Here we collected all the beautiful and most inspiring St Therese of Lisieux quotes that will inspire you and motivate you to do the best performance in your daily life with the help of God. She was the most inspiring woman all over the world.
St. Therese of Lisieux is a patron saint for missionaries, aviators, and florists. She is also known as The Little Flower of Jesus, The Holy Face, and St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
Marie-Francoise–Therese Martin was born in France on January 2, 1873. She was raised in a caring and spiritual atmosphere, which aided her in realizing her true calling in life.
She had several hardships in her early years, such as her mother’s death and weak health, but she found her religion and always saw these events as good. At the tender age of 15, she expressed her desire to be cloistered and joined her sister’s Carmelite convent after obtaining permission. She died of TB on September 30, 1897, after spending nine years there.
Kindness is my only guiding star. In its light, I sail a straight route, I have my motto written on my sail: ‘To live in love.’
You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.
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.
True charity consists in bearing all our neighbor’s defects – not being surprised at their weakness, but edified at their smallest virtues.
Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will and being just what God wants us to be.
Ah! How contrary are the teachings of Jesus to the feelings of nature! Without the help of His grace, it would be impossible not only to put them into practice but to even understand them.
Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.
God would never inspire me with desires which cannot be realized; so despite my littleness, I can hope to be a saint.
Love can accomplish all things. Most impossible become easy where love is at work.
I am the smallest of creatures and I recognize my worthlessness, but I also know how hearts that are generous and noble love to do good.
Then, overcome by joy, I cried, ‘Jesus, my love. At last, I have found my vocation. My vocation is love. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and then I will be all things.
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Time is your boat, not your home.
That beautiful day passed just as the saddest ones do since the most radiant of days has a tomorrow.
I have often heard it said in retreats and elsewhere that an innocent soul never loves God as much as a repentant one, and how I long to prove that is not true.
Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude.
I can nourish myself on nothing but the truth.
When one loves, one does not calculate.
The world’s thy ship and not thy home.
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.
A soul in a state of grace has nothing to fear from demons who are cowards.
St Therese of Lisieux Quotes Love
I understand so very well that it is only through love that we can render ourselves pleasing to the good Lord, that love is the one thing I long for. The science of love is the only science I desire.
I know of no other means to reach perfection than by love. To love: how perfectly our hearts are made for this! Sometimes I look for another word to use, but, in this land of exile, no other word so well expresses the vibrations of our soul. Hence we must keep to that one word: love.
Merit does not consist in doing or giving much. It consists in loving much.
How easy it is to please Jesus, to ravish His Heart. We have merely to love Him, while, at the same time, forgetting ourselves.
Directors make people advance in perfection by performing a great number of acts of virtue, and they are right. But my Director, who is Jesus Himself, teaches me to do everything through love.
The only good is to love God with all one’s heart and to be here below poor in spirit… (M.s A, 32v, OC 121)
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There is but one thing for us to do in the night of this life and that is to love, to love Jesus with all the energy of our heart, and to save souls so that He may be loved by them. O let us cause Jesus to be loved by men!
It is love alone that counts.
You are wrong to criticize this or that, to desire that everybody should adopt your view of things. Since we want to be little children, little children do not know what is best. Everything seems right to them.
We must never refuse anyone, even when it costs us much pain. Think that it is Jesus who is asking this service of you; how eager and friendly you will then be in granting the favor requested. (Commentary on these words)
I must anticipate the desires of others; show that we are much obliged, very honored to be able to render service. The good Lord wants me to forget myself to give pleasure to others.
There is a way of refusing that is so gracious… that the refusal gives as much pleasure as the gift.
I know now that true charity consists in bearing all our neighbors’ defects–not being surprised at their weakness, but edified at their smallest virtues.
If we want to live a life of love of God, we must not fail in our love towards our neighbor.
There is nothing sweeter than to think well of one’s neighbor. (Commentary on these words)
If you wish to feel and to have an attraction for suffering, you are in search of your own consolation, for when we love anything, the pain disappears.
My joy is to love suffering, / I smile shedding tears/ I accept with gratitude/ The thorns mixed with the flowers. (PN 45, stanza 2, OC 733)
Just think that if the good Lord gave us the entire universe, with all its treasures, it could not be compared to the lightest of sufferings. (LT 65, OC 360)
To suffer and to be despised – what bitterness, but what glory! (LT 81, OC 380)
What ineffable joy to carry our cross FEEBLY. (LT 82, OC 380)
St Therese of Lisieux Quotes on Prayer
It has a supernatural grandeur that expands the soul and unites it with God. I say an Our Father or a Hail Mary when I feel so spiritually barren that I cannot summon up a single worthwhile thought. These two prayers fill me with rapture and feed and satisfy my soul.
Prayer for me is an updward leap of the heart
Prayer and sacrifice can touch souls better than words.
For me, prayer is an upward leap of the heart, an untroubled glance towards heaven, a cry of gratitude and love which I utter from the depths of sorrow as well as from the heights of joy.
Frequently, only silence can express my prayer.
My whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice, these are my invincible arms; they can move hearts far better than words, I know it by experience.
Look at Him while He is looking at you.
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For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.
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 trial as well as joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus.
I have not the courage to search through books for beautiful prayers. . . Unable either to say them all or choose between them, I do as a child would do who cannot read-I say just what I want to say to God, quite simply, and he never fails to understand.
For me, prayer means launching out of the heart towards God; it means lifting up one’s eyes, quite simply, to heaven, a cry of grateful love, from the crest of joy or the trough of despair; it’s a vast, supernatural force which opens out my heart, and binds me close to Jesus.
St Therese of Lisieux Quotes on Death
If I did not simply live from one moment to another, it would be impossible for me to be patient, but I only look at the present, I forget the past, and I take good care not to forestall the future.
During this prayer, I would begin thinking that the day of rest was coming to an end, that the morrow would bring with it the necessity of beginning life over again, we would have to go back to work, learn lessons, etc., and my heart felt the exile of this earth. I longed for the everlasting repose of heaven, that never-ending Sunday of the Fatherland!
I have always found that there is the same difference between the saints and me as there is between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and a humble grain of sand trodden underfoot by passersby. Instead of being discouraged, I told myself: God would not make me wish for something impossible and so, in spite of my littleness, I can aim at being a saint. It is impossible for me to grow bigger, so I put up with myself as I am, with all my countless faults. But I will look for some means of going to heaven by a little way which is very short and very straight, a little way that is quite new…
The world’s thy ship and not thy home.
When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens, I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.
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I’m afraid I’ve feared death, but I won’t fear it after it takes place: I’m sure of this! And I’m not sorry for having lived; oh! No. It’s only when I ask myself: What is this mysterious separation of the soul from the body? It’s my first experience of this, but I abandon myself to God.
Yes! What a grace it is to have faith! If I had not had any faith, I would have committed suicide without an instant’s hesitation…
When I am in heaven, you will have to fill my little hands with prayers and sacrifices to give me the pleasure of casting these as a shower of graces upon souls.
Neither do I desire any longer suffering or death, and still I love them both; it is love alone that attracts me, however I desired them for a long time; I possessed suffering and believed I had touched the shores for a long time: I possessed suffering and believed I had touched the shores of heaven, that the little flower would be gathered in the springtime of her life. Now, abandonment alone guides me. I have no other compass! I can no longer ask for anything with fervor except the accomplishment of God’s will in my soul without any creature being able to set obstacles in the way.
St. Therese of Lisieux Quotes on Humility
The good God does not need years to accomplish His work of love in a soul; one ray from His Heart can, in an instant, make His flower bloom for eternity.
Love can supply for a length of years. Jesus, because He is Eternal, regards not the time but only the love.
When Charity is deeply rooted in the soul it shows itself exteriorly: there is so gracious a way of refusing what we cannot give, that the refusal pleases as much as the gift.
On the day of my conversion Charity entered into my heart and with it a yearning to forget self always; thenceforward I was happy.
I have not the courage to force myself to seek beautiful prayers in books; not knowing which to choose I act like children do who cannot read; I say quite simply to the good God what I want to tell Him, and He always understands me.
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On each fresh occasion of combat, when the enemy desires to challenge me, I conduct myself valiantly: knowing that to fight a duel is an unworthy act, I turn my back upon the adversary without ever looking him in the face; then I run to my Jesus and tell Him I am ready to shed every drop of blood in testimony of my belief that there is a Heaven, I tell Him I am glad to be unable to contemplate, while on earth, with the eyes of the soul, the beautiful Heaven that awaits me so He will deign to open it for eternity to poor unbelievers.
He whose Heart ever watcheth, taught me, that while for a soul whose faith equals but a tiny grain of mustard seed, He works miracles, in order that this faith which is so weak may be fortified; yet for His intimate friends, for His Mother, He did not work miracles until He had put their faith to test.
How I thirst for Heaven—that blessed habitation where our love for Jesus will have no limit! But to get there we must suffer… we must weep… Well, I wish to suffer all that shall please my Beloved.
Even now I know it: yes, all my hopes will be fulfilled… yes… the Lord will work wonders for me which will surpass infinitely my immeasurable desires.
St Therese Quotes On Hope
If I did not simply live from one moment to another, it would be impossible for me to be patient; but I only look at the present, I forget the past, and I take good care not to forestall the future.
Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be and becoming that person.
The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother.
It is wrong to pass one’s time fretting, instead of sleeping on the Heart of Jesus.
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It’s true, I suffer a great deal–but do I suffer well? That is the question.
To live in love is to sail forever, spreading seeds of joy and peace in hearts.
Only God can see what is in the bottom of our hearts; we are half-blind.
Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will and being just what God wants us to be.
The good God does not need years to accomplish His work of love in a soul; one ray from His Heart can, in an instant, make His flower bloom for eternity.
The grain of sand wants to start working, without joy, without courage, without force, and it is all these titles that will facilitate its enterprise: it wants to work by Love. (LT 82, OC 381)
Take heart, Jesus hears even the last echo of our pain. (LT 85, OC 384)
Let us see life in the true light… It is a moment between two eternities… Let us suffer in peace… […]To suffer in peace it is enough to really want everything that Jesus wants… (LT 87, OC 386)
St Therese of Lisieux Quotes on Mary
O, how I love the Blessed Virgin. If I were a priest how often would I speak of her? She is described as unapproachable, whereas she should be pointed to as a model. She is more of a Mother than a Queen.
I do not tremble when I see my weakness, for the treasures of a mother belong also to her child, and I am thy child, O dear Mother Mary.
My dear Mother Mary, I think that I am more happy than you. I have you as a Mother and you haven’t the Blessed Virgin to love as I have.
O Virgin Mary, change my heart into a beautiful pure corporal, to receive that white Host in which our sweet Lamb hides Himself.
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In that first ‘fusion’ with Jesus (holy communion), it was my Heavenly Mother again who accompanied me to the altar for it was she herself who placed her Jesus into my soul.
With all my heart I consecrated myself to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and asked her to watch over me. She seemed to look lovingly on her Little Flower and to smile at her again.
What a joy to remember that she [Mary] is our Mother! Since she loves us and knows our weakness, what have we to fear?
There, too, I listen on my knees, great Queen of all the Angels! To that sweet canticle that flows in rapture from your soul; so do you teach me how to sing like heavenly, glad angels. And glorify my Jesus, Who alone can make me whole.
To ask something of the Blessed Virgin is not the same as to ask something of God. She knows well what to do with all my little desires and it is for her to decide whether to ask for them or not.
Do not be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her enough. And Jesus will be very happy, because the Blessed Virgin is His Mother.
