These QUOTES … are like small darts that penetrate in your memory and hopefuly help you love God more. They all come from Carmelites, the experts in spirituality.
Enjoy!
“I made the resolution never to consider whether the things commanded me appeared useful or not…. it is love alone that counts. Forget about whether something is needed or useful; see it (the demand, rule, obligation, etc.) as a whim of Jesus.”
St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face
It is not so essential to think much as to love much.
St Teresa of Jesus, OCD
Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth; mine are the people, the righteous are mine and mine are the sinners; the angels are mine and the Mother of God, and all things are mine; and God Himself is mine and for me, for Christ is mine and all for me. What then do you ask for and seek, my soul? Yours is all this, and it is all for you.
St. John of the Cross, OCD (from Prayer of a Soul Taken in Love)
How happy I am to see myself imperfect and be in need of God’s mercy.
St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, OCD
The loftier the degree of loving union to which God destines the soul, so much more profound and persistent must be its purification.
St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, OCD (Edith Stein, Science of the Cross 77)
To be taken with love for a soul, God does not look on its greatness, but the greatness of its humility.
St John of the Cross, OCD
Always remember to love your neighbor; always prefer the one who tries your patience, who test your virtue, because with her you can always merit: suffering is Love; the Law is Love.
Bl Mary of Jesus Crucified “The Little Arab”
It is certain that the love of God does not consist in experiencing sweetness or tenderness of heart but in truly serving God in Justice, strength and humility.
St Teresa of Jesus, OCD
We can never have too much confidence in the good God who is so powerful and so merciful. We obtain from him as much as we hope for.
St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, OCD
I abyss myself in His magnificence and His wisdom but when I ponder His goodness, my heart can say nothing – I can only Adore.
St Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, OCD
I desire to suffer always and not to die. I should add: this is not my will, it is my inclination. It is sweet to think of Jesus; but it is sweeter to do His will.
Bl Mary of Jesus Crucified “The Little Arab”
Trials are nothing else but the forge that purifies the soul of all its imperfections.
St Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi, OCD
God Himself teaches us to go forward with our hand in His by means of the Church’s liturgy.
St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, OCD (Edith Stein)
It is not the soul that makes the progress, but it is Christ, who carries her as a child is carried.
Bl Mary of Jesus of Toledo, OCD
Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification. It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others.
St John of the Cross, OCD
Look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for all.
St Teresa of Jesus, OCD
God desires the smallest degree of purity of conscience in you more than all the works you can perform.
St John of the Cross, OCD
One cannot desire freedom from the Cross when one is especially chosen for the Cross.
St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, OCD (Edith Stein)
For my heart is always with Him, day and night it thinks unceasingly of its heavenly and divine Friend, to whom it wants to prove its affection. Also within it arises this desire: not to die, but to suffer long, to suffer for God, to give Him its life while praying for poor sinners.
Bl Elisabeth of the Trinity, OCD
A soul enkindled with love is a gentle, meek, humble, and patient soul.
St John of the Cross, OCD
You know that our Lord does not look at the greatness or difficulty of our action, but at the love with which you do it. What, then, have you to fear?
St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, OCD
The proud person is like a grain of wheat thrown into water: it swells, it gets big. Expose that grain to the fire: it dries up, it burns. The humble soul is like a grain of wheat thrown into the earth: it descends, it hides itself, it disappears, it dies; but to revive in heaven.
Bl Mary of Jesus Crucified “The Little Arab”
Prayer is a cry of gratitude and love, in the midst of trial as well as in joy.
St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, OCD
You will be consoled according to the greatness of your sorrow and affliction; the greater the suffering, the greater will be the reward.
St Mary Magdalen de’Pazzi, OCD
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.
St Teresa of Jesus, OCD
What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language he best hears is silent love.
St John of the Cross, OCD
The goal of all our undertakings should be not so much a task perfectly completed as the accomplishment of the will of God.
St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, OCD