Carmelite Quotes<p>For my dear daughter <a href="https://carmelitequotes.wordpress.com/2023/10/24/teresa-ltr424/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Sister Teresa de Jesús</a></p><p>Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be with your charity, my daughter. I was delighted with your letter, and that my letters make you happy is a great joy for me, seeing that we cannot be together.</p><p>As for the dryness, it seems to me that the Lord is now treating you as one who is strong. He wants to try you in order to know the love you have for him, whether it is present in dryness as well as in spiritual delights. </p><p>Take it as a very great favor from God. Don’t let it cause you any grief, for perfection does not consist in delight but in the virtues. When you least expect, devotion will return.</p><p>As for what you say about that sister, try not to think of it, but turn away from the thought. And don’t think that when a thought comes into your mind, even if it concerns something very bad, you are immediately at fault, for the thought is nothing. I too would like to see that sister experience the same dryness, for I don’t know if she understands herself, and for her own good we could desire this. </p><p>When some bad thought comes to you, bless yourself, or recite an Our Father, or strike your breast and try to think of something else, and you will instead be meriting because you will be resisting.</p><p>I would like to answer Isabel de San Pablo [the subprioress at St. Joseph’s in Avila] but there is not time. Give her my best regards—for she already knows how you must be the one dearest to me—and also regards to Romero [identity unknown] and María de San Jerónimo [St. Teresa’s cousin, who was also a Carmelite nun at St. Joseph’s in Avila]. I wish someone would write to me about her health since she doesn’t do so. Don Francisco [Sister Teresa’s oldest brother] is like an angel and doing well. Yesterday he received communion, and his servants did so too. Tomorrow we are going to Valladolid. He will write to you from there, for I haven’t told him now about this messenger.</p><p>May God watch over you, my daughter, and make you as holy as I beg of him, amen. My regards to all.</p><p>Today is the <a href="http://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/05/trapanilit24/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">feast of San Alberto</a>.</p><p><strong>Saint Teresa of Avila</strong></p><p><em>Letter 351 to her niece Teresita at St. Joseph’s in Avila</em><br><em>From Medina, 7 August 1580</em></p><p><strong>Note: </strong>Translator and editor Father Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. indicates that St. Teresa’s niece, Teresita, was now a novice at St. Joseph’s in Avila. She was grieving over the recent death of her father and wrote to her aunt about some of her interior troubles and problems. St. Teresa gives her niece some standard counsel and comfort.</p> <p>Teresa of Avila, St. 1985,&nbsp;<em>The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila</em>, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.icspublications.org/collections/teresa-of-avila" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">ICS Publications</a>, Washington DC.</p><p><strong>Featured image:</strong>&nbsp;Before leaving Seville with St. Teresa and her father Lorenzo de Cepeda on the way back to Castile, young Teresita was depicted in an oil on canvas painting by Fray Juan de la Miseria, who shortly before had painted a portrait of St. Teresa. Fray Juan portrayed the girl dressed as a Carmelite (brown habit and white mantle), noting that she was “10 years old.” This featured image is a detail from Fray Juan’s painting, which is one of the prized treasures of the Carmel of St. Joseph “of the Teresas” in Seville. Image credit:&nbsp;<a href="https://carmelitasalba.org/portfolio-items/teresita-de-cepeda/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Carmel of Alba de Tormes</a></p> <p><a href="https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/06/stj-ltr351/" class="" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/06/stj-ltr351/</a></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://carmelitequotes.blog/tag/distractions/" target="_blank">#distractions</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://carmelitequotes.blog/tag/dryness/" target="_blank">#dryness</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://carmelitequotes.blog/tag/family-life/" target="_blank">#familyLife</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://carmelitequotes.blog/tag/holiness/" target="_blank">#holiness</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://carmelitequotes.blog/tag/monastic-life/" target="_blank">#monasticLife</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://carmelitequotes.blog/tag/prayer/" target="_blank">#prayer</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://carmelitequotes.blog/tag/spiritual-direction/" target="_blank">#spiritualDirection</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://carmelitequotes.blog/tag/st-teresa-of-avila/" target="_blank">#StTeresaOfAvila</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://carmelitequotes.blog/tag/teresita/" target="_blank">#Teresita</a></p>