yesterday i missed posting something about one of my most favorite, awesomely AMAZING saints – Teresa of Avila, or Teresa of Jesus as she is known throughout the world (she was so madly, passionately in Love with Him that title seems Very Appropriate!!)

Last year i actually made a post before midnight (click here to read why i really like Saint Teresa..) but yesterday turned out Rather Busy in these parts, so today here are a few words to munch on from this great woman of faith & Doctor of the Church…

“Let nothing trouble you,
Let nothing scare you,
All is fleeting,
God alone is unchanging.
Patience
Everything obtains.
He who possesses God
Nothing wants.
God alone suffices.”

“Myself surrendered and given,
The exchange is this:
My Beloved is for me,
And I am for my Beloved.”

“Christ has no body now, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
Christ looks compassion into the world.
Yours are the feet
with which Christ walks to do good.
Yours are the hands
with which Christ blesses the world.”

Oh Beauty exceeding
All other beauties!
Paining, but You wound not
Free of pain You destroy
The love of creatures

Oh, knot that binds
Two so different,
Why do You become unbound
For when held fast You strengthen
Making injuries seem good.

Bind the one without being
With being unending;
Finish, without finishing,
Love, without having to love,
Magnify our nothingness.

Saint Teresa of Avila
(1515-1582)

(*Quotes taken primarily from “The Prayers of St. Teresa of Avila” compiled by Thomas Alvarez, O.C.D.)