Sarah

“Surely--we argue--it is safer to make, at the Morning Offering, a virtual intention covering all the day, and then carry on with practical common sense.
This sounds excellent in theory, but too often it breaks down in practice and merely ends in the making of the Morning Offering, while we slip through the day on a purely natural plane till we arrive at our prayers in the evening; and it is precisely our habit of thus meeting the smallest actions of our daily life on the natural plane which makes them more than we can cope with. Divorced from their true purpose, that of leading us out of ourselves to God and to our fellow-men, they imprison us within ourselves and make us give way to self-pity and discontent.
On the other hand, if we do everything to please Our Lord we shall find ourselves becoming more and more alert to help others and far more conscious of the endless little opportunities around us, the value of which we had never realized before.”
― Vernon Johnson, Spiritual Childhood: The Spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux

“Humility cannot exist without love, and love cannot exist without humility. It is impossible for these virtues to exist except where there is great detachment from all created things.”
― Teresa of Ávila, The Way of Perfection

“She had often said she wanted to do something splendid, no matter how hard; and now she had her wish,--for what could be more beautiful than to devote her life to father and mother, trying to make home as happy to them as they had to her?”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women / Stage 3

“But how do you know He *doesn't* want us to have it—the cross, I mean? I bet He’s just waiting for one of us to go and find it—just at this moment when it’s most needed. Just at this moment when everyone is forgetting it and chattering about the hypostatic union, there’s a solid chunk of wood waiting for them to have their silly heads knocked against. I’m going off to find it,”
― Evelyn Waugh, Helena