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.

When we yield to discouragement it is usually because we give too much thought to the past and to the future.

It is not to remain in a golden ciborium that He comes down each day from Heaven, but to find another Heaven, the Heaven of our soul in which He takes delight.

I am not afraid of a fight; I have to do my duty, come what may.

O Jesus! on this day, you have fulfilled all my desires. From now on, near the Eucharist, I shall be able To sacrifice myself in silence, to wait for Heaven in peace. Keeping myself open to the rays of the Divine Host, In this furnace of love, I shall be consumed, And like a seraphim, Lord, I shall love You.

You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all.

She is more Mother than Queen.

Trust and trust alone should lead us to love.

Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.

He does not call those who are worthy, but those whom He wills.

(On entering Carmel) I came to save souls and especially to pray for priests.

He is not far off; He is there, very close. He is looking at us, and He is begging this sorrow, this agony from us. He needs it for souls and for our soul... Alas, it does pain Him to give us sorrows to drink, but He knows this is the only means of preparing us to know Him as He knows Himself and to become God's ourselves.

Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father's love - difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul's miseries, her burdens, her needs - everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness. Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events - to the heart that loves, all is well.

Much later, when I understood what perfection was, I realized that to become a saint one must suffer a great deal, always seek what is best, and forget oneself. I understood that there were many kinds of sanctity and that each soul was free to respond to the approaches of Our Lord and to do little or much for Him - in other words, to make a choice among the sacrifices He demands.

I realized that to become a saint one must suffer a great deal, always seek what is best, and forget oneself.

He has created the poor savage with no guide but natural law, and it is to their hearts that He deigns to stoop. They are His wild flowers whose homeliness delights Him.

Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be and becoming that person.

As the sun shines both on the cedar and the smallest flower, so the Divine sun illumines each soul.

God would never inspire me with desires which cannot be realized; so in spite of my littleness, I can hope to be a saint.

I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would no longer be enamelled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our lord's living garden.

Love needs to be proved by action.

It isn't enough to love; we must prove it.

The country in which I live is not my native country, that lies elsewhere, and it must always be the center of my longings.