Quote of the day, 12 June: St. Teresa of the Andes

One day I was alone in my room. Because of my illness they spoiled me so that I couldn’t remain alone. I want to relate that one day Lucita (Lucía, her older sister) was sick and Elisea — a servant who took care of my dear grandfather — went to be with her.

Then I became envious and troubled and began to cry. My tearful eyes began to fix themselves on a picture of the Sacred Heart, and I heard a very sweet voice say to me:

“What! I, Juanita, am alone on the altar for your love, and you can’t even suffer for a moment?”

From that time, the dear Jesus spoke to me, and I spent entire hours conversing with Him. That’s the reason I enjoyed being alone. He went on teaching me how I should suffer and not complain, and about intimate union with Himself. Then He told me that He wanted me for Himself, that He would like me to become a Carmelite.

Ah! Mother, you can’t imagine what Jesus was doing in my soul. At that time I didn’t live in myself, it was Jesus who was living in me. I used to get up at seven o’clock, at the time Rebecca was going to school. I kept to a schedule for the whole day and I was doing all things with Jesus and for Jesus.

Saint Teresa of the Andes

Her intimate spiritual diary, 7

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2021, God, The Joy of My Life: A Biography of Saint Teresa of the Andes With the Saint’s Spiritual Diary, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Andrés López, The Sacred Heart of Jesus adored by angels, 1785, oil on copper. Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. PI 4459B. Source: Ojeda, A 2005-2025, Project for the Engraved Sources of Spanish Colonial Art (PESSCA), viewed 16 August 2025, https://colonialart.org.

Quote of the day, 25 May: St. Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi

The ecstasy [Saint Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi] had on the 17th of September of the same year, 1587, was very wonderful and effective.

Being fiercely attacked in the virtue of chastity, as was related, and forbidden by her confessor and her mother prioress from again throwing herself among thorns, or doing any other injury to her body, she, by way of compensation, gave herself up to prayer with redoubled fervor, imploring above all the assistance of the Queen of virgins.

On the same day, it happened that, having withdrawn to a remote chamber, by prayers of a most suppliant devotion and by most touching tears, she turned to the most pure Mother of God, that she might obtain for her such a victory over the impure temptations, that her virginity would not be stained in the least thereby.

Having just made the request, the Blessed Virgin appeared to her in the form of a noble and tender mother, and, consoling her, told her to be calm, as in all such temptations she had never offended God; nay, by her courageous fight with the impure spirit, she had come out completely victorious, and, as a reward therefore, the Blessed Virgin put on her a pure white veil, and told her, moreover, that in the future she would not again have to suffer the temptations or suggestions of impurity.

At this moment, Mary Magdalen interiorly felt as if all appetite of carnal concupiscence was being reduced, and that all the disordered fire of sensuality had been extinguished in an ineffable manner.

In fact, during all her life, this angelic soul was not again molested by a desire of the flesh, nor even by any imagination or the least thought contrary to holy purity.

The Rev. Father Placido Fabrini

Chapter XIV

Note: Father Fabrini’s biography is based on the 1611 biography of St. Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi, which was written by her spiritual director, Fr. Vincenzio Puccini.

Fabrini, P. & De’ Pazzi, M.M. 1900, The life of St. Mary Magdalen De-Pazzi: Florentine noble, sacred Carmelite virgin, translated from the Italian by Isoleri A., [publisher not identified] Philadelphia.

Featured image: This detail of a portrait of Saint Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi receiving the white veil from the Virgin Mary was painted by Bernard de Bailliu (Flemish, 1641–1694) and another unidentified artist; it is an oil paint illumination of an engraving attached to a panel (17th or 18th c.). The work is part of the collection in the Museo del Convento de Santa Teresa, Arequipa, Peru. Photo: Franz Grupp / PESSCA 2921B Image credit: Ojeda, A 2005–2023, Project for the Engraved Sources of Spanish Colonial Art (PESSCA), PESSCA, viewed 25 April 2019, https://colonialart.org/.

One Small Step, One Giant Leap

https://rmdellorfanoauthor.com/2026/03/25/one-small-step-one-giant-leap/

A new study suggests that the intensity of mystical experiences during ibogaine treatment may predict the degree of PTSD symptom relief in veterans. Among 30 male Special Operations Veterans with traumatic brain injury, those reporting stronger mystical experiences showed greater reductions in PTSD symptoms, alongside improvements in depression and anxiety, with brain activity measures indicating a shift toward a more relaxed state after one month.

This article is of interest to psychology readers for its focus on how subjective experiences during psychedelic-assisted therapies relate to measurable clinical outcomes and neural changes. It also highlights brain rhythm changes that may reflect underlying neuroplastic mechanisms involved in recovery.

Article Title: A dream-like psychedelic might help traumatized veterans reset their brains

Link to PsyPost Article: ift dot tt/6vloAtj

Copy and paste broken link above into your browser and replace "dot" with "." for link to work. We have to do it this way to avoid displaying copyrighted images.

#Ibogaine #MysticalExperience #PTSD #Veterans #Neuroplasticity

Quote of the day, 18 December: St. Teresa of Avila

Treats of when God suspends the soul in prayer with rapture or ecstasy or transport…

Well now you will ask me: if afterward there is to be no remembrance of these sublime favors granted by the Lord to the soul in this state, what benefit do they have? Oh, daughters, they are so great, one cannot exaggerate! For even though they are unexplainable, they are well inscribed in the very interior part of the soul and are never forgotten.

But, you will insist, if there is no image and the faculties do not understand, how can the visions be remembered? I don’t understand this either, but I do understand that some truths about the grandeur of God remain so fixed in this soul that even if faith were not to tell it who God is and of its obligation to believe that He is God, from that very moment it would adore Him as God, as did Jacob when he saw the ladder.

By means of the ladder, Jacob must have understood other secrets that he didn’t know how to explain, for by seeing just a ladder on which angels descended and ascended, he would not have understood such great mysteries if there had not been deeper interior enlightenment [cf. Gen 28:12]. I’m not sure if I’m recalling the story of Jacob correctly, for although I have heard it, I’m not entirely sure I’ve remembered it accurately.

Nor did Moses know how to describe all that he saw in the bush, but only what God wished him to describe [cf. Ex 3:1–16]. But if God had not shown secrets to his soul along with a certitude that made him recognize and believe that they were from God, Moses could not have entered into so many severe trials. But he must have understood such deep things among the thorns of that bush that the vision gave him the courage to do what he did for the people of Israel.

So, Sisters, we don’t have to look for reasons to understand the hidden things of God. Since we believe He is powerful, clearly we must believe that a worm with as limited a power as ours will not understand His grandeurs. Let us praise Him, for He is pleased that we come to know some of them.

Saint Teresa of Avila

The Interior Castle, Sixth Dwelling Place, ch. 4, nos. 6–7

Teresa of Avila, St 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Kavanaugh, K & Rodriguez, O (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Gebhard Fugel (German, 1863–1939), Moses before the Burning Bush, c. 1920, oil on canvas. The painting is held by the Diözesanmuseum Freising (Inv. D 94117). Digital image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

#hidden #Moses #mysticalExperience #secrets #StTeresaOfAvila

✨ #Neardeathexperience – Message for #life & #inclusion! ✨

In the #Zoomposium, #GodehardBrüntrup talks about #neardeathexperiences as possible mystical experiences and classifies them philosophically – between #metaphysics of #consciousness, #neuroskepticism, and modern #neardeathresearch.

📎 https://philosophies.de/index.php/2022/09/27/metaphysik-des-bewusstseins/

🎥 https://youtu.be/hoqiI_TElv4

#NTE #Consciousness #Inclusion #PhilosophyOfMind #Humanity #MeaningOfLife #BodyMindProblem #BorderlineExperience #MysticalExperience

Quote of the day, 7 November: Blessed Francis Palau

That same night, when I withdrew to my cave, I saw a shadow at my side; and the shadow had a form, and it represented a reality. The form was all illuminated like the light of the moon. And the shadow spoke to me, and said:

[The shadow:] “Am I the one you seek and call?”

[Francis:] “Ah, I cannot be content with forms and shadows.”

[The shadow:] “Yes, it is true,” she replied, “but reality comes to you represented through shadows, enigmas, images and forms; without them, it cannot come to you, nor can you see it while your eyes are of mortal flesh.”

[Francis:] “What a miserable condition!”

[The shadow:] “Yes, accept it.”

[Francis:] “Who are you?”

[The shadow:] “I am your Beloved.”

[Francis:] “A shadow! A form?”

[The shadow:] “Yes, the form of your Beloved.”

[Francis:] “Without reality?”

[The shadow:] “Do you believe in me?”

[Francis:] “Yes, I believe in you.”

[The shadow:] “If you believe in me, behind the shadow you will always see the reality; in the form, the thing represented; in the idea, the being; in the image and likeness, the immense beauty that has stolen all the affections of your heart. Faith in me is a light that, radiating upon your understanding, will reveal to you more and more, behind the shadows, ideas, forms and images of a woman ever-virgin, who I am, and my love for you.”

[Francis:] “Are you a woman?”

[The shadow:] “Yes, I am a woman appearing as a shadow, formed in your understanding. In your understanding I exist as the idea of woman; in your imagination, as a form; in heaven, as a reality.”

[Francis:] “You are a young woman, beautiful, without blemish or wrinkle, always chaste, always pure, always virgin. And are you in heaven?”

[The shadow:] “Yes, in body and soul, in glorified flesh.”

[Francis:] “What is your name?”

[The shadow:] “I am Mary, the Mother of God.”

Blessed Francis Palau y Quer

Mis relaciones con la Iglesia
Autograph manuscript, 14 April 1864

Note: Blessed Francis Palau y Quer was born to José Palau y Antonia Quer on 29 December 1811 in Aytona (Lerida) Spain. Founder of the “School of Virtue”—which was a model of catechetical teaching—at Barcelona, he suffered much during his life and ministry. While in exile at Ibiza in the Balearic Islands, often Blessed Palau would row to the rugged island of Es Vedra and pray in the solitude of a cave. He began to write his autobiographical journal, Mis relaciones con la Iglesia (My relations with the Church) in that solitude.

Palau y Quer, F 1977, Mis relaciones con la Iglesia, Carmelitas Misioneras, Rome, viewed 5 November 2025, https://www.carmelitasmisioneras.org/download/mis-relaciones-con-la-iglesia/#.

Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Sister Vanesa Guerrero of the Purity of Mary Sisters looks out over the Balearic Sea at Valldemosa, Mallorca. Image credit: Vanesa Guerrero, rpm / Cathopic

#BlessedFrancisPalauYQuer #BlessedVirginMary #journal #MotherOfGod #mysticalExperience