Oct. 15, 2021: St. Teresa of Avila

 Oct. 15, 2021: St. Teresa of Avila

"Souls who do not practice prayer are like people whose limbs are paralyzed... To seek God within ourselves avails us far more than to look for Him amongst creatures. 

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.

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.

I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions.

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.

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.

True perfection consists in the love of God and our neighbor, and the better we keep both these commandments, the more perfect we shall be."

-St. Teresa of Avila