Therese Lisieux Quotes & Sayings

God would never inspire me with desires which cannot be realized; so in spite of my littleness, I can hope to be a saint. — Therese De Lisieux

Love is nourished only by sacrifices, and the more a soul refuses natural satisfactions, the stronger and more disinterested becomes her tenderness. — Therese Of Lisieux

Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father's love - difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul's miseries, her burdens, her needs - everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness. Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events - to the heart that loves, all is well. — Therese Of Lisieux

I want to give myself totally to Him ... I want to live no longer but for Him. — Therese Of Lisieux

Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be and becoming that person. — Therese Of Lisieux

The greatest honor God can do a soul is not give it much; but to ask much of it. — Therese Of Lisieux

The loveliest materpiece of the heart of God is the love of a Mother. — Therese Of Lisieux

He longs to give us a magnificent reward. He knows that suffering is the only means of preparing us to know Him as He knows Himself, and to become ourselves divine. — Therese Of Lisieux

You heard me, only Friend whom I love. To ravish my heart, you became man. You shed your blood, what a supreme mystery! ... And you still live for me on the Altar. If I cannot see the brilliance of your Face Or hear your sweet voice, O my God, I can live by your grace, I can rest on your Sacred Heart! — Therese Of Lisieux

If you are willing to bear serenely the trial of being displeasing to yourself, then you will be for Jesus a pleasant place of shelter. — Therese Of Lisieux

Each small task of everyday life is part of the total harmony of the universe. — Therese Of Lisieux

Holiness is a disposition of the heart that makes us humble and little in the arms of God, aware of our weakness, and confident - in the most audacious way - in His Fatherly goodness. — Therese Of Lisieux

At the time of Holy Communion I sometimes picture my soul under the figure of a little child of three or four years, who at play has got its hair tossed and its clothes soiled. These misfortunes have befallen me in battling with souls. But very soon the Blessed Virgin hastens to my aid: quickly, she takes off my dirty little pinafore, smoothes my hair and adorns it with a pretty ribbon or simply with a little flower ... and this suffices to render me pleasing and enables me to sit at the Banquet of Angels without blushing. — Therese Of Lisieux

I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. — Therese Of Lisieux

It is my weakness that gives me all my strength. — Therese Of Lisieux

My soul experienced a peace so sweet, so deep, it would be impossible to express it. — Therese Of Lisieux

Prayer for me is an updward leap of the heart — Therese Of Lisieux

Nothing's done well when it's done out of self-interest. — Therese Of Lisieux

When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens,I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth. — Therese De Lisieux

Then, overcome by joy, I cried, 'Jesus, my love. At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and then I will be all things. — Therese De Lisieux

The more one advances, the more one sees the goal is still far off. And now I am simply resigned to see myself always imperfect and in this I find my joy. — Therese Of Lisieux

Talking to God, I felt, is always better than talking about God; those pious conversations - there's always a touch of self-approval about them. THERESE OF LISIEUX[1] I — Eugene H. Peterson

I'm suffering very much, but am I suffering very well? That's the point! — Therese Of Lisieux

Love needs to be proved by action. — Therese Of Lisieux

For me, prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy; finally it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus. — Therese De Lisieux

You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions,nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them. — Therese De Lisieux

Go often to Holy Communion. Go very often! This is your one remedy. — Therese De Lisieux

In spite of this trial, which takes all enjoyment from me, I can never the less, cry out, 'Lord, you fill me with joy in all that you do. For is there a joy greater than to suffer for love?' — Therese Of Lisieux

How can the good God Who loves us so much, be happy when we suffer? Never does our suffering make Him happy; but it is necessary for us, and so He sends it to us while, as it were, turning away His Face ... I assure you that it costs Him dearly to fill us with bitterness. — Therese Of Lisieux

It's true, I suffer a great deal
but do I suffer well? That is the question. — Therese De Lisieux

Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing. — Therese De Lisieux

It is wrong to pass one's time in fretting, instead of sleeping on the Heart of Jesus. — Therese De Lisieux

Life passes. Eternity comes to meet us with great strides. Soon we shall be living with the very life of Jesus. Having drunk deep at the source of all bitterness, we shall be deified in the very source of all joys, of all delights. — Therese Of Lisieux

True charity consists in putting up with all one's neighbors fault's; never being surprised by his weakness, and being inspired by the least of his virtues. — Therese Of Lisieux

By our little acts of charity practiced in the shade we convert souls far away, we help missionaries, we win for them abundant alms; and by that means build actual dwellings spiritual and material for our Eucharistic Lord. — Therese Of Lisieux

It has a supernatural grandeur which expands the soul and unites it with God. I say an Our Father or a Hail Mary when I feel so spiritually barren that I cannot summon up a single worth while thought. These two prayers fill me with rapture and feed and satisfy my soul. — Therese Of Lisieux

For one pain endured with joy, we shall love the good God more forever. — Therese Of Lisieux

Perfection consists in doing His will, in being that which He wants us to be. — Therese Of Lisieux

Jesus makes the bitterest mouthful taste sweet. — Therese Of Lisieux

The country in which I live is not my native country, that lies elsewhere, and it must always be the center of my longings. — Therese Of Lisieux

Life is only a dream: soon, we shall awaken. And what joy! The greater our sufferings, the more limitless our glory. Oh! do not let us waste the trial Jesus sends. — Therese Of Lisieux

As the sun shines both on the cedar and the smallest flower, so the Divine sun illumines each soul. — Therese Of Lisieux

Love is a universe of its own, comprising all time and space. — Therese Of Lisieux

We must do everything we are obliged to do; give without reckoning, practice virtue whenever opportunity offers, constantly overcome ourselves, prove our love by all the little acts of tenderness and consideration we can muster. In a word, we must produce all the good works that lie within our strength - out of love for God. — Therese Of Lisieux

A brother who's helped by a brother is like a strong city. — Therese De Lisieux

Ever since his first attack — Therese De Lisieux

I have not the courage to search through books for beautiful prayers ... Unable either to say them all or choose between them, I do as a child would do who cannot read-I say just what I want to say to God, quite simply, and he never fails to understand. — Therese Of Lisieux

Trust and trust alone should lead us to love — Therese De Lisieux

unchanging truth, that unless we become as little children in the doing of our Heavenly Father's Will, we cannot enter into our Eternal Home. — Therese De Lisieux

It is only love which makes us acceptable to God. — Therese Of Lisieux

Let us love, since our heart is made for nothing else. — Therese Of Lisieux

God would turn the world around to find suffering in order to give it to a soul upon whom He has set His Divine gaze with ineffable love. — Therese Of Lisieux

Receive Communion often, very often ... there you have the sole remedy, if you want to be cured. Jesus has not put this attraction in your heart for nothing ... — Therese Of Lisieux

He [Jesus] has no need of our works but only of our love. — Therese Of Lisieux

I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth, and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. — Therese Of Lisieux

For me, prayer means launching out of the heart towards God; it means lifting up one's eyes, quite simply, to heaven, a cry of grateful love, from the crest of joy or the trough of despair; it's a vast, supernatural force which opens out my heart, and binds me close to Jesus. — Therese Of Lisieux

I want to shine like a little candle before His altar. — Therese Of Lisieux

That beautiful day passed just as the saddest ones do, since the most radiant of days has a tomorrow. — Therese De Lisieux

My director, Jesus, does not teach me to count my acts, but to do everything for love, to refuse Him nothing, to be pleased when He gives me a chance to prove to Him that I love Him - but all this in peace - in abandonment. — Therese Of Lisieux

My vocation, at last I have found it; my vocation is love. — Therese Of Lisieux

He has created the poor savage with no guide but natural law, and it is to their hearts that He deigns to stoop. They are His wild flowers whose homeliness delights Him. — Therese Of Lisieux

When something painful or disagreeable happens to me, instead of a melancholy look, I answer by a smile. At first I did not always succeed, but now it has become a habit which I am glad to have acquired. — Therese De Lisieux

Trying to do good to people without God's help is no easier than making the sun shine at midnight. You discover that you've got to abandon all your own preferences, your own bright ideas, and guide souls along the road our Lord has marked out for them. You mustn't coerce them into some path of your own choosing. — Therese Of Lisieux

Above the clouds the sky is always blue. — Therese Of Lisieux

Just as the sun shines on all the trees and flowers as if each were the only one on earth, so does God care for all souls in a special manner. — Therese De Lisieux

It is not to remain in a golden ciborium that He comes down each day from Heaven, but to find another Heaven, the Heaven of our soul in which He takes delight. — Therese Of Lisieux

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily
do not rob the little violet of it's scent nor the daisy of its simple charm.
If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness. — Therese De Lisieux

At last there dawned the most beautiful day of all the days of my life. How perfectly I remember even the smallest details of those sacred hours! The joyful awakening, the reverent and tender embraces of my mistresses and older companions, the room filled with white frocks, like so many snowflakes, where each child was dressed in turn. — Therese Of Lisieux

When we are expecting only suffering, the least joy surprises us: Suffering itself becomes the greatest of joys when we seek it as a precious treasure. — Therese Of Lisieux

Much later, when I understood what perfection was, I realized that to become a saint one must suffer a great deal, always seek what is best, and forget oneself. I understood that there were many kinds of of sanctity and that each soul was free to respond to the approaches of Our Lord and to do little or much for Him - in other words,to make a choice among the sacrifices He demands. — Therese Of Lisieux

Perfect love means putting up with other peoples shortcomings, feeling no surprise at their weaknesses, finding encouragement even in the slightest evidence of good qualities in them. — Therese Of Lisieux

Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude. — Therese Of Lisieux

The one, more Latin, more Roman, closer to eloquence than to the literal word, aims at a certain effect, at magic. The other, more Greek, more Hellenistic, seeks transparency flowing from the source. — Therese De Lisieux

Love consumes us only in the measure of our self-surrender. — Therese Of Lisieux

Let us go forward in peace, our eyes upon heaven, the only one goal of our labors. — Therese Of Lisieux

To dedicate oneself as a Victim of Love is not to be dedicated to sweetness and consolations; it is to offer oneself to all that is painful and bitter, because Love lives only by sacrifice and the more we would surrender ourselves to Love, the more we must surrender
ourselves to suffering — Therese De Lisieux

For me to love you, Jesus, as you love me, I would have to borrow your own love and then only would I be at rest. — Therese Of Lisieux

What a joy to remember that she is our Mother! Since she loves us and knows our weakness, what have we to fear? — Therese Of Lisieux

I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifices to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul. — Therese De Lisieux

Time is but a shadow, a dream; already God sees us in glory and takes joy in our eternal beatitude. How this thought helps my soul! I understand then why He lets us suffer. — Therese Of Lisieux

Trials help us detach ourselves from the earth; they make us look higher than this world. — Therese Of Lisieux

The morrow of this day will be eternity; then Jesus will return you a hundred fold the lovely, rightful joys that you are sacrificing for him. — Therese Of Lisieux

I am now at a time of life when I can look back on the past, for my soul has been refined in the crucible of interior and exterior trials. Now, like a flower after the storm, I can raise my head and see that the words of the Psalm are realised in me: "The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall want nothing. He hath set me in a place of pasture. He hath brought me up on the water of refreshment. He hath converted my soul. He hath led me on the paths of justice for His own Name's sake. For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils for Thou are with me."[6] — Therese, Saint De Lisieux

(Whispered to a novice while standing in front of the convent library) Oh! I would have been sorry to have read all those books ... If I had read them, I would have broken my head, and I would have wasted precious time that I could have employed very simply in loving God. — Therese Of Lisieux

Discouragement itself is a form of pride. — Therese Of Lisieux

Frequently, only silence can express my prayer. — Therese Of Lisieux

A soul in a state of grace need fear nothing from devils, for they are so cowardly that they feel from the gaze of a child — St-Therese De Lisieux

A heart given to God loses none of its natural tenderness; on the contrary, the more pure and divine it becomes, the more such tenderness increases. — Therese Of Lisieux

Our Lord needs from us neither great deeds nor profound thoughts. Neither intelligence nor talents. He cherishes simplicity. — Therese Of Lisieux

We who run in the way of Love must never torment ourselves about anything. If I did not suffer minute by minute, it would be impossible for me to be patient; but I see only the present moment, I forget the past, and take good care not to anticipate the future. If we grow disheartened, if sometimes we despair, it is because we have been dwelling on the past or the future. — Therese Of Lisieux

Remember that in ascending to the Father You could not leave us orphans; And in making yourself a prisoner on earth You knew to veil all your divine rays. But the shadow of your veil is luminous and pure. Living Bread of faith, Celestial Food, O mystery of love! My daily Bread, Jesus, is You! ... Jesus, it is you who, despite the blasphemies Of the enemies of the Sacrament of love, It is you who want to show how much you love me, Since you make your dwelling in my heart. O Bread of the exiled! Holy and Divine Host, It is no longer I who live, but I live on your life — Therese Of Lisieux

The world's thy ship and not thy home. — Therese De Lisieux

Love is the Cross, and the Cross is Love. — Therese Of Lisieux

I will send a shower of roses. — Therese Of Lisieux

Do you realize
that Jesus is there
in the tabernacle
expressly for you-
for you alone? He
burns with the
desire to come into
your heart ... don't
listen to the demon,
laugh at him, and
go without fear to
receive the Jesus of
peace and love ... — Therese De Lisieux

Prayer and sacrifice can touch souls better than words. — Therese Of Lisieux

Let us not be justices of the peace, but angels of peace. — Therese Of Lisieux

I say nothing to him I love him — Therese De Lisieux

In Heaven the good God will do all I wish, because I have never done my own will upon earth. — Therese Of Lisieux

Even now I know it: yes, all my hopes will be fulfilled ... yes ... the Lord will work wonders for me which will surpass infinitely my immeasurable desires. — Therese Of Lisieux