Lisieux Quotes

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

At this time I choseas friends two little girls of my own age; but how shallow are the hearts of creatures! Oneof them had to stay at home for some months; while she was away I thought about her veryoften, and on her return I showed how pleased I was. However, all I got was a glance of indifference-my friendship was not appreciated. I felt this very keenly, and I no longer soughtan affection which had proved so inconstant. Nevertheless I still love my little school friend,and continue to pray for her, for God has given me a faithful heart, and when once I love,I love for ever. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Go often to Holy Communion. Go very often! This is your one remedy. ~ Therese De Lisieux

I have always wanted to become a saint. Unfortunately, when I have compared myself with the saints, I have always found that there is the same difference between the saints and me as there is between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and a humble grain of sand trodden underfoot by passers-by. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Prayer and sacrifice can touch souls better than words. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

For one pain endured with joy, we shall love the good God more forever. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

When we yield to discouragement it is usually because we give too much thought to the past and to the future. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Nothing's done well when it's done out of self-interest. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Love is nourished only by sacrifices, and the more a soul refuses natural satisfactions, the stronger and more disinterested becomes her tenderness. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily
do not rob the little violet of it's scent nor the daisy of its simple charm.
If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness. ~ Therese De Lisieux

It is love alone that counts. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Do you realize
that Jesus is there
in the tabernacle
expressly for you-
for you alone? He
burns with the
desire to come into
your heart ... don't
listen to the demon,
laugh at him, and
go without fear to
receive the Jesus of
peace and love ... ~ Therese De Lisieux

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. ~ Therese De Lisieux

Suffering is the very best gift He has to give us. He gives it only to His chosen friends. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

How can the good God Who loves us so much, be happy when we suffer? Never does our suffering make Him happy; but it is necessary for us, and so He sends it to us while, as it were, turning away His Face ... I assure you that it costs Him dearly to fill us with bitterness. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

I want to give myself totally to Him ... I want to live no longer but for Him. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

She is more Mother than Queen. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

The country in which I live is not my native country, that lies elsewhere, and it must always be the center of my longings. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

I have at last found my vocation; it is love! ~ Therese De Lisieux

The guest of our soul knows our misery; He comes to find an empty tent within us - that is all He asks. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

He is not far off; He is there, very close. He is looking at us, and He is begging this sorrow, this agony from us. He needs it for souls and for our soul ... Alas, it does pain Him to give us sorrows to drink, but He knows this is the only means of preparing us to know Him as He knows Himself and to become God's ourselves. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

My soul experienced a peace so sweet, so deep, it would be impossible to express it. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Much later, when I understood what perfection was, I realized that to become a saint one must suffer a great deal, always seek what is best, and forget oneself. I understood that there were many kinds of of sanctity and that each soul was free to respond to the approaches of Our Lord and to do little or much for Him - in other words,to make a choice among the sacrifices He demands. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

It has a supernatural grandeur which expands the soul and unites it with God. I say an Our Father or a Hail Mary when I feel so spiritually barren that I cannot summon up a single worth while thought. These two prayers fill me with rapture and feed and satisfy my soul. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

The danger of modern spirituality, even as exemplified in St. Therese of Lisieux, is that simplicity can slide into sentimentality, a subjective caricature of objective love. Without a sense of history and of God's self-revelation in time as well as in one's heart, without the social discipline of the liturgical year and of approved devotions, modern religion degenerates. ~ Francis George

O Jesus! on this day, you have fulfilled all my desires. From now on, near the Eucharist, I shall be able To sacrifice myself in silence, to wait for Heaven in peace. Keeping myself open to the rays of the Divine Host, In this furnace of love, I shall be consumed, And like a seraphim, Lord, I shall love You. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

A brother who's helped by a brother is like a strong city. ~ Therese De Lisieux

True charity consists in putting up with all one's neighbors fault's; never being surprised by his weakness, and being inspired by the least of his virtues. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

That beautiful day passed just as the saddest ones do, since the most radiant of days has a tomorrow. ~ Therese De Lisieux

How I loved the feasts! ... I especially loved the processions in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. What a joy it was for me to throw flowers beneath the feet of God! ... I was never so happy as when I saw my roses touch the sacred Monstrance ... ~ Therese Of Lisieux

I'm suffering very much, but am I suffering very well? That's the point! ~ Therese Of Lisieux

A soul in a state of grace has nothing to fear of demons who are cowards. ~ Therese De Lisieux

A soul in a state of grace need fear nothing from devils, for they are so cowardly that they feel from the gaze of a child ~ St-Therese De Lisieux

Let us not be justices of the peace, but angels of peace. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

All God asks of you is good will. From the top of the ladder He looks lovingly upon you, and soon, touched by your fruitless efforts, He will Himself come down, and, taking you in His Arms, will carry you to His Kingdom never again to leave Him. But should you cease to raise your foot, you will be left for long on the earth. ~ Therese De Lisieux

In that first 'fusion' with Jesus (holy communion), it was my Heavenly Mother again who accompanied me to the altar for it was she herself who placed her Jesus into my soul. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Trials help us detach ourselves from the earth; they make us look higher than this world. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

It is not because I have been preserved from mortal sin that I lift up my heart to God in trust and love. I feel that even had I on my conscience every crime one could commit, I should lose nothing of my confidence: my heart broken with sorrow, I would throw myself into the Arms of my Saviour. I know that He loves the Prodigal Son, I have heard His words to St. Mary Magdalen, to the woman taken in adultery, and to the woman of Samaria. No one could frighten me, for I know what to believe concerning His Mercy and His Love. And I know that all that multitude of sins would disappear in an instant, even as a drop of water cast into a flaming furnace. ~ Therese De Lisieux

Most of us pass our lives away eating the husks of life. Within them, beneath the rind, is a sweeter fruit than ever we have tasted. How shall we find it unless the rind is peeled away by Wisdom greater than our own, by a Love whose ways are strange and bewildering to us. ~ Therese De Lisieux

I am now at a time of life when I can look back on the past, for my soul has been refined in the crucible of interior and exterior trials. Now, like a flower after the storm, I can raise my head and see that the words of the Psalm are realised in me: "The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall want nothing. He hath set me in a place of pasture. He hath brought me up on the water of refreshment. He hath converted my soul. He hath led me on the paths of justice for His own Name's sake. For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils for Thou are with me."[6] ~ Therese, Saint De Lisieux

He [Jesus] has no need of our works but only of our love. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

He does not call those who are worthy, but those whom He wills. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

When one loves, one does not calculate. ~ Therese De Lisieux

Clearly we must not be attached to anything, no matter how innocent, because it will slip from our grasp when least expected; nothing but the eternal can content us. ~ Therese De Lisieux

Why should we defend ourselves when we are misunderstood and misjudged? Let us leave that aside. Let us not say anything. It is so sweet to let others judge us in any way they like. O blessed silence, which gives so much peace to the soul! ~ Therese Of Lisieux

My vocation, at last I have found it; my vocation is love. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Surely--we argue--it is safer to make, at the Morning Offering, a virtual intention covering all the day, and then carry on with practical common sense.
This sounds excellent in theory, but too often it breaks down in practice and merely ends in the making of the Morning Offering, while we slip through the day on a purely natural plane till we arrive at our prayers in the evening; and it is precisely our habit of thus meeting the smallest actions of our daily life on the natural plane which makes them more than we can cope with. Divorced from their true purpose, that of leading us out of ourselves to God and to our fellow-men, they imprison us within ourselves and make us give way to self-pity and discontent.
On the other hand, if we do everything to please Our Lord we shall find ourselves becoming more and more alert to help others and far more conscious of the endless little opportunities around us, the value of which we had never realized before. ~ Vernon Johnson

And it is the Lord, it is Jesus, Who is my judge. Therefore I will try always to think leniently of others, that He may judge me leniently, or rather not at all, since He says: Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. ~ Therese De Lisieux

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

Love hasn't got anything to do with the heart, the heart's a disgusting organ, a sort of pump full of blood. Love is primarily concerned with the lungs. People shouldn't say "she's broken my heart" but "she's stifled my lungs." Lungs are the most romantic organs: lovers and artists always contract tuberculosis. It's not a coincidence that Chekhov, Kafka, D.H. Lawrence, Chopin, George Orwell and St Thérèse of Lisieux all died of it; as for Camus, Moravia, Boudard and Katherine Mansfield, would they have written the same books if it werent for TB? ~ Frederic Beigbeder

Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Another time I was working in the laundry, and the Sister opposite, while washing handkerchiefs, repeatedly splashed me with dirty water. My first impulse was to draw back and wipe my face, to show the offender I should be glad if she would behave more quietly; but the next minute I thought how foolish it was to refuse the treasures God offered me so generously, and I refrained from betraying my annoyance. On the contrary, I made such efforts to welcome the shower of dirty water, that at the end of half an hour I had taken quite a fancy to this novel kind of aspersion, and I resolved to come as often as I could to the happy spot where such treasures were freely bestowed. ~ Therese De Lisieux

The value of life does not depend upon the place we occupy. It depends upon the way we occupy that place. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

It is only love which makes us acceptable to God. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Remember that in ascending to the Father You could not leave us orphans; And in making yourself a prisoner on earth You knew to veil all your divine rays. But the shadow of your veil is luminous and pure. Living Bread of faith, Celestial Food, O mystery of love! My daily Bread, Jesus, is You! ... Jesus, it is you who, despite the blasphemies Of the enemies of the Sacrament of love, It is you who want to show how much you love me, Since you make your dwelling in my heart. O Bread of the exiled! Holy and Divine Host, It is no longer I who live, but I live on your life ~ Therese Of Lisieux

One day, one of my teachers at the Abbey asked me what I did on my [5]free afternoons when I was alone. I told her I went behind my bed in an empty space which was there, and that it was easy to close myself in with my bed curtain and that "I thought." "But what do you think about?" she asked. "I think about God, about life, about ETERNITY ... I think!" The good religious laughed heartily at me, and later on she loved reminding me of the [10]time when I thought, asking me if I was still thinking. I understand now that I was making mental prayer without knowing it and that God was already instructing me in secret. ~ Therese De Lisieux

(Whispered to a novice while standing in front of the convent library) Oh! I would have been sorry to have read all those books ... If I had read them, I would have broken my head, and I would have wasted precious time that I could have employed very simply in loving God. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

When something painful or disagreeable happens to me, instead of a melancholy look, I answer by a smile. At first I did not always succeed, but now it has become a habit which I am glad to have acquired. ~ Therese De Lisieux

Trust and trust alone should lead us to love ~ Therese De Lisieux

I felt it better to speak to God than about Him. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Let us love, since our heart is made for nothing else. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

The loveliest materpiece of the heart of God is the love of a Mother. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Never stop wanting for your magic ~ Therese Of Lisieux

I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth, and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Ah! How contrary are the teachings of Jesus to the feelings of nature! Without the help of His grace it would be impossible not only to put them into practice, but to even understand them. ~ Therese De Lisieux

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. ~ Therese De Lisieux

I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would no longer be enamelled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our lord's living garden. ~ Therese De Lisieux

I want to shine like a little candle before His altar. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Look at Him while He is looking at you. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

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. ~ Therese De Lisieux

I have not the courage to search through books for beautiful prayers ... Unable either to say them all or choose between them, I do as a child would do who cannot read-I say just what I want to say to God, quite simply, and he never fails to understand. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

It's true, I suffer a great deal
but do I suffer well? That is the question. ~ Therese De Lisieux

You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

What offends Him and what wounds His Heart is the lack of confidence ... Your heart is made to love Jesus, to love Him passionately ... We have only the short moments of our life to love Jesus! ~ Therese Of Lisieux

I also understood that God's love shows itself just as well in the simplest soul which puts up no resistance to His grace as it does in the loftiest soul. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

It is better to leave each one in his own opinion than to enter into arguments. ~ Therese De Lisieux

At the time of Holy Communion I sometimes picture my soul under the figure of a little child of three or four years, who at play has got its hair tossed and its clothes soiled. These misfortunes have befallen me in battling with souls. But very soon the Blessed Virgin hastens to my aid: quickly, she takes off my dirty little pinafore, smoothes my hair and adorns it with a pretty ribbon or simply with a little flower ... and this suffices to render me pleasing and enables me to sit at the Banquet of Angels without blushing. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father's love - difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul's miseries, her burdens, her needs - everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness. Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events - to the heart that loves, all is well. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

By our little acts of charity practiced in the shade we convert souls far away, we help missionaries, we win for them abundant alms; and by that means build actual dwellings spiritual and material for our Eucharistic Lord. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

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. ~ Therese De Lisieux

My director, Jesus, does not teach me to count my acts, but to do everything for love, to refuse Him nothing, to be pleased when He gives me a chance to prove to Him that I love Him - but all this in peace - in abandonment. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

It is not to remain in a golden ciborium that He comes down each day from Heaven, but to find another Heaven, the Heaven of our soul in which He takes delight. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

In Heaven the good God will do all I wish, because I have never done my own will upon earth. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Discouragement itself is a form of pride. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

i can nourish myself on nothing but truth ~ Therese De Lisieux

Just as the sun shines on all the trees and flowers as if each were the only one on earth, so does God care for all souls in a special manner. ~ Therese De Lisieux

You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions,nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them. ~ Therese De Lisieux

Talking to God, I felt, is always better than talking about God; those pious conversations - there's always a touch of self-approval about them. THERESE OF LISIEUX[1] I ~ Eugene H. Peterson

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. ~ Therese De Lisieux

We must do everything we are obliged to do; give without reckoning, practice virtue whenever opportunity offers, constantly overcome ourselves, prove our love by all the little acts of tenderness and consideration we can muster. In a word, we must produce all the good works that lie within our strength - out of love for God. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

It has taken me much of my life to begin to get to the second gaze. By nature I have a critical mind and a demanding heart, and I am so impatient. These are both my gifts and my curses, as you might expect. Yet I cannot have one without the other, it seems. I cannot risk losing touch with either my angels or my demons. They are both good teachers.

I am convinced that guilt and shame are never from God. They are merely the defenses of the False Self as it is shocked at its own poverty - the defenses of a little man who wants to be a big man. God leads by compassion toward the soul, never by condemnation. If God would relate to us by severity and punitiveness, God would only be giving us permission to do the same (which is tragically, due to our mistaken images of God, exactly what has happened!).

God offers us, instead, the grace to "weep" over our sins more than to ever perfectly overcome them, to humbly recognize our littleness. (St. Thérèse of Lisieux brought this Gospel message home in our time.) The spiritual journey is a kind of weeping and a kind of wandering that keeps us both askew and thus awake at the same time. Thérèse called it her "little way."

So now in my later life, contemplation and compassion are finally coming together. This is my second gaze. It is well worth waiting for, because only the second gaze sees fully and truthfully. It sees itself, the other, and even God with God's own eyes, which are always eyes of compassio ~ Richard Rohr

Even now I know it: yes, all my hopes will be fulfilled ... yes ... the Lord will work wonders for me which will surpass infinitely my immeasurable desires. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

I realized that to become a saint one must suffer a great deal, always seek what is best, and forget oneself. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

I prefer to be accused unjustly, for then I have nothing to reproach myself with, and joyfully offer this to the good Lord. Then I humble myself at the thought that I am indeed capable of doing the thing of which I have been accused. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

The greatest honor God can do a soul is not give it much; but to ask much of it. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Life passes. Eternity comes to meet us with great strides. Soon we shall be living with the very life of Jesus. Having drunk deep at the source of all bitterness, we shall be deified in the very source of all joys, of all delights. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Heaven for me is hidden in a little Host Where Jesus, my Spouse, is veiled for love. I go to that Divine Furnace to draw out life, And there my Sweet Saviour listens to me night and day. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

(On entering Carmel) I came to save souls and especially to pray for priests. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Trying to do good to people without God's help is no easier than making the sun shine at midnight. You discover that you've got to abandon all your own preferences, your own bright ideas, and guide souls along the road our Lord has marked out for them. You mustn't coerce them into some path of your own choosing. ~ Therese Of Lisieux

Let us rise above the things that pass away. Up above, the air is so pure. Jesus can hide Himself but we will find Him there. ~ Therese Of Lisieux