Every true prayer is a prayer of the Church; by means of that prayer the Church prays, since it is the Holy Spirit living in the Church, Who in every single soul “prays in us with unspeakable groanings.”
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
To all who recognize their own sinfulness, remorsefully acknowledge it, and long to be liberated from it, he extends his hand. But he demands that they follow him unconditionally, and renounce everything that can oppose his Spirit within them.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
Let go of your plans. The first hour of your morning belongs to God. Tackle the day’s work that he charges you with, and he will give you the power to accomplish it.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
Whatever did not fit in with my plan did lie within the plan of God. I have an even deeper and firmer belief that nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God, that my whole life down to the smallest details has been marked out for me in the plan of Divine Providence and has a completely coherent meaning in God’s all-seeing eyes. And so I am beginning to rejoice in the light of glory wherein this meaning will be unveiled to me.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
All authentic prayer is prayer of the church. Through every sincere prayer something happens in the church, and it is the church itself that is praying therein, for it is the Holy Spirit living in the church that intercedes for every individual soul “with sighs too deep for words.” This is exactly what “authentic” prayer is, for “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord!’ except by the Holy Spirit.” What could the prayer of the church be, if not great lovers giving themselves to God who is love!
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
The soul may take dryness and darkness as fortunate symptoms: symptoms that God is freeing her from herself. He is disentangling her from the activity of her faculties. Probably she would have been able to acquire much through this, her own activity, but never as completely, perfectly, and securely as she does now since God takes her by the hand. He is leading her in the darkness… by ways that she herself, in the happiest of wanderings while using her own eyes and feet, would never have succeeded in finding.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
