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

"You know well that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Let us love, since our heart is made for nothing else."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Love is the Cross, and the Cross is Love."

- Therese of Lisieux

"My vocation, at last I have found it; my vocation is love."

- Therese of Lisieux

"The loveliest materpiece of the heart of God is the love of a Mother."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing."

- 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

"Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be and becoming that person."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude."

- Therese of Lisieux

"I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would no longer be enamelled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our lord's living garden."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Above the clouds the sky is always blue."

- Therese of Lisieux

"He does not call those who are worthy, but those whom He wills."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Each small task of everyday life is part of the total harmony of the universe."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Do not fear to tell Jesus that you love Him even without feeling it. That is the way to force Jesus to help you, to carry you like a little child too feeble to walk."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Trials help us detach ourselves from the earth; they make us look higher than this world."

- Therese of Lisieux

"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 trail as well as joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be."

- Therese of Lisieux

"You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all."

- Therese of Lisieux

"If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Prayer is something exalted, supernatural, which dilates the soul and unites it to God."

- Therese of Lisieux

"When we yield to discouragement it is usually because we give too much thought to the past and to the future."

- Therese of Lisieux

"Why should we defend ourselves when we are misunderstood and misjudged? Let us leave that aside. Let us not say anything. It is so sweet to let others judge us in any way they like. O blessed silence, which gives so much peace to the soul!"

- Therese of Lisieux