Top 231 Quotes & Sayings by Teresa of Avila
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Spanish saint Teresa of Avila.
Last updated on November 22, 2024.
God is even kinder than you think.
Before prayer, endeavour to realise Whose Presence you are approaching and to Whom you are about to speak, keeping in mind Whom you are addressing. If our lives were a thousand times as long as they are we should never fully understand how we ought to behave towards God, before Whom the very Angels tremble, Who can do all He wills, and with Whom to wish is to accomplish.
The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes.
What peace can we hope to find elsewhere if we have none within us
This body of ours has one fault: the more you indulge it, the more things it discovers to be essential to it. It is extraordinary how it likes being indulged.
Trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
They deceive themselves who believe that union with God consists in ecstasies or raptures, and in the enjoyment of Him. For it consists in nothing except the surrender and subjection of our will - with our thoughts, words and actions - to the will of God.
Desire to see God, be fearful of losing Him, and find joy in everything that can lead to Him. If you act in this way, you will always live in great peace.
Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
However softly we speak, God is near enough to hear us.
After you die, you wear what you are.
Each of us has a soul, but we forget to value it. We don't remember that we are creatures made in the image of God. We don't understand the great secrets hidden inside of us.
Love makes labour light. Love alone gives value to all things.
Prayer is a friendly conversation with the One we know loves us.
Souls who do not practice prayer are like people whose limbs are paralyzed.
Be happy when you are blamed and accused wrongly, for then you have the chance to see all the bitter, hostile or self-pitying responses that your sinful soul wants to spew out - as if these puny things could in any way defend you! Watch and see if any of these poisons come out of you when your spirit is pricked by an accusation. Only then can you see yourself as you are, and confess thy sin that is within you and forsake yourself again into the Lord's care.
Let there be no disappointment when obedience keeps you busy in outward tasks. If it sends you to the kitchen, remember that the Lord walks among the pots and pans.
If you seek to carry no other crosses but those whose reason you understand, perfection is not for you.
The life of prayer is just love to God, and the custom of being ever with Him.
It is love alone that gives worth to all things.
Let us live in such a way as not to be afraid to die.
Let us look at our own faults, and not other people's. We ought not to insist on everyone following in our footsteps, nor to take upon ourselves to give instructions in spirituality when, perhaps, we do not even know what it is.
Christ has no body now but mine. He prays in me, works in me, looks through my eyes, speaks through my words, works through my hands, walks with my feet and loves with my heart.
Prayer is an act of love. Words are not needed.
Every part of the journey is of importance to the whole.
Let nothing Disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, Though all things pass, God does not change. Patience wins all things. But he lacks nothing who possesses God; For God alone suffices.
It constantly happens that the Lord permits a soul to fall so that it may grow humbler.
No one should think or say anything of another which he would not wish thought or said of himself.
Truth suffers, but never dies.
Strive to close the eyes of the body and open those of the soul and look into your own heart.
As to the aridity you are suffering from, it seems to me our Lord is treating you like someone He considers strong: He wants to test you and see if you love Him as much at times of aridity as when He sends you consolations. I think this is a very great favor for God to show you.
Let nothing disturb thee, let nothing affright thee. All things are passing. Patience obtains all things. He who has God has everything - God alone suffices.
All the troubles of the Church, all the evils in the world, flow from this source: that men do not by clear and sound knowledge and serious consideration penetrate into the truths of Sacred Scripture.
We may speak of love and humility as the true flowers of spiritual growth; and they give off a wonderful scent, which benefits all those who come near.
Christ does not force our will, He only takes what we give Him. But He does not give Himself entirely until He sees that we yield ourselves entirely to Him.
People in the world pay little heed to reason where their own interests are involved.
We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to look upon Him present within us.
Do not think you have gained a virtue unless you have first been tried by its opposite.
It is the nature of love to work in a thousand different ways.
Teach by works more than words.
How friendly we should all be with one another if nobody were interested in money and honor.
It is a dangerous thing to be satisfied with ourselves.
There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge in the world.
The surest way to determine whether one possesses the love of God is to see whether he or she loves his or her neighbor. These two loves are never separated. Rest assured, the more you progress in love of neighbor the more your love of God will increase.
When we accept what happens to us and make the best of it, we are praising God.
We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.
Settle yourself in solitude, and you will come upon God in yourself.
You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.
Let us remember that within us there is a palace of immense magnificence.
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.
Out of suffering comes the serious mind; out of salvation, the grateful heart; out of endurance, fortitude; out of deliverance faith. Patient endurance attends to all things.
What a great favor God does to those He places in the company of good people!
If we practice love of neighbor with great perfection, we will have done everything.
It is not a matter of thinking a great deal but of loving a great deal, so do whatever arouses you most to love.
About the injunction of the Apostle Paul that women should keep silent in church? Don't go by one text only.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes with which Christ looks out his compassion to the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now.
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.
There is no affliction, trial, or labor difficult to endure, when we consider the torments and sufferings which Our Lord Jesus Christ endured for us.
In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.
Life is a night spent in an uncomfortable inn.
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