Quotes from St. Teresa of Avila – her feast day is tomorrow

Interior castle tan

These are from her amazing classic, The Interior Castle (you can get it on kindle for $0.99), which she wrote several years before her death at the age of 67. It was for the sisters in her convents but was not passed around until after her death. There was a concern that the Spanish Inquisition might not be happy with it. Anything that might seem a bit odd, was not favored.

Here is a quote from her wikipedia entry – very true –

Her written contributions, which include her autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus and her seminal work The Interior Castle, are today an integral part of Spanish Renaissance literature. Together with The Way of Perfection, her works form part of the literary canon of Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practice, and continue to attract interest from people both within and outside the Catholic Church.

And here the three short quotes:

“perfection consists not in consolations, but in the increase of love;”
 
"The important thing is not to think much, but to love much; do, then, whatever most arouses you to love."
 
"Once, while I was wondering why Our Lord so dearly loves the virtue of humility, the thought suddenly struck me, without previous reflection, that it is because God is the supreme Truth and humility is the truth…
 
 
 

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