Thursday, October 15, 2009

Blunt Talk to God

Teresa of Avila is credited with having said the following to the Lord, during a particularly trying experience:

"If this is how You treat Your friends, it is not surprising that You have so few of them."

I love her.

Other favorites from St. Teresa: 

"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." (Emphasis mine.)

*****
"Do not be dismayed daughters, at the number of things which you have to consider before setting out on this divine journey, which is the royal road to heaven. By taking this road we gain such precious treasures that it is no wonder if the cost seems to us a high one. The time will come when we shall realize that all we have paid has been nothing at all by comparison with the greatness of our prizes."
 
*****

"Oh my Lord! How true it is that whoever works for you is paid in troubles! And what a precious price to those who love you if we understand its value."

*****

"God, deliver me from sullen saints."

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Let nothing trouble you
Let nothing frighten you
Everything passes
God never changes
Patience obtains all
Whoever has God wants for nothing
God alone is enough

*****

Great books:
Interior Castle
The Way of Perfection
Fr. Thomas Dubay's Fire Within

Have a blessed feast day!




The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, Gian Lorenzo Bernini

2 comments:

sarah said...

I love Teresa so much, what an amazing woman she was.

Roz said...

My husband and I fled Sunday Mass at the American parish in Rome, where we were about to be regaled with a series of Marty Haugen and David Haas tunes (and the parish priest remarked to us before Mass that going to early Mass was good because it "got it over with").

We were fortunate enough to take refuge at Santa Maria della Vittoria across the street. So we got to hear Mass while staring at that beautiful statue of St. Teresa in ecstasy.

I believe St. Teresa was praying for us.