Thérèse of Lisieux Quotes

La perfección consiste en hacer su voluntad, en ser lo que él quiere que seamos...

El amor verdadero se alimenta de sacrificios. Cuanto más se niega el alma las satisfacciones naturales, tanto más desinteresado se vuelve su cariño.
Al amar a Cristo, el corazón se ensancha y puede dar incomparablemente más cariño a los que le son queridos que si se hubiera concentrado en un amor egoísta e infructuoso.

If my little acts of virtue can be mistaken for imperfections, imperfections can just as easily be mistaken for virtue.

M. Révérony said immediately: "Most Holy Father, this is a child who wants to enter Carmel at fifteen, but the superiors are considering the matter at this moment." (The good pope is so old that one would say he is dead; I would never have pictured him like this.) The Holy Father said simply: "If God wills it, you will enter." [-]I was crying a lot when writing this letter; my heart is heavy. However, God cannot give me trials that are above my strength. He has given me the courage to bear this trial. I am the Child Jesus' little ball;if He wishes to break His toy, He is free. Yes, I will all that He wills.

I thank Our Lord that He let me find nothing but bitterness in human affections. I should have been caught easily, and had my wings clipped...Our Lord knew that I was far too weak to face temptation; He knew that I would certainly have burnt myself in the bewildering light of earthly things, and so He did not let it shine in my eyes. Where stronger souls find joy but remain detached because they are faithful, I found only misery.

Life is passing, and eternity is drawing near. Soon we shall live the very life of God. After we have been filled at the source of all bitterness, our thirst will be quenched at the very Fountain of all sweetness.

Then, overcome by joy, I cried, 'Jesus, my love. At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and then I will be all things.

I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifices to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul.

La joie réside au plus intime de l'âme; on peut aussi bien la posséder dans une obscure prison que dans un palais.

We are not as yet in our true country, and as gold is tired in the fire so must our souls be purified by temptation.

"Then she showed them to me and I understood better than ever, in what true glory consists. He whose “Kingdom is not of this world"[2] taught me that the only royalty to be coveted lies in being “unknown and esteemed as naught,"[3] and in the joy of self-abasement. And I wished that my face, like the Face of Jesus, “should be, as it were, hidden and despised,"[4] so that no one on earth should esteem me. I thirsted to suffer and to be forgotten. Most merciful has been the way by which the Divine Master has ever led me.

I understand and I know from experience that: 'The kingdom of God is within you.' Jesus has no need of books or teachers to instruct souls; He teaches without the noise of words. Never have I heard Him speak, but I feel that He is within me at each moment; He is guiding and inspiring me with what I must say and do. I find just when I need them certain lights that I had not seen until then, and it isn't most frequently during my hours of prayer that these are most abundant but rather in the midst of my daily occupations.

I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me.” (Gal. 2:20).

"The life of every missionary abounds in crosses," said Théophane Vénard. And again: "True happiness consists in suffering, and in order to live we must die."

My whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice, these are my invincible arms; they can move hearts far better than words, I know it by experience.