Amani Shlool

“I will soothe you and heal you,
I will bring you roses.
I too have been covered with thorns.”
― Rumi

“For if the will has nothing to employ it and love has no present object with which to busy itself, the soul finds itself without either support or occupation, its solitude and aridity cause it great distress and its thoughts involve it in the severest conflict.”
― Santa Teresa de Jesús, The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself

“I used unexpectedly to experience a consciousness of the presence of God, or such a kind that I could not possibly doubt that He was within me or that I was wholly engulfed in Him. This was in no sense a vision: I believe it is called mystical theology. The soul is suspended in such a way that it seems to be completely outside itself. The will loves; the memory, I think, is almost lost; while the understanding, I believe, thought it is not lost, does not reason—I mean that it does not work, but is amazed at the extent of all it can understand; for God wills it to realize that it understands nothing of what His Majesty represents to it.”
― Santa Teresa de Jesús, The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself

“At a certain point talk about 'essence' and 'oneness' and the universal becomes more tautological than inquisitive.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays