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
May I not come before You with empty hands, since we are rewarded according to our deeds.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the importance of meaningful actions and contributions in our lives.
Teresa of Avila emphasizes the idea that when seeking to connect with a higher power or purpose, one should come prepared with the fruits of their labor and good deeds. This reflects a broader understanding that life is not just about passive existence but involves actively engaging in actions that contribute positively to ourselves and others.
In practice
In a speech on community service, one might say, 'As Teresa of Avila reminds us, may we not come before others with empty hands but with the fruits of our efforts.'
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.
Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.
But you are involved in the world, and your actions have consequences for other people, and if you don't recognize that, then that's the supreme kind of cruelty. Everyone shares someone else's fate to some extent.
I'm an atheist. But I absolutely love religions and the rituals. Even though I don't believe in God. We celebrate pretty much every religion in our family with the kids. They love it, and when they say, 'Are we Jewish?' or 'Are we Catholic?' I say, 'Well, I'm not, but you can choose when you're 18. But isn't this fun that we do seders and the Advent calendar?'
Few revolutions succeed, and when they do, you often discover they did not gain what you hoped for, and you condemn yourself to perpetual fear, as the parties you defeated may always regain power and work for your ruin.
It is bad policy to regulate everything... where things may better regulate themselves and can be better promoted by private exertions; but it is no less bad policy to let those things alone which can only be promoted by interfering social power.
Heaven is always and forever around us and no soul remembered is ever really gone.
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