There is no affliction, trial, or labor difficult to endure, when we consider the torments and sufferings which Our Lord Jesus Christ endured for us.
Teresa Of AvilaRead
If you seek to carry no other crosses but those whose reason you understand, perfection is not for you.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that true perfection cannot be achieved if one only accepts challenges they fully comprehend.
Teresa of Avila's quote emphasizes the value of embracing challenges and burdens in life, even those that may be difficult or irrational. It conveys that striving for perfection often requires enduring hardships and accepting responsibilities that might not make immediate sense, thereby highlighting the importance of growth through adversity.
In practice
This can be quoted during a motivational speech to inspire resilience in the face of challenges.
There is no affliction, trial, or labor difficult to endure, when we consider the torments and sufferings which Our Lord Jesus Christ endured for us.
How often I failed in my duty to God, because I was not leaning on the strong pillar of prayer.
What friends or kindred can be so close and intimate as the powers of our soul, which, whether we will or no, must ever bear us company?
To converse with You, O King of glory, no third person is needed, You are always ready in the Sacrament of the Altar to give audience to all. All who desire You always find You there, and converse with You face to face
If we do not use great care to mortify our will, there are many things which can deprives us of the holy freedom of spirit that we are seeking in order to fly more freely to our Creator, without always being bogged down with the clay of this earth. Moreover, there can never be solid virtue in a soul that is attached to its own will.
I say the same of humility and of all the virtues; the wiles of the devil are terrible, he will run a thousand times round hell if by so doing he can make us believe that we have a single virtue which we have not. And he is right, for such ideas are very harmful, and such imaginary virtues, when they come from this source, are never unaccompanied by vainglory; just as those which God gives are free both from this and from pride.
A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot coerce the wills of others, but that he can mold and master his own will: and things serve him who serves Truth; people seek guidance of him who is master of himself.
An ignorant man ages like an ox. His flesh may increase, but not his understanding.
You learn that existence is legible but that you have to have a critical mind if you're going to read it.
I, poor creature, worn out with scribbling for my bread and my liberty, low in spirits and weak in health, must leave others to wear the laurels which I have sown, others to eat the bread which I have earned. A common case.
The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie.
Her work, I really think her work is finding what her real work is and doing it, her work, her own work, her being human, her being in the world.
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