Saturday, February 12, 2011

A hard saying

"If His Majesty revealed His love to us by doing and suffering such amazing things, how can you expect to please Him by words alone?  Do you know when people really become spiritual?  It is when they become the slaves of God and are branded with His sign, which is the sign of the cross, in token that they have given Him their freedom."

St. Teresa of Avila, Interior castle, Seventh mansions, chap. 4 (Complete works of St. Teresa of Jesus, translated and edited by E. Allison Peers, vol. 2 (London: Sheed & Ward, 1946), 346).  "the profit [of prayer and contemplation] is small by comparison with the far greater profit which comes from conformity between our deeds on the one hand and our resolutions and the words we use on the other" (346).  "you must not build upon foundations of prayer and contemplation alone, for, unless you strive after the virtues and practise them, you will never grow to be more than dwarfs" (347).

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