An act of love that fails is just as much a part of the divine life as an act of love that succeeds, for love is measured by fullness, not by reception.

Harold Lokes

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

Helen Keller

The Massage ~ Vanias Stories

The Massage ~ Vanias Stories

St. Francis of Assisi

Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.
St. Francis of Assisi

For it is in giving that we receive.
St. Francis of Assisi

Grant me the treasure of sublime poverty: permit the distinctive sign of our order to be that it does not possess anything of its own beneath the sun, for the glory of your name, and that it have no other patrimony than begging.
St. Francis of Assisi

I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.
St. Francis of Assisi

If a superior give any order to one who is under him which is against that man's conscience, although he do not obey it yet he shall not be dismissed.
St. Francis of Assisi

If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.
St. Francis of Assisi

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
St. Francis of Assisi

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
St. Francis of Assisi

It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.
St. Francis of Assisi

It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.
St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved as to love.
St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
St. Francis of Assisi

No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.
St. Francis of Assisi

Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.
St. Francis of Assisi

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
St. Francis of Assisi

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.
St. Francis of Assisi

Where there is injury let me sow pardon.
St. Francis of Assisi

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.
St. Francis of Assisi

Saint Teresa of Avila

All things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted.
Saint Teresa of Avila

Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.
Saint Teresa of Avila

God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher.
Saint Teresa of Avila

God has been very good to me, for I never dwell upon anything wrong which a person has done, so as to remember it afterwards. If I do remember it, I always see some other virtue in that person.
Saint Teresa of Avila

I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.
Saint Teresa of Avila

It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found - not hidden away in corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be incomparably the greater.
Saint Teresa of Avila

O my God, what must a soul be like when it is in this state! It longs to be all one tongue with which to praise the Lord. It utters a thousand pious follies, in a continuous endeavor to please Him who thus possesses it.
Saint Teresa of Avila

Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds.
Saint Teresa of Avila

Pain is never permanent.
Saint Teresa of Avila

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.
Saint Teresa of Avila

The tree that is beside the running water is fresher and gives more fruit.
Saint Teresa of Avila

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
Saint Teresa of Avila

To have courage for whatever comes in life - everything lies in that.
Saint Teresa of Avila

To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience.
Saint Teresa of Avila

We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us.
Saint Teresa of Avila

To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.

Heather Cortez