110+ Teresa of Avila Quotes On Prayer, Suffering And Humility

Saint Teresa of Avila was a 16th-century Spanish mystic, Carmelite nun, and prominent Christian saint. She is known for her writings on mental prayer, her reform of the Carmelite order, and her role in the Counter-Reformation. She was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, and is the patron saint of headache sufferers, loss of parents, and people in need of grace. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Teresa of Avila on love, prayer, suffering.

Top 10 Teresa Of Avila Quotes

1. When we accept what happens to us and make the best of it, we are praising God.
2. We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.
7. If we practice love of neighbor with great perfection, we will have done everything.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Prayer is an act of love. Words are not needed.

Teresa of Avila Image Quotes

Prayer is an act of love. Words are not needed. — Teresa of Avila

God is even kinder than you think. — Teresa of Avila

Teresa Of Avila Short Quotes

• God is even kinder than you think.
• What a great favor God does to those He places in the company of good people!
• Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.
• May I not come before You with empty hands, since we are rewarded according to our deeds.
• Untilled soil, however fertile it may be, will bear thistles and thorns; so it is with man's mind.
• I am afraid that if we begin to put our trust in human help, some of our Divine help will fail us.
• It is a dangerous thing to be satisfied with ourselves.
• It is true that we cannot be free from sin, but at least let our sins not always be the same.
• For pity's sake, don't start meeting troubles halfway.
• Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man.

Teresa of Avila Quotes About Love

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. — Teresa of Avila

Contemplative prayer [oración mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. — Teresa of Avila

It should be observed that perfect love of God consists not in those delights, tears and sentiments of devotion that we generally seek, but in a strong determination and keen desire to please God in all things, and to promote His glory. — Teresa of Avila

It is love alone that gives worth to all things. — Teresa of Avila

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. — Teresa of Avila

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 Avila

True love grows by sacrifice and the more thoroughly the soul rejects natural satisfaction the stronger and more detached its tenderness becomes. — Teresa of Avila

If we learn to love the earth, we will find labyrinths, gardens, fountains and precious jewels! A whole new world will open itself to us. We will discover what it means to be truly alive. — Teresa of Avila

Ah, how true it is that we love ourselves too much and proceed with too much human prudence, that we may not lose an atom of our consideration! Oh, what a great mistake that is! The Saints did not act thus. — Teresa of Avila

We cannot be sure if we are loving God, although we may have good reasons for believing that we are, but we can know quite well if we are loving our neighbor. And be certain that, the farther advanced you find you are in this, the greater the love you will have for God. — Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila Quotes About Prayer

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers. — Teresa of Avila

Don't imagine that, if you had a great deal of time, you would spend more of it in prayer. Get rid of that idea; it is no hindrance to prayer to spend your time well. — Teresa of Avila

It is of great importance, when we begin to practise prayer, not to let ourselves be frightened by our own thoughts. — Teresa of Avila

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

Mental prayer is nothing else but being on terms of friendship with God, frequently conversing in secret with Him. — Teresa of Avila

You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him. — Teresa of Avila

How often I failed in my duty to God, because I was not leaning on the strong pillar of prayer. — Teresa of Avila

Much more is accomplished by a single word of the Our Father said, now and then, from our heart, than by the whole prayer repeated many times in haste and without attention. — Teresa of Avila

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 Avila

Jacob did not cease to be a Saint because he had to attend to his flocks. — Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila Quotes About Suffering

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. — Teresa of Avila

Suffering is a great favor. Remember that everything soon comes to an end . . . and take courage. Think of how our gain is eternal. — Teresa of Avila

Every part of the journey is of importance to the whole. — Teresa of Avila

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. — Teresa of Avila

Let us consider what the glorious Virgin endured, and what the holy apostles suffered, and we shall find that they who were nearest to Jesus Christ were the most afflicted. — Teresa of Avila

We bloomed in Spring. Our bodies are the leaves of God. The apparent seasons of life and death our eyes can suffer; but our souls, dear, I will just say this forthright: they are God Himself, we will never perish until He does. — Teresa of Avila

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. — Teresa of Avila

Blessed be He, Who came into the world for no other purpose than to suffer. — Teresa of Avila

Truth suffers, but never dies. — Teresa of Avila

Oh, how everything that is suffered with love is healed again! — Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila Quotes About Humility

Humility must always be doing its work like a bee making honey in the hive: without humility all will be lost. — Teresa of Avila

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 Avila

We shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavoring to know God; for, beholding His greatness we realize our own littleness; His purity shows us our foulness; and by meditating upon His humility we find how very far we are from being humble. — Teresa of Avila

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

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. — Teresa of Avila

Praised be the Lord, who has redeemed me from myself. — Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila Quotes About Death

After you die, you wear what you are. — Teresa of Avila

The hour I have long wished for is now come. — Teresa of Avila

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. — Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila Quotes About Prayerful

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

In order to profit from this path [of prayer] and ascend to the dwelling places we desire, the important thing is not to think much but to love much; and so, do that which best stirs you to love. — Teresa of Avila

We are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in His presence in a very different sense. — Teresa of Avila

One must not think that a person who is suffering is not praying. He is offering up his sufferings to God, and many a time he is praying much more truly than one who goes away by himself and meditates his head off, and, if he has squeezed out a few tears, thinks that is prayer. — Teresa of Avila

Vocal prayer . . . must be accompanied by reflection. A prayer in which a person is not aware of Whom he is speaking to, what he is asking, who it is who is asking and of Whom, I don't call prayer-however much the lips may move. — Teresa of Avila

Let him never cease from prayer who has once begun it, be his life ever so wicked; for prayer is the way to amend it, and without prayer such amendment will be much more difficult. — Teresa of Avila

I would never want any prayer that would not make the virtues grow within me. — Teresa of Avila

Prayer is a friendly conversation with the One we know loves us. — Teresa of Avila

The life of prayer is just love to God, and the custom of being ever with Him. — Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila Quotes About Bodies

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

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 Avila

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. — Teresa of Avila

Christ has no body now on earth but yours. — Teresa of Avila

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. — Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila Quotes About Souls

With all this wide and beautiful creation before me, the restless soul longs to enjoy its liberty and rest beyond its bound. — Teresa of Avila

Hope, O my soul, hope. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience turns a very short time into a long one. — Teresa of Avila

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 Avila

Our soul can find in the Blessed Sacrament all the joys and consolations it desires. — Teresa of Avila

The true penance comes when God takes away the soul's health and strength for doing penance. Even though I have mentioned elsewhere the great pain this lack causes, the pain is much more intense here. All these things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted. — Teresa of Avila

As God's beloved, I live in the bliss knowing that my soul is never separated from Him, for I learn to know Her in all that I see. God dissolved my mind-my separation. I cannot describe now my intimacy with Him. — Teresa of Avila

Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. — Teresa of Avila

For, as I said a little way back, perfect souls are in no way repelled by trials, but rather desire them and pray for them and love them. They are like soldiers: the more wars there are, the better they are pleased, because they hope to emerge from them with the greater riches. — Teresa of Avila

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 Avila

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

Teresa of Avila Quotes About Life

Those seeking the life of the spirit should be cheerful and free, and not neglect recreation. Married people must act in conformity with their vocation--but their progress will of necessity be but the pace of a hen. — Teresa of Avila

To have courage for whatever comes in life -- everything lies in that. — Teresa of Avila

What a miserable life is this! There is no happiness that is secure and nothing that does not change. — Teresa of Avila

From heaven even the most miserable life will look like one bad night at an inconvenient hotel. — Teresa of Avila

Life is to life in such a way that we are not afraid to die. — Teresa of Avila

The life of the spirit is not our life, but the life of God within us. — Teresa of Avila

However much we do to avoid them, we shall never lack crosses in this life if we are in the ranks of the Crucified. — Teresa of Avila

Life is a night spent in an uncomfortable inn. — Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila Quotes About Gain

Learn to self-conquest, persevere thus for a time, and you will perceive very clearly the advantage which you gain from it. — Teresa of Avila

It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found -- not hidden away in corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be incomparably the greater. — Teresa of Avila

Do not think you have gained a virtue unless you have first been tried by its opposite. — Teresa of Avila

Those who in fact risk all for God will find that they have both lost all and gained all. — Teresa of Avila

Our greatest gain is to lose the wealth that is of such brief duration and, by comparison with eternal things, of such little worth; yet we get upset about it and our gain turns to loss. — Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila Famous Quotes And Sayings

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. — Teresa of Avila

Prayer is an act of love. Words are not needed. — Teresa of Avila

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. — Teresa of Avila

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. — Teresa of Avila

Her heart is full of joy with love, for in the Lord her mind is stilled. She has renounced every selfish attachment and draws abiding joy and strength from the One within. She lives not for herself, but lives to serve the Lord of Love in all, and swims across the sea of life breasting its rough waves joyfully. — Teresa of Avila

About the injunction of the Apostle Paul that women should keep silent in church? Don't go by one text only. — Teresa of Avila

Let nothing disturb thee; Let nothing dismay thee; All things pass; God never changes. Patience attains All that it strives for. — Teresa of Avila

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. — Teresa of Avila

How poor is the wisdom of men, and how uncertain their forecast! — Teresa of Avila

We should blush for shame to show so much resentment at what is done or said against us, knowing that so many injuries and affronts have been offered to our Redeemer and the saints. — Teresa of Avila

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. — Teresa of Avila

Let us remember that within us there is a palace of immense magnificence. — Teresa of Avila

How is it that we do not die of love in seeing that God Himself could do no more than shed His divine blood for us drop by drop? When as man He was preparing for death, He made Himself our food in order to give us life. God becomes food, bread for his creatures. Is this not enough to make us die of love? — Teresa of Avila

To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience. — Teresa of Avila

In the presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament we ought to be like the Blessed in heaven before the Divine Essence — Teresa of Avila

The more we see that any action springs not from the motive of obedience, the more evident is it that it is a temptation of the enemy; for when God sends an inspiration, the very first effect of it is to infuse a spirit of docility. — Teresa of Avila

We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can -- namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us. — Teresa of Avila

Be kind to all and severe to thyself. — Teresa of Avila

Keep this in mind, for it is very important advice, so do not neglect it until you find you have such a fixed determination not to offend the Lord that you would rather lose a thousand lives and be persecuted by the whole world, than commit one mortal sin, and until you are most careful not to commit venial sins. — Teresa of Avila

If this is the way You treat Your friends, no wonder You have so few! — Teresa of Avila

Let nothing disturb you, / Nothing dismay you; / All things are passing: / God never changes. — Teresa of Avila

To argue over who is the more noble is nothing more than to dispute whether dirt is better for making bricks or for making mortar. — Teresa of Avila

How friendly we should all be with one another if nobody were interested in money and honor. — Teresa of Avila

Patient endurance / Attaineth to all things. — Teresa of Avila

That is how His Majesty [the Lord] rewards our good works---I mean, by predisposing us to perform better ones. — Teresa of Avila

Christ moves along the pots and pans. — Teresa of Avila

Everything seems to me to pass so quickly that we must concentrate on how to die rather than on how to live. How sweet it is to die if one has lived on the Cross with Christ. — Teresa of Avila

His Majesty [the Lord] . . . rewards great services with trials, and there can be no better reward, for out of trials springs love for God. — Teresa of Avila

Don't be curious of matters that don't concern you; never speak of them, and don't ask about them. — Teresa of Avila

If we plant a flower or a shrub and water it daily it will grow so tall that in time we shall need a spade and a hoe to uproot it. It is just so, I think, when we commit a fault, however small, each day, and do not cure ourselves of it. — Teresa of Avila

What misery to live in this world! We are like men whose enemies are at the door, who must not lay aside their arms, even while sleeping or eating, and are always in dread lest the foe should enter the fortress by some breach in the walls. O my Lord and my all! How canst thou wish us to prize such a wretched existence? — Teresa of Avila

True perfection consists in the love of God and our neighbour, and the better we keep both these commandments, the more perfect we shall be. — Teresa of Avila

Love makes labour light. Love alone gives value to all things. — Teresa of Avila

So dearly does His Majesty love us that He will reward our love for our neighbor by increasing the love which we bear to Himself, and that in a thousand ways. — Teresa of Avila

God aids the valiant...both to you and to me He will give the help needed. — Teresa of Avila

There seem to me a great many blessings which come from true poverty and I should be sorry to be deprived of them. — Teresa of Avila

There is more security in self-denial, mortification, and other like virtues, than in an abundance of tears. — Teresa of Avila

Patience attains All that it strives for. He who has God Finds he lacks nothing: God alone suffices. — Teresa of Avila

All the trials we endure cannot be compared to these interior battles. — Teresa of Avila

To converse with You, O King of glory, no third person is needed, You are always ready in the Sacrament of the Altar to give audience to all. All who desire You always find You there, and converse with You face to face — Teresa of Avila

The best thing must be to flee from all to the All. — Teresa of Avila

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. — Teresa of Avila

Consider seriously how quickly people change, and how little trust is to be had in them; and hold fast to God, Who does not change. — Teresa of Avila

If we do not use great care to mortify our will, there are many things which can deprives us of the holy freedom of spirit that we are seeking in order to fly more freely to our Creator, without always being bogged down with the clay of this earth. Moreover, there can never be solid virtue in a soul that is attached to its own will. — Teresa of Avila

[Last words:] My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may your will be done. O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another. — Teresa of Avila

Anyone who has the habit of speaking before God's majesty as if he were speaking to a slave, careless about how he is speaking, and saying whatever comes into his head and whatever he's learned from saying prayers at other times, in my opinion is not praying. Please, God, may no Christian pray in this way. — Teresa of Avila

How is it that there are not many who are led by sermons to forsake open sin? Do you know what I think? That is because preachers have too much worldly wisdom. — Teresa of Avila

God, deliver me from sullen saints. — Teresa of Avila

How is it, Lord, that we are cowards in everything save in opposing thee? — Teresa of Avila

Life Lessons by Teresa of Avila

1. Saint Teresa of Avila taught us to be humble and to trust in the Lord. She showed us that prayer and contemplation can bring us closer to God and lead us to a life of joy and peace.
2. She also taught us to be patient and to accept the hardships of life with grace and courage.
3. Finally, Saint Teresa of Avila showed us that we can find strength and comfort in our faith, even in the most difficult of times.