Teresa of Ávila Quotes

O Lord, all our troubles come to us because we do not have our eyes fixed on you. If only we looked at the path we're walking, we would soon arrive. But, we stumble and fall a thousand times and we stray because we do not set our eyes on the true Way.

Always think of yourself as everyone's servant; look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for them all.

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.

Their heart does not allow them to practise duplicity: if they see their friend straying from the road, or committing any faults, they will speak to her about it; they cannot allow themselves to do anything else.

His secrets are hidden deep; but all that he does will be best for us, without the slightest doubt.

of the Lord, Who has13 brought you together here for that very purpose. This is your vocation; this must be your business; these must be your desires; these your tears; these your petitions. Let us not pray for worldly things, my sisters. It makes me laugh, and yet14 it makes me sad, when I hear of the things which people come here to beg us to pray to God for; we are to ask His Majesty to give them money and to provide them with incomes — I wish that some of these people would entreat15 God to enable them to trample all such things beneath their feet. Their intentions are quite good, and I do as they ask because I see that they are really devout people, though I do not myself believe that God ever hears me when I pray for such things.16 The

Imagine that this Lord Himself is at your side and see how lovingly and how humbly He is teaching you – and, believe me, you should stay with so good a Friend for as long as you can before you leave Him. If you become accustomed to having Him at your side, and if He sees that you love Him to be there and are always trying to please Him, you will never be able to send Him away, nor will He ever fail you. He will help you in all your trials and you will have Him everywhere. Do you think it is a small thing to have such a Friend as that beside you?

After you die, you wear what you are.

Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.

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.

Our intellects, no matter how sharp, can no more grasp this than they can comprehend God.

do not try to get so much that you achieve nothing.

Alma mía, toma la cruz con gran consuelo, que ella sola es el camino para el cielo.

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

I used unexpectedly to experience a consciousness of the presence of God, or such a kind that I could not possibly doubt that He was within me or that I was wholly engulfed in Him. This was in no sense a vision: I believe it is called mystical theology. The soul is suspended in such a way that it seems to be completely outside itself. The will loves; the memory, I think, is almost lost; while the understanding, I believe, thought it is not lost, does not reason — I mean that it does not work, but is amazed at the extent of all it can understand; for God wills it to realize that it understands nothing of what His Majesty represents to it.