Sayings
Sacred Heart
The Sacred Heart of Jesus, which God, in His infinite Fatherly love has given to men, is and always will be an inexhaustible Treasure for us. From this Heart we always want to draw love to give to our Sisters and to others. (AB pg. 251)
I beg you, place all your cares in the Divine Heart. He so willingly undertakes our cares because what can we do with them? “God alone.” God alone has the power, God alone has the means, God alone has the love to help us and this He does because we seek only to further His work and His honor. . . . How I wish to enkindle in your hearts a glowing love for the cross! May the Divine Heart grant this grace to you and all my daughters because only then can we belong to the friends of the Divine Heart. (Letter 9 April 13, 1906, Rocca di Papa)
The Heart of God should be our only constant abode. (Letter 438 Milwaukee, February 21, 1917)
Reparation
When upsetting news, failure, rejection, etc. come our way, our nature immediately surges up in thunderous waves, but what is nature to us? For a few minutes it seems as though it will carry us away, but then we flee, like Noah’s dove, into our arc – “in God” – in the Divine Heart and immediately calm returns and our soul remains in quiet and peace. (Letter 1113 Milwaukee, 1916)
If the many hundreds of millions of people were kept before our eyes, and we saw the small number of those who love God and of these an even more diminished number who love God with “all their heart and all their might”, then certainly our Carmelite souls would be enflamed to make reparation to God for the so many million lukewarm and cold souls! Remind yourselves often, dear Sisters, “to make reparation to God for all the souls who do not love Him.” This enkindles our love and zeal. You must all vie to attain the highest degree of love for God. (Letter 1349, August 20, 1025, Sittard)
Now the time is here when the greatest saints should arise. Everyone is to begin now with the greatest zeal to love the poor – so as to console, to reconcile, to cheer the very depths of the Heart of our dear Savior, wounded by the sins of men. Each one spur the other on! (Letter 719, January 13, 1915, East Chicago)
Yes, you in the world and we in our St. Joseph’s Home want to vie in offering reparation to the Divine Heart for the many uneducated, whose impiety and disbelief afflicts these days our God, hidden in the tabernacle. We want to make efforts daily to love Him more and more, to serve Him daily ever more sacrificially and faithfully. (Letter from St. Joseph’s Home II, German ed. pg. 26)
“Full of fiery love and gratitude, we all want to . . . learn more and more to love and to serve our Divine Savior in . . . all with whom we are together, in the spirit of St. Paul, “full of mercy, patience, humility and meekness. This would be the greatest joy and expression of gratitude to the Divine Heart and a consolation and act of reparation for the inexpressible insults and scorn, which this Heart of God endures every minute.” (Letter 2277, December 28, 1932, Sittard)
Apostolic Labor and missionary zeal
Not words, but works – not pious talks, but pious deeds! Our Lord has first given food to the people, healed the sick, etc.; then He taught them. Do the same! Practice charity for a whole year, and then begin to preach; and your words will fall on good and well-prepared soil. (Letter 1515, March 10, 1924).
From my heart I thank the good God for granting me the grace of establishing Homes for the Aged myself – a dream I had cherished since April 1891. How many souls are thereby won for the Divine Heart, even in the eleventh hour! And how many prepare themselves here, where they are so near to God, so much better for the end, much better than they could have done in the world. (AB 211).
The Homes for the Aged are also true mission-stations, and so they were, when I was there. What joy there was over the conversion or new-found zeal of each soul! (Letter 1547, October 3, 1934, Sittard).
Yes, let us work with the zeal of our St. Father Francis (Xavier) and pray with the zeal of our St. Mother Teresa and thus win many souls. (Letter October 27, 1910, Maldon)
Blessed Trinity
Yes, God is the most loving Father. Let us be so loving and attentive children. (Letter April 19, 1924 Sittard)
Whatever interiorly disturbs you and makes you restless does not come from God because the Spirit of God always brings peace and joyful calm with Him. (Kleine Führer pg. 66)
The Holy Spirit wants to fill you with the fire of His Love, so that your hearts will be enflamed with a thirst for souls, large and small. The Servants of the Heart of Jesus should not knock on Heaven’s portals alone, but rather should be followed by a large throng of souls, who she has led to encounter the Beloved by her fervent prayers, her sacrifice and mortifications, her troubles and labors. (Letter to Sr. M. Gabriela, February 10, 1901)
Our Lady
I believe that the Mother of God protected me, from childhood, in a special manner and that I owe all to her motherly care and intercession. (AB 3)
How often are not the secret wishes of her children fulfilled! Would that all men were children of this most loving and caring Mother, and esteem and love her as such. I regard everyone, no matter what class, race or nation, who does not have the Mother of God as his Mother, as being a motherless orphan. (AB 213)
Then she turned to the 13th Station of the Cross and said, “This is my dear Mother! No other picture is as dear to me as the one of the Mother of God beneath the cross. Since childhood, I have always revered her.” (Mother M. Pia in: Her Last Days pg. 12)
God only gives his graces to the humble. Daughters of the Mother of God, shouldn’t you honor your heavenly Mother through the greatest virtues? Which virtue did the Mother of God practice in an outstanding manner? Humilty! Which virtue manifested itself by her very presence, in her look, in her actions, in her words? Humility. Do not imagine that you can prove your love for God, if this virtue does not live in your heart. Therefore, I strongly urge you in the name of our heavenly Mother to begin now to love and practice this great virtue. God will give you His grace and blessing to do so. (Letter 582 April 10, 1899, Sittard)
The dear Mother of God is the all-powerful intercessor before the throne of God. Whatever is lacking she will implore; meaning if you have a “good will” to continue to lead and perfect the work of your salvation with determination and perseverance.
Strive for the deepest humility, for the most perfect conformity to the Divine Will and for the greatest love of God, and you will become saints of the Carmel of the Divine Heart of Jesus! (Letter 2385 “Testament” April 10, 1937)
Carmel and St. Teresa
It was to be Carmel and only Carmel; to enter Carmel was now my one wish. The humility and great love of God, which St. Teresa reached, was what I was striving for; and her heroism! Everything about this great and holy woman filled me with such enthusiasm . . .” (AB 39-40).
From then on [November 1896], we observed a life of religious observance according to the rule of Carmel and the Constitutions of St. Teresa. Instead of fasting, we offered God our work on behalf of the children, and instead of the enclosure we offered our parish mission work. A life of prayer and the striving for perfection always remained the main goal, yes, it was the fuel which kept the fire of our zeal and our love burning ever brighter” (AB 73).
We belong to Carmel and we are daughters of the great St. Mother Teresa. They are poorly raised daughters who do not know how to care for their interior life as the first duty according to the spirit of the Carmelite Order, and to win souls for the Divine Heart of Jesus through prayer and meditation. Prayer and meditation come first, then in between and in second place, comes work for God, our neighbor, and our religious community” (letter 1847, from Kenosha, January 31, 1918).
Our St. Mother Teresa is the personification of wisdom! If we follow her, we will never go astray! . . . I personally live more and more like a youthful daughter of my wise Mother, who is so wonderfully filled with divine wisdom. She has been my teacher and guide for 25 years and by her hand I hope to be transformed up to my last moment. I hope to do all things not in my spirit, but by her spirit, and to make use of her teachings in all things. Then I confidently hope I will perform my duties according to the will of God, who Himself has given her to me. May you all revere her more each day, treasure her highly and learn to love her like I do, her most unworthy child! (Letter 1534, February 3, 1918, Kenosha).
May our St. Mother Teresa attain for us the grace not simply to bear the name of Carmel, but to be filled with the spirit of Carmel (Letter 82, April 11, 1920, St. Charles).
Everything comes from God the Father’s hand and so everything brings about blessings to our souls, also such times of suffering. (Letter 1918, April 20, 1923 Sittard)
If we have firm, and ever firmer, confidence in our Heavenly Father, then we will learn – despite all the work and trouble – to rest in His arms and no unrest will enter any more to the depths of our souls. (Letter 1023, August 12, 1913 E. Chicago)