Teresa of Ávila - Soul Quotes

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Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.

Teresa of Ávila
O my God, what must a soul be like when it is in this state! It longs to be all one tongue with which to praise the Lord. It utters a thousand pious follies, in a continuous endeavor to please Him who thus possesses it.

Teresa of Ávila
Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people's, if we are always criticizing trivial actions - which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives.

Teresa of Ávila
It will be as well, I think, to explain these locutions of God, and to describe what the soul feels when it receives them.

Teresa of Ávila
Souls who do not practice prayer are like people whose limbs are paralyzed.

Teresa of Ávila
Just as we cannot stop the movement of the heavens, revolving as they do with such speed, so we cannot restrain our thought. And then we send all the faculties of the soul after it, thinking we are lost, and have misused the time that we are spending in the presence of God. Yet the soul may perhaps be wholly united with Him in the Mansions very near His presence, while thought remains in the outskirts of the castle, suffering the assaults of a thousand wild and venomous creatures and from this suffering winning merit. So this must not upset us, and we must not abandon the struggle, as the devil tries to make us do. Most of these trials and times of unrest come from the fact that we do not understand ourselves.

Teresa of Ávila
A beginner must look on himself as one setting out to make a garden for his Lord's pleasure, on most unfruitful soil which abounds in weeds. His Majesty roots up the weeds and will put in good plants instead. Let us reckon that this is already done when the soul decides to practice prayer and has begun to do so.

Teresa of Ávila
Humility, however deep it be, neither disquiets nor troubles nor disturbs the soul; it is accompanied by peace, joy and tranquillity.

Teresa of Ávila
In a state of grace, the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of clearest crystal. Its works are pleasing both to God and man, rising from the River of Life, beside which it is rooted like a tree.

Teresa of Ávila
It constantly happens that the Lord permits a soul to fall so that it may grow humbler.

Teresa of Ávila
I have often thought with wonder of the great goodness of God; and my soul has rejoiced in the contemplation of His great magnificence and mercy. May He be blessed for ever! For I see clearly that He has not omitted to reward me, even in this life, for every one of my good desires.

Teresa of Ávila
As to what good qualities there may be in our souls, or who dwells within them, or how precious they are — those are things which we seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the soul's beauty.

Teresa of Ávila
Souls without prayer are like bodies, palsied and lame, having hands and feet they cannot use.

Teresa of Ávila
The most potent and acceptable prayer is the prayer that leaves the best effects. I don't mean it must immediately fill the soul with desire... The best effects are those that are followed up by actions-when the soul not only desires the honor of God, but really strives for it.

Teresa of Ávila
While the soul is in mortal sin, nothing can profit it; none of its good works merit an eternal reward, since they do not proceed from God as their first principle, and by Him alone is our virtue real virtue.

Teresa of Ávila
I once heard a spiritual man say that he was not so much astonished at the things done by a soul in mortal sin as at the things not done by it. May God, in his mercy, deliver us from such great evil, for there is nothing in the whole of our lives that so thoroughly deserves to be called evil as this, since it brings endless and eternal evils in its train.

Teresa of Ávila
Nothing can be compared to the great beauty and capabilities of a soul; however keen our intellects may be, they are as unable to comprehend them as to comprehend God, for, as He has told us, He created us in His own image and likeness.

Teresa of Ávila
What friends or kindred can be so close and intimate as the powers of our soul, which, whether we will or no, must ever bear us company?

Teresa of Ávila
It is certain that the love of God does not consist in this sweetness and tenderness which we for the most part desire; but rather in serving Him in justice, fortitude, and humility. His Majesty seeks and loves courageous souls.

Teresa of Ávila
God speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways. Sometimes he calls souls by means of sickness or troubles, or by some truth He teaches them during prayer, for tepid as they may be in seeking Him, yet God holds them very dear.

Teresa of Ávila
Humility does not disturb or disquiet or agitate, however great it may be; it comes with peace, delight, and calm.... The pain of genuine humility doesn't agitate or afflict the soul; rather, this humility expands it and enables it to serve God more.

Teresa of Ávila
A soul which gives itself to prayer, either much or little, should on no account be kept within narrow bounds.

Teresa of Ávila
Strive to close the eyes of the body and open those of the soul and look into your own heart.

Teresa of Ávila
It is impossible for human tongue to exaggerate the riches which a vision from God brings to the soul: it even bestows health and refreshment on the body.

Teresa of Ávila
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.

Teresa of Ávila