Today, October 15, is the memorial of the foundress of the Discalced Carmelites, Saint Teresa of Avila otherwise known as “Big T” (St. Therese of Lisieux is “Little T” and St. Teresa of Calcutta is “Tiny T.”) She is one of the great Doctors of the Church and one of the four female Doctors of the Church. She was canonized a Saint of the Church in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV. In 1970, Pope Paul Vi declared her a Doctor of the Church. To learn more about her life, click on the link above.

To celebrate this theological powerhouse, below are 10 quotes a variety of subjects. I hope that you enjoy reading them to get to know the theology of Saint Teresa of Avila.

Prayer, Faith, and Hope:

“I know that you can cling by sheer faith, without seeing or thinking anything.”

“Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one.”

Virtue:

“Strive yourself to practice with great perfection the virtue opposite the fault that appears in her.” (On how to deal with a difficult person).

Humility:

“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.”

“Humility must always be doing its work like a bee making its honey in the hive: without humility all will be lost.”

Human Nature:  

“Now true and lasting friendship require certain dispositions; those of our Lord, we know, are absolutely perfect; our, vicious, sensual, and thankless; and you cannot, therefore, bring yourselves to love Him as He loves you because you have not the disposition to do so.”

Penance:

“The penances done by some person are as carefully ordered as their lives. They observe great discretion in their penances, lest they should injure their health. You need never fear that they will kill themselves; they are eminently reasonable folk! Their love is not yet ardent enough to overwhelm their reason.”

Intellect:

“This intellect is so wild that it doesn’t seem to be anything else than a frantic madman no can tie down.”

Suffering:

“I would willingly endure all the sufferings of this world to be raised a degree higher in Heaven, and to possess the smallest increase of the knowledge of God’s greatness.”

Prayer:

“Let nothing worry you;

Nothing dismay you;

Everything passes;

God does not change.

If you have patience

You can do anything.

Those who love God

Want for nothing;

God alone is enough.”

Saint Teresa of Avila…Pray for Us

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