Be not perplexed

Be not perplexed,
Be not afraid,
Everything passes,
God does not change.
Patience wins all things.
He who has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.

- St. Teresa of Avila
The Way of Perfection

This magnificent refuge is inside you. Enter. Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway. Step around the poisonous vipers that slither at your feet, attempting to throw you of your course. Be bold. Be humble. Put away the incense and forget the incantations they taught you. Ask no permission from the authorities. Slip away. Close your eyes and follow your breath to the still place that leads to the invisible path that leads you home. — Saint Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle

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Praying is a way of being with someone I know loves me. — Saint Teresa of Avila

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing upset you.
Everything changes.
God alone is unchanging.
With patience all things are possible.
Whoever has God lacks nothing.
God alone is enough. — Saint Teresa of Avila, Bookmark Prayer

… And if you fall sometimes, do not lose heart. Keep trying to walk your path with integrity. God will draw out the good even from your fall, just as the man who sells antidotes will drink poison to test their effectiveness. — Saint Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle

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Let darkness be my light;
may my greatness lie in the lowest place.
Send me up the short, steep path;
make the cross my glory. — Saint Teresa of Avila, Life

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Remember: if you want to make progress on the path and ascend to the places you have longed for, the important thing is not to think much but to love much, and so to do whatever best awakens you to love. — Saint Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle

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One day, when Saint Teresa was taking her turn in the kitchen, she was carried off into ecstasy while still holding a frying pan in her hand. The nuns were alarmed–not to see her in ecstasy, for they had grown used to that–but because they feared she might spill the cooking oil, which was the last they had in the convent. — Stephen Clissold, Wisdom of the Spanish Mystics

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You should run a thousand miles from such expressions as: “I was right.” “They had no reason to do this to me.” “The one who did this to me was wrong.” God deliver us from this poor way of reasoning. Does it seem to be right that our good Jesus suffered so many insults and was made to undergo such injustice? — Saint Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection

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“You need not go to heaven to see God; nor need you speak loud, as if God were far away; nor need you cry for wings like a dove to fly to Him. Only be in silence, and you will come upon God within yourself.”

–Saint Teresa of Avila