Wings to My Soul

Painting: Alfred Stevens, 1881

Never Too Much

The Abandoned Future

Painting: Frank Weston Benson, 1887

Don't Wait!

Painting: Jules Breton

Even Alone

Painting: William Clarke Wontner

To Travel Peacefully

On Our Way

My Vocation, At Last I Have Found It

The Very Air I Breathe

'One glance 
at the holy Gospel, 
and the life of Jesus 
becomes a perfume that 
fills the very air I breathe.'

St. Therese of Lisieux























Painting: Léon Frédéric, Fragrance, in US public domain due to age

And About The Future

'We must 

abandon 

the future 

into 

the hands 

of God.'

St. Therese of Lisieux























Painting: Guy Rose

Nothing But The Truth

'I can nourish myself on nothing but the truth.'

St. Therese of Lisieux

Painting: Carl Maria Seyppel, 1904 (cropped), in US public domain due to age

Nothing is Small

'Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. 

Do all that you do with love.'

St. Therese of Lisieux

Painting: Jean-François Millet

When my Heart is Parched

'Sometimes, 
when I read spiritual treatises.. 
my poor little mind 
soon grows weary, 
I close the learned book 
that leaves my head splitting 
and my heart parched, 
and I take up
the Holy Scriptures. 
Then all seems luminous. 
A single word 
opens up 
horizons to my soul.' 

St. Therese of Lisieux



Albert Anker painting, 1904

Where You Are Meant to Be

'May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.'

St. Therese of Lisieux

Painting: William Bouguereau, Kiss

If Dark Clouds Hide You

'With bold surrender, I wish to remain gazing upon You, O Lord, my divine Sun.  Nothing will frighten me, neither wind nor rain, and if dark clouds come and hide You from my gaze, I will not change my place, because I know that beyond the clouds You still shine on and Your brightness is not eclipsed for a single instant....

St. Therese of Lisieux

Painting:  Nikolai N Dubowski, in US public domain due to age

Don't Wait...

'Don't wait until tomorrow to begin becoming a saint.'  

St. Therese of Lisieux

Painting:  Schmaltz, Portrait of young girl with red umbrella

Flowers Before Your Throne

"My Beloved, this is how my life will be consumed.  I have no other means of proving my love for You other than that of strewing flowers, that is, not allowing one little sacrifice to escape, not one look, one word, profiting by all the smallest things and doing them through love; and in this way I shall strew flowers before Your throne.

"I shall not come upon a flower without unpetalling it for You.  While I am strewing my flowers, I shall sing, for could one cry while doing such a joyous action?  I shall sing even when I must gather my flowers in the midst of thorns, and my song will be all the more melodious in proportion to the length and the sharpness of the thorns.

"O Jesus, of what use will my flowers be to You?  Ah!  I know very well that this fragrant shower, these fragile, worthless petals, these songs of love from the littlest of hearts will charm You.  Yes, these nothings will please You.  They will bring a smile to the Church Triumphant.  She will gather up my flowers unpetalled through love and have them pass through Your own divine hands, O Jesus.

"And this Church of Heaven... will cast these flowers, which are infinitely valuable because of Your divine touch, upon the Church Suffering in order to extinguish its flames, and upon the Church Militant in order to gain the victory for it."  St. Therese of Lisieux 

Painting: Knaus, Ludwig; Girl in a Field, 1857

Dusting in Harmony

 

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

St. Therese of Lisieux

Painting:  William Paxton, The Figurine, 1921

Do You Fear the Mercy of God?

"The Magdalene, most of all, is the model I like to follow.  

That boldness of hers, which would be so amazing 

if it were not the boldness of a lover, won the heart of Jesus." 

(St. Therese of Lisieux)

"My child, do you fear the mercy of God?

 My holiness does not prevent Me from being merciful....

 You can come to Me at any moment, at any time;

I want to speak to you, and desire to grant you grace."

(Jesus to St. Faustina) 

Painting:  Frederick Sandys, Maria Magdalena 

The Center of My Longings

The country in which I live

is not my native country;

THAT lies elsewhere,

and it must always be

the center of my longings.  

                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                         St. Therese of Lisieux

Painting:  Giovanni Battista Carlone, Virgin and Child in Glory with Saints