Prayers of St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila)

 

Prayers of St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila)

Give me the grace to recollect myself in the little heaven of my soul where You have established Your dwelling. There You let me find You, there I feel that You are closer to me than anywhere else, and there You prepare my soul quickly to enter into intimacy with You…Help me O Lord, to withdraw my senses from exterior things, make them docile to the commands of my will, so that when I want to converse with You, they will retire at once, like bees shutting themselves up in the hive in order to make honey:

O Lord of heaven and earth! Is it possible, while we are still in this mortal life, for us to enjoy You with such special friendship? Oh! The joys which You bestow on souls who give themselves entirely to You! …For the love of the Lord, my soul, wake out of this sleep and remember that God does not keep you waiting until the next life before rewarding you for your love of Him. Your recompense begins in this life.

They that really love You, my Good, walk safely on a broad and royal road.  They are far from the precipice. Hardly have they begun to stumble when You, Lord, give them Your hand.  One fall is not sufficient for a person to be lost nor are many if they love You and not the things of the world.  They journey in the valley of humility.  I cannot understand what it is that makes people afraid of setting out on the road of perfection.  May the Lord, because of who He is, give us an understanding of how wretched is the security that lies in such manifest dangers as following the crowd and how true security lies in striving to make progress on the road of God.  Let them turn their eyes to Him and not fear the setting of this Sun of Justice, nor, if we don’t first abandon Him, will He allow us to walk at night and go astray.

O Lord, who could describe how great a gain it is to cast ourselves into Your arms and make an agreement with You; You take care of my affairs and I of Yours….For what am I Lord without You?  ...What more do I want in this life than to be so near you that there is no division between You and me. O Lord of my life, draw me to Yourself, but do it in such a way that my will may ever remain so united to You that it shall be unable to leave You.