Thérèse of Lisieux Quotes

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.

Yo soy esa hija, objeto del amor preveniente de un Padre que ha enviado a su Verbo para rescatar no a los justos sino a los pecadores. Quiere que yo lo ame porque me ha perdonado, no mucho sino TODO. No esperó que lo amase mucho como santa Magdalena, sino que ha querido que yo sepa cómo me había amado con un amor de inefable previsión, ¡a fin de que ahora lo ame hasta la locura!... He oído decir que no se ha hallado un alma pura que ame más que un alma arrepentida. ¡Cuánto querría desmentir esa expresión!...

One time I was expressing surprise that God should not give equal glory in heaven to all His elect, and I was afraid that everyone would not be happy. Then Pauline told me to go get Papa’s big glass and to put it next to my little dice cup, and to fill them with water. Then she asked me which one was the most full. I told her that one was as full as the other and that it was impossible to put in more water than they could hold. Then my dear mother helped me understand that in Heaven, God would give to His elect as much glory as they could hold, and so the last would have nothing to envy about the first.

¡Cuánto le agradezco a Jesús que me haya hecho encontrar «sólo amargura en las amistades de la tierra!». Con un corazón como el mío me hubiera dejado prender y cortar las alas, y entonces, ¿cómo hubiera podido «volar y descansar»? ¿Cómo puede unirse íntimamente a Dios un corazón que se entrega al afecto de las criaturas?... Pienso que eso no es posible.

If we examine the poems of Thérèse of Lisieux at all, they reveal themselves richer than we first thought. And this is the problem with her poetry: We have to go beyond the simple style, which is naturally and deliberately artless — as is fitting for a “Carmelite poem” — to discover the treasures it conceals.

Love alone counts.

to dedicate oneself as a Victim of Love is not to be dedicated to sweetness and consolations; it is to offer oneself to all that is painful and bitter, because Love lives only by sacrifice and the more we would surrender ourselves to Love, the more we must surrender
ourselves to suffering

If a little flower could speak, it seems to me that it would tell us quite simply all that God has done for it, without hiding any of its gifts. It would not, under the pretext of humility, say that it was not pretty, or that it had not a sweet scent, that the sun had withered its petals,or the storm bruised its stem, if it knew that such were not the case.

Love can do all things. The most impossible tasks seem to it easy and sweet. You know well that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them. What, then, have we to fear?

For me, prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy; finally it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus.

I know now that true charity consists in bearing all our neighbors'defects — not being surprised at their weakness, but edified at their smallest virtues.

"Our Lord made me understand that the only true glory is that which lasts for ever; and that to attain it there is no necessity to do brilliant deeds, but rather to hide from the eyes of others, and even from oneself, so that "the left hand knows not what the right hand does."[1]"

Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.

I saw that I wasn’t loving them as God loves them. Oh! Now I understand that perfect charity consists in bearing with others’ faults, in not being surprised at their weakness, in being edified by the little acts of virtue that we see them practice. But above all I understood that charity ought not to stay enclosed in the depths of the heart. Jesus said, “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house” [Mt. 5:15]. It seems to me that this lamp represents charity, which ought to illumine and cause to rejoice, not only those who are the dearest to me, but everyone in the house, without any exception.

O amor nutre-se de sacrifício. Quanto mais a alma se nega as exigências da natureza, tanto mais robusta e abnegada se torna a sua ternura.