

Whenever Conscience Commands Anything, There Is Only One Thing To Fear, And That Is Fear.

All Things Pass... Patience Attains All It Strives For.

He Who Has God Finds He Is Lacking Nothing.

Christ Has No Body Now On Earth But Yours, No Hands, No Feet But Yours. Yours Are The Eyes With Which Christ Looks Out His Compassion 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 Us Now.

God Is Even Kinder Than You Think.

This Body Of Ours Has One Fault: The More You Indulge It, The More Things It Discovers To Be Essential To It. It Is Extraordinary How It Likes Being Indulged.

No One Should Think Or Say Anything Of Another Which He Would Not Wish Thought Or Said Of Himself.

Let Nothing Disturb You. Let Nothing Frighten You. Everything Passes Away Except God. God Alone Is Sufficient.

I Have Often Thought With Wonder Of The Great Goodness Of God; And My Soul Has Rejoiced In The Contemplation Of His Great Magnificence And Mercy. May He Be Blessed For Ever! For I See Clearly That He Has Not Omitted To Reward Me, Even In This Life, For Every One Of My Good Desires.

Lord, How Thou Dost Afflict Thy Lovers!

God Has Been Very Good To Me, For I Never Dwell Upon Anything Wrong Which A Person Has Done, So As To Remember It Afterwards. If I Do Remember It, I Always See Some Other Virtue In That Person.

We Bloomed In Spring. Our Bodies Are The Leaves Of God. The Apparent Seasons Of Life And Death Our Eyes Can Suffer; But Our Souls, Dear, I Will Just Say This Forthright: They Are God Himself, We Will Never Perish Until He Does.

To Reach Something Good It Is Very Useful To Have Gone Astray, And Thus Acquire Experience.

Settle Yourself In Solitude, And You Will Come Upon God In Yourself.

The True Penance Comes When God Takes Away The Soul's Health And Strength For Doing Penance. Even Though I Have Mentioned Elsewhere The Great Pain This Lack Causes, The Pain Is Much More Intense Here. All These Things Must Come To The Soul From Its Roots, From Where It Is Planted.

Before Prayer, Endeavour To Realise Whose Presence You Are Approaching And To Whom You Are About To Speak, Keeping In Mind Whom You Are Addressing. If Our Lives Were A Thousand Times As Long As They Are We Should Never Fully Understand How We Ought To Behave Towards God, Before Whom The Very Angels Tremble, Who Can Do All He Wills, And With Whom To Wish Is To Accomplish.

We Are Always In The Presence Of God, Yet It Seems To Me That Those Who Pray Are In His Presence In A Very Different Sense.

My Father Was A Man Of Great Charity Towards The Poor, And Compassion For The Sick, And Also For Servants; So Much So, That He Never Could Be Persuaded To Keep Slaves, For He Pitied Them So Much: And A Slave Belonging To One Of His Brothers Being Once In His House, Was Treated By Him With As Much Tenderness As His Own Children.

Contemplative Prayer [oración Mental] In My Opinion Is Nothing Else Than A Close Sharing Between Friends; It Means Taking Time Frequently To Be Alone With Him Who We Know Loves Us.

What A Great Favor God Does To Those He Places In The Company Of Good People!

Humility Does Not Disturb Or Disquiet Or Agitate, However Great It May Be; It Comes With Peace, Delight, And Calm. . . . The Pain Of Genuine Humility Doesn't Agitate Or Afflict The Soul; Rather, This Humility Expands It And Enables It To Serve God More.

Christ Has No Body Now But Yours. No Hands, No Feet On Earth But Yours. Yours Are The Eyes Through Which He Looks Compassion On This World. Yours Are The Feet With Which He Walks To Do Good. Yours Are The Hands Through Which He Blesses All The World. Yours Are The Hands, Yours Are The Feet, Yours Are The Eyes, You Are His Body. Christ Has No Body Now On Earth But Yours.

What Friends Or Kindred Can Be So Close And Intimate As The Powers Of Our Soul, Which, Whether We Will Or No, Must Ever Bear Us Company?

Pain Is Never Permanent.

His Majesty [the Lord] . . . Rewards Great Services With Trials, And There Can Be No Better Reward, For Out Of Trials Springs Love For God.

Never Do Anything Which You Could Not Do In The Sight Of All.

Never Exaggerate, But Express Your Feelings With Moderation.

Let Us Consider What The Glorious Virgin Endured, And What The Holy Apostles Suffered, And We Shall Find That They Who Were Nearest To Jesus Christ Were The Most Afflicted.

Hope, O My Soul, Hope. You Know Neither The Day Nor The Hour.

Her Heart Is Full Of Joy With Love, For In The Lord Her Mind Is Stilled. She Has Renounced Every Selfish Attachment And Draws Abiding Joy And Strength From The One Within. She Lives Not For Herself, But Lives To Serve The Lord Of Love In All, And Swims Across The Sea Of Life Breasting Its Rough Waves Joyfully.

Christ Does Not Force Our Will, He Only Takes What We Give Him. But He Does Not Give Himself Entirely Until He Sees That We Yield Ourselves Entirely To Him.

We Know Only That We Are Living In These Bodies And Have A Vague Idea, Because We Have Heard It, And Because Our Faith Tells Us So, That We Possess Souls. As To What Good Qualities There May Be In Our Souls, Or Who Dwells Within Them, Or How Precious They Are, Those Are Things Which Seldom Consider And So We Trouble Little About Carefully Preserving The Soul's Beauty.

God Prefers Your Health, And Your Obedience, To Your Penance.

Do Not Think You Have Gained A Virtue Unless You Have First Been Tried By Its Opposite.

God Has No Hands Or Feet Or Voice Except Ours And Through These He Works.

People In The World Pay Little Heed To Reason Where Their Own Interests Are Involved.

If This Is The Way You Treat Your Friends, No Wonder You Have So Few!

I Am Afraid That If We Begin To Put Our Trust In Human Help, Some Of Our Divine Help Will Fail Us.

I Am Quite Sure I Am More Afraid Of People Who Are Themselves Terrified Of The Devil Than I Am Of The Devil Himself.

Our Greatest Gain Is To Lose The Wealth That Is Of Such Brief Duration And, By Comparison With Eternal Things, Of Such Little Worth; Yet We Get Upset About It And Our Gain Turns To Loss.

It Is No Small Misfortune And Disgrace That, Through Our Own Fault, We Neither Understand Our Nature Nor Our Origin.

Patience Obtains Everything.

Lord, How You Afflict Your Lovers! But Everything Is Small In Comparison To What You Give Them Afterwards.

If You Fall Sometimes, You Must Not Be Discouraged.

All The Trials We Endure Cannot Be Compared To These Interior Battles.

Life Is To Life In Such A Way That We Are Not Afraid To Die.

Suffering Is A Great Favor. Remember That Everything Soon Comes To An End . . . And Take Courage. Think Of How Our Gain Is Eternal.

To Argue Over Who Is The More Noble Is Nothing More Than To Dispute Whether Dirt Is Better For Making Bricks Or For Making Mortar.

Let Us Look At Our Own Faults, And Not Other People's. We Ought Not To Insist On Everyone Following In Our Footsteps, Nor To Take Upon Ourselves To Give Instructions In Spirituality When, Perhaps, We Do Not Even Know What It Is.

Every Part Of The Journey Is Of Importance To The Whole.

It Is A Great Folly To Be Willing To Violate The Friendship Of God, Rather Than The Law Of Human Friendship.

Ah, How True It Is That We Love Ourselves Too Much And Proceed With Too Much Human Prudence, That We May Not Lose An Atom Of Our Consideration! Oh, What A Great Mistake That Is! The Saints Did Not Act Thus.

One Always Goes On As One Begins.

There Is More Value In A Little Study Of Humility And In A Single Act Of It Than In All The Knowledge In The World.

Learn To Self-conquest, Persevere Thus For A Time, And You Will Perceive Very Clearly The Advantage Which You Gain From It. As Soon You Apply Yourself To Orison, You Will At Once Feel Your Senses Gather Themselves Together: They Seem Like Bees Which Return To The Hive And There Shut Themselves Up To Work At The Making Of Honey. At The First Call Of The Will, They Come Back More And More Quickly. At Last, After Countless Exercises, Of This Kind, God Disposes Them To A State Of Utter Rest And Of Perfect Contemplation.

From Heaven Even The Most Miserable Life Will Look Like One Bad Night At An Inconvenient Hotel.

If We Plant A Flower Or A Shrub And Water It Daily It Will Grow So Tall That In Time We Shall Need A Spade And A Hoe To Uproot It. It Is Just So, I Think, When We Commit A Fault, However Small, Each Day, And Do Not Cure Ourselves Of It.

Do You Suppose That God Has Any Need Of Our Works? What God Needs Is The Resoluteness Of Our Will.

Patient Endurance Attends To All Things.

Let Him Never Cease From Prayer Who Has Once Begun It, Be His Life Ever So Wicked; For Prayer Is The Way To Amend It, And Without Prayer Such Amendment Will Be Much More Difficult.

If We Learn To Love The Earth, We Will Find Labyrinths, Gardens, Fountains And Precious Jewels! A Whole New World Will Open Itself To Us. We Will Discover What It Means To Be Truly Alive.

Patience Attains All That It Strives For. He Who Has God Finds He Lacks Nothing: God Alone Suffices.

To Converse With You, O King Of Glory, No Third Person Is Needed, You Are Always Ready In The Sacrament Of The Altar To Give Audience To All. All Who Desire You Always Find You There, And Converse With You Face To Face

Mental Prayer In My Opinion Is Nothing Else Than An Intimate Sharing Between Friends; It Means Taking Time Frequently To Be Alone With Him Who We Know Loves Us. The Important Thing Is Not To Think Much But To Love Much And So Do That Which Best Stirs You To Love. Love Is Not Great Delight But Desire To Please God In Everything.

How Often I Failed In My Duty To God, Because I Was Not Leaning On The Strong Pillar Of Prayer.

Oh, How Everything That Is Suffered With Love Is Healed Again!

I Only Wish I Could Write With Both Hands, So As Not To Forget One Thing While I Am Saying Another.

I Don't Know What Heavy Penance Could Have Come To Mind That Frequently I Would Not Have Gladly Undertaken Rather Than Recollect Myself In The Practice Of Prayer.

True Love Grows By Sacrifice And The More Thoroughly The Soul Rejects Natural Satisfaction The Stronger And More Detached Its Tenderness Becomes.

The Tree That Is Beside The Running Water Is Fresher And Gives More Fruit.

A Beginner Must Look On Himself As One Setting Out To Make A Garden For His Lord's Pleasure, On Most Unfruitful Soil Which Abounds In Weeds. His Majesty Roots Up The Weeds And Will Put In Good Plants Instead. Let Us Reckon That This Is Already Done When The Soul Decides To Practice Prayer And Has Begun To Do So.

Much More Is Accomplished By A Single Word Of The Our Father Said, Now And Then, From Our Heart, Than By The Whole Prayer Repeated Many Times In Haste And Without Attention.

The Important Thing Is Not To Think Much But To Love Much; Do, Then, Whatever Most Arouses You To Love.

Prayer Is An Act Of Love. Words Are Not Needed.

Those Seeking The Life Of The Spirit Should Be Cheerful And Free, And Not Neglect Recreation. Married People Must Act In Conformity With Their Vocation--but Their Progress Will Of Necessity Be But The Pace Of A Hen.

Accustom Yourself Continually To Make Many Acts Of Love, For They Enkindle And Melt The Soul.

In The Presence Of Jesus In The Holy Sacrament We Ought To Be Like The Blessed In Heaven Before The Divine Essence

How Friendly All Men Would Be One With Another, If No Regard Were Paid To Honour And Money! I Believe It Would Be A Remedy For Everything.

Everything Seems To Me To Pass So Quickly That We Must Concentrate On How To Die Rather Than On How To Live. How Sweet It Is To Die If One Has Lived On The Cross With Christ.

The Saints Rejoiced At Injuries And Persecutions, Because In Forgiving Them They Had Something To Present To God When They Prayed To Him.

Love Turns Work Into Rest.

Souls Who Do Not Practice Prayer Are Like People Whose Limbs Are Paralyzed.

That Is How His Majesty [the Lord] Rewards Our Good Works---i Mean, By Predisposing Us To Perform Better Ones.

It Is Not A Matter Of Thinking A Great Deal But Of Loving A Great Deal, So Do Whatever Arouses You Most To Love.

I Was Living An Extremely Burdensome Life, Because Every Time I Prayed, I Became More Clearly Aware Of My Faults. On The One Hand, God Was Calling Me. On The Other, I Was Following The Way Of The World. Doing What God Wanted Made Me Happy; But I Felt Bound By The Things Of This World.

However Softly We Speak, God Is Near Enough To Hear Us.

Don't Be Curious Of Matters That Don't Concern You; Never Speak Of Them, And Don't Ask About Them.

While The Soul Is In Mortal Sin, Nothing Can Profit It; None Of Its Good Works Merit An Eternal Reward, Since They Do Not Proceed From God As Their First Principle, And By Him Alone Is Our Virtue Real Virtue.

When I Took The Habit, The Lord Immediately Showed Me How He Favours Those Who Do Violence To Themselves In Order To Serve Him. No One Saw What I Endured... At The Moment Of My Entrance Into This New State I Felt A Joy So Great That It Has Never Failed Me Even To This Day; And God Converted The Dryness Of My Soul Into A Very Great Tenderness.

We Can Only Learn To Know Ourselves And Do What We Can - Namely, Surrender Our Will And Fulfill God's Will In Us.

Keep This In Mind, For It Is Very Important Advice, So Do Not Neglect It Until You Find You Have Such A Fixed Determination Not To Offend The Lord That You Would Rather Lose A Thousand Lives And Be Persecuted By The Whole World, Than Commit One Mortal Sin, And Until You Are Most Careful Not To Commit Venial Sins.

Prayer Is An Act Of Love; Words Are Not Needed. Even If Sickness Distracts From Thoughts, All That Is Needed Is The Will To Love.

I Made You, Dear, And All I Make Is Perfect. Please Come Close, For I Desire You.

Let Us Live In Such A Way As Not To Be Afraid To Die.

One Must Not Think That A Person Who Is Suffering Is Not Praying. He Is Offering Up His Sufferings To God, And Many A Time He Is Praying Much More Truly Than One Who Goes Away By Himself And Meditates His Head Off, And, If He Has Squeezed Out A Few Tears, Thinks That Is Prayer.

Strive To Close The Eyes Of The Body And Open Those Of The Soul And Look Into Your Own Heart.

What Value Is There In Faith Without Works? And What Are They Worth If They Are Not United To The Merits Of Jesus Christ, Our Only Good?

If I Should Say Anything That Is Not In Conformity With What Is Held By The Holy Roman Catholic Church, It Will Be Through Ignorance And Not Through Malice. This May Be Taken As Certain, And Also That, Through God's Goodness, I Am, And Shall Always Be, As I Always Have Been, Subject To Her.

Let Nothing Disturb Thee; Let Nothing Dismay Thee; All Things Pass; God Never Changes. Patience Attains All That It Strives For.

Love Draws Forth Love.

Any Real Ecstasy Is A Sign You Are Moving In The Right Direction.

It Is Of Great Importance, When We Begin To Practise Prayer, Not To Let Ourselves Be Frightened By Our Own Thoughts.

Blessed Be He, Who Came Into The World For No Other Purpose Than To Suffer.

Whoever Has Not Begun The Practice Of Prayer, I Beg For The Love Of The Lord Not To Go Without So Great A Good. There Is Nothing Here To Fear But Only Something To Desire.

The Words Are Very Distinctly Formed; But By The Bodily Ear They Are Not Heard. They Are, However, Much More Clearly Understood Than They Would Be If They Were Heard By The Ear. It Is Impossible Not To Understand Them, Whatever Resistance We May Offer... There Is No Escape, For In Spite Of Ourselves We Must Listen...

God Aids The Valiant...both To You And To Me He Will Give The Help Needed.

With All This Wide And Beautiful Creation Before Me, The Restless Soul Longs To Enjoy Its Liberty And Rest Beyond Its Bound.

My Good Works, However Wretched And Imperfect, Have Been Made Better And Perfected By Him Who Is My Lord: He Has Rendered Them Meritorious. As To My Evil Deeds And My Sins, He Hid Them At Once. The Eyes Of Those Who Saw Them, He Made Even Blind; And He Has Blotted Them Out Of Their Memory.

It Is Not So Essential To Think Much As To Love Much.

There Seem To Me A Great Many Blessings Which Come From True Poverty And I Should Be Sorry To Be Deprived Of Them.

The Hour I Have Long Wished For Is Now Come.

Thank God For The Things That I Do Not Own.

How Friendly We Should All Be With One Another If Nobody Were Interested In Money And Honor.

Union Is As If In A Room There Were Two Large Windows Through Which The Light Streamed In; It Enters In Different Places But It All Becomes One.

Our Souls May Lose Their Peace And Even Disturb Other People's, If We Are Always Criticizing Trivial Actions - Which Often Are Not Real Defects At All, But We Construe Them Wrongly Through Our Ignorance Of Their Motives.

I Have Always Had This Failing - That I Cannot Explain Myself, As I Have Said, Except At The Cost Of Many Words.

Humility Must Always Be Doing Its Work Like A Bee Making Honey In The Hive: Without Humility All Will Be Lost.

I Fully Realize That This Gratitude Of Mine Is Not In The Least A Sign Of Perfection: It Must Be My Nature - I Could Be Suborned With A Sardine.

I Say The Same Of Humility And Of All The Virtues; The Wiles Of The Devil Are Terrible, He Will Run A Thousand Times Round Hell If By So Doing He Can Make Us Believe That We Have A Single Virtue Which We Have Not. And He Is Right, For Such Ideas Are Very Harmful, And Such Imaginary Virtues, When They Come From This Source, Are Never Unaccompanied By Vainglory; Just As Those Which God Gives Are Free Both From This And From Pride.

We Shall Never Learn To Know Ourselves Except By Endeavoring To Know God; For, Beholding His Greatness We Realize Our Own Littleness; His Purity Shows Us Our Foulness; And By Meditating Upon His Humility We Find How Very Far We Are From Being Humble.

I Had Many Friends To Help Me To Fall; But As To Rising Again, I Was So Much Left To Myself, That I Wonder Now I Was Not Always On The Ground. I Praise God For His Mercy; For It Was He Only Who Stretched Out His Hand To Me. May He Be Blessed For Ever! Amen.

Love Makes Labour Light. Love Alone Gives Value To All Things.

Let Thy Words Be Few When In The Midst Of Many.

Truth Suffers, But Never Dies.

The Feeling Remains That God Is On The Journey, Too.

After You Die, You Wear What You Are.

Near Death Experience

Let Us Consider The Glorious Saint Paul: It Seems That No Other Name Fell From His Lips Than That Of Jesus, Because The Name Of Jesus Was Fixed And Embedded In His Heart.

Anyone Who Has The Habit Of Speaking Before God's Majesty As If He Were Speaking To A Slave, Careless About How He Is Speaking, And Saying Whatever Comes Into His Head And Whatever He's Learned From Saying Prayers At Other Times, In My Opinion Is Not Praying. Please, God, May No Christian Pray In This Way.

You Pay God A Compliment By Asking Great Things Of Him.

Seldom Or Never Is A Poor Man Honored By The World; However Worthy Of Honor He May Be, He Is Apt Rather To Be Despised By It.

I Am Really Much More Afraid Of Those People Who Have So Great A Fear Of The Devil, Than I Am Of The Devil Himself.

How Is It, Lord, That We Are Cowards In Everything Save In Opposing Thee?

Let Him Never Cease From Prayer, Who Has Once Begun To Pray, Even Though His Life Is Ever So Bad. For Prayer Is The Only Way To Amend One's Life And Without Prayer It Will Never Be Mended. Let Him Not Be Tempted Of The Devil, As I Was, To Give Up Prayer On Account Of One's Unworthiness. Let Such A One Rather Believe That If He Will Only Repent And Pray, Our Lord Will Still Hear And Answer.

There Is More Security In Self-denial, Mortification, And Other Like Virtues, Than In An Abundance Of Tears.

From Silly Devotions And From Sour-faced Saints, Good Lord, Deliver Us.

We Need No Wings To Go In Search Of Him, But Have Only To Look Upon Him Present Within Us.

From Moment To Moment One Can Bear Much.

I Had A Father And Mother, Who Were Devout And Feared God. Our Lord Also Helped Me With His Grace. All This Would Have Been Enough To Make Me Good, If I Had Not Been So Wicked.

We Cannot Know Whether We Love God, Although There May Be Strong Reason For Thinking So; But There Can Be No Doubt About Whether We Love Our Neighbor Or Not. Be Sure That, In Proportion As You Advance In Fraternal Charity, You Are Increasing Your Love Of God, For His Majesty Bears So Tender An Affection For Us That I Cannot Doubt He Will Repay Our Love For Others By Augmenting, And In A Thousand Different Ways, That Which We Bear For Him.

Humility, However Deep It Be, Neither Disquiets Nor Troubles Nor Disturbs The Soul; It Is Accompanied By Peace, Joy And Tranquillity.

True Perfection Consists In The Love Of God And Our Neighbour, And The Better We Keep Both These Commandments, The More Perfect We Shall Be.

It Is Only Mercenaries Who Expect To Be Paid By The Day.

As To The Aridity You Are Suffering From, It Seems To Me Our Lord Is Treating You Like Someone He Considers Strong: He Wants To Test You And See If You Love Him As Much At Times Of Aridity As When He Sends You Consolations. I Think This Is A Very Great Favor For God To Show You.

Remember That You Have Only One Soul; That You Have Only One Death To Die; That You Have Only One Life. . . . If You Do This, There Will Be Many Things About Which You Care Nothing.

I Know The Power Obedience Has Of Making Things Easy Which Seem Impossible.

Possible And Impossible

I Am Quite Sure That If We Could But Once Approach The Most Holy Sacrament With Great Faith And Love, It Would Suffice To Make Us Rich. How Much More So If We Approach It Often!

How Is It That We Do Not Die Of Love In Seeing That God Himself Could Do No More Than Shed His Divine Blood For Us Drop By Drop? When As Man He Was Preparing For Death, He Made Himself Our Food In Order To Give Us Life. God Becomes Food, Bread For His Creatures. Is This Not Enough To Make Us Die Of Love?

Each Of Us Has A Soul, But We Forget To Value It. We Don't Remember That We Are Creatures Made In The Image Of God. We Don't Understand The Great Secrets Hidden Inside Of Us.

How Poor Is The Wisdom Of Men, And How Uncertain Their Forecast!

So Dearly Does His Majesty Love Us That He Will Reward Our Love For Our Neighbor By Increasing The Love Which We Bear To Himself, And That In A Thousand Ways.

Nothing Is Small If God Accepts It.

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.

I Once Heard A Spiritual Man Say That He Was Not So Much Astonished At The Things Done By A Soul In Mortal Sin As At The Things Not Done By It. May God, In His Mercy, Deliver Us From Such Great Evil, For There Is Nothing In The Whole Of Our Lives That So Thoroughly Deserves To Be Called Evil As This, Since It Brings Endless And Eternal Evils In Its Train.

As God's Beloved, I Live In The Bliss Knowing That My Soul Is Never Separated From Him, For I Learn To Know Her In All That I See. God Dissolved My Mind-my Separation. I Cannot Describe Now My Intimacy With Him.

The Best Thing Must Be To Flee From All To The All.

I Often Thought My Constitution Would Never Endure The Work I Had To Do, (but) The Lord Said To Me: 'daughter, Obedience Gives Strength.'

About The Injunction Of The Apostle Paul That Women Should Keep Silent In Church? Don't Go By One Text Only.

Teach By Works More Than Words.

A Slight Failing In One Virtue Is Enough To Put All The Others To Sleep.

Jacob Did Not Cease To Be A Saint Because He Had To Attend To His Flocks.

Never Affirm Anything Unless You Are Sure It Is True.

His Majesty Knows Best What Is Suitable For Us. There's No Need For Us To Be Advising Him About What He Should Give Us, For He Can Rightly Tell Us That We Don't Know What We're Asking For (cf. Mt. 20:22). The Whole Aim Of Any Person Who Is Beginning Prayer ? And Don't Forget This, Because It's Very Important ? Should Be That He Work And Prepare Himself With Determination And Every Possible Effort To Bring His Will Into Conformity With God's Will.

The Life Of The Spirit Is Not Our Life, But The Life Of God Within Us.

It Is True That We Cannot Be Free From Sin, But At Least Let Our Sins Not Always Be The Same.

But The Fact Is, Things Always Seem To Come Slowly When You Are Longing For Them.

Untilled Ground, However Rich, Will Bring Forth Thistles And Thorns; So Also The Mind Of Man.

There Are More Tears Shed Over Answered Prayers Than Over Unanswered Prayers.

May I Not Come Before You With Empty Hands, Since We Are Rewarded According To Our Deeds.

Alas, O Lord, To What A State Dost Thou Bring Those Who Love Thee!

I Thought Of The Soul As Resembling A Castle, Formed Of A Single Diamond Or A Very Transparent Crystal, And Containing Many Rooms, Just As In Heaven There Are Many Mansions.

It Is Certain That The Love Of God Does Not Consist In This Sweetness And Tenderness Which We For The Most Part Desire; But Rather In Serving Him In Justice, Fortitude, And Humility. His Majesty Seeks And Loves Courageous Souls.

Be Gentle To All And Stern With Yourself.

Whoever Has God Lacks Nothing. God Alone Suffices.

If We Do Not Use Great Care To Mortify Our Will, There Are Many Things Which Can Deprives Us Of The Holy Freedom Of Spirit That We Are Seeking In Order To Fly More Freely To Our Creator, Without Always Being Bogged Down With The Clay Of This Earth. Moreover, There Can Never Be Solid Virtue In A Soul That Is Attached To Its Own Will.

Patient Endurance / Attaineth To All Things.

If We Practice Love Of Neighbor With Great Perfection, We Will Have Done Everything.

In All Created Things Discern The Providence And Wisdom Of God, And In All Things Give Him Thanks.

It Is Impossible For Human Tongue To Exaggerate The Riches Which A Vision From God Brings To The Soul: It Even Bestows Health And Refreshment On The Body.

Vocal Prayer . . . Must Be Accompanied By Reflection. A Prayer In Which A Person Is Not Aware Of Whom He Is Speaking To, What He Is Asking, Who It Is Who Is Asking And Of Whom, I Don't Call Prayer-however Much The Lips May Move.

The Life Of Prayer Is Just Love To God, And The Custom Of Being Ever With Him.

We Always Find That Those Who Walked Closest To Christ Were Those Who Had To Bear The Greatest Trials.

Whenever We Think Of Christ, We Should Recall The Love That Led Him To Bestow On Us So Many Graces And Favors, And Also The Great Love God Showed In Giving Us In Christ A Pledge Of His Love; For Love Calls For Love In Return. Let Us Strive To Keep This Always Before Our Eyes And To Rouse Ourselves To Love Him.

In Order To Profit From This Path [of Prayer] And Ascend To The Dwelling Places We Desire, The Important Thing Is Not To Think Much But To Love Much; And So, Do That Which Best Stirs You To Love.

It Will Be As Well, I Think, To Explain These Locutions Of God, And To Describe What The Soul Feels When It Receives Them.

Be Kind To All And Severe To Thyself.

In A State Of Grace, The Soul Is Like A Well Of Limpid Water, From Which Flow Only Streams Of Clearest Crystal. Its Works Are Pleasing Both To God And Man, Rising From The River Of Life, Beside Which It Is Rooted Like A Tree.

The Custom Of Speaking To God Almighty As Freely As With A Slave - Caring Nothing Whether The Words Are Suitable Or Not, But Simply Saying The First Thing That Comes To Mind From Being Learnt By Rote By Frequent Repetition - Cannot Be Called Prayer: God Grant That No Christian May Address Him In This Manner.

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