Quote of the day, 21 March: St. Teresa of the Andes

Pray, Rev. Mother, for this poor exile that she may become a holy Carmelite soon.

Saint Teresa of the Andes

Teresa of the Andes—Teresa of Jesus, a Discalced Carmelite and the first flowering of holiness from the Teresian Carmel in Latin America—is a light of Christ for the whole Church in Chile. Today she is inscribed among the saints of the universal Church.

As in the first reading we have heard from the book of Samuel, Teresa’s greatness does not lie in “her appearance or her stature.” “The Lord’s gaze,” Sacred Scripture tells us, “is not like that of man: man looks at appearances, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Thus, in her young life of just over nineteen years, and in her eleven months as a Carmelite, God caused the light of His Son Jesus Christ to shine forth in her in a remarkable way, so that she might serve as a beacon and guide for a world that seems to be blinded by what only appears to be divine.

To a secularized society that lives turned away from God, this Chilean Carmelite—whom I present with great joy as a model of the perennial youth of the Gospel—offers the clear witness of a life that proclaims to the men and women of today that in loving, adoring, and serving God are found the greatness and joy, the freedom and the full realization of the human person. From within the cloister, the life of the blessed Teresa cries out in silence: “God alone suffices!”

And she proclaims this especially to the young, who hunger for truth and seek a light that gives meaning to their lives. To a youth surrounded by the constant messages and stimuli of an eroticized culture, and to a society that confuses genuine love—which is self-gift—with the hedonistic use of others, this young virgin of the Andes proclaims today the beauty and blessedness that radiate from pure hearts.

In her tender love for Christ, Teresa discovers the very essence of the Christian message: to love, to suffer, to pray, to serve. Within her family she learned to love God above all things. And in recognizing herself as the exclusive possession of her Creator, her love for neighbor became all the more intense and definitive. As she writes in one of her letters: “When I love, it’s forever. Especially, a Carmelite never forgets. From her cell, she accompanies souls she loved in the world.”

Saint John Paul II

Homily, Canonization of Claudine Thévenet and Teresa of Jesus of the Andes
Sunday, 21 March 1993

Note: On 21 March 1993, St. John Paul II presided at the canonization of Teresa of the Andes in St. Peter’s Basilica

Canonization of Claudine Thévenet and Teresa de Jesús “de los Andes”
21 March 1993, St. Peter’s Basilica
The Discalced Carmelite delegation can be seen at top left
Copyright © L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO (All rights reserved)

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

John Paul II, 1993. Canonizzazione di Claudine Thévenet e di Teresa de Jesús de los Andes. Omelia di Giovanni Paolo II, Domenica, 21 marzo 1993. Vatican.va. Available at: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/it/homilies/1993/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19930321_thevenet.html (Accessed: 19 March 2026).

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

Featured image: Detail from a photo of Saint Teresa that was taken a few months before she entered the Carmel of Los Andes. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (by permission).

#canonization #DiscalcedCarmelite #StJohnPaulII #StTeresaOfTheAndes #vocation

Quote of the day, 22 January: St. Teresa of the Andes

I’ve been in Carmel 6 months, Isabel, 6 months of heaven, undisturbed by anything on earth, 6 months of living hidden in my adored Word, listening to His Word of life, contemplating His infinite beauty.

If I could but explain to you the immense void in which I live as far as anything having to do with the world is concerned, you’d envy me.

It’s Jesus, my Isabel, who is the only attraction in my life. It’s He, with His charms and sweetness, who leads me to forget everything.

Still, there are times—believe me—when a person suffers. And don’t think that a Carmelite’s sufferings are of any ordinary type. And yet in her suffering it’s as though a Carmelite rejoices, isn’t that so, sister dear? Especially when it is Jesus Himself who crucifies us, who breaks us to pieces. We find ourselves happy to be His plaything.

You understand all too well the language of the cross; I don’t need to tell you to love the cross; for it is on the cross that our soul’s transformation in God is accomplished. But don’t think that because of this that I suffer, for believe me, I wish I could suffer much more.

The best thing of all is to love God’s will. It is there that we find the cross better than in any other place. It is there that this blessed tree grows correctly, without hindrance, for it is without our choice, without any personal satisfaction whatsoever.

Do you feel in your soul this love for God’s will?

Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

Letter 149 to Elisa Valdes Ossa, November 1919 (excerpts)

Note: This lengthy, undated letter also reflects—especially in its later paragraphs—the spiritual influence of Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity on Teresa, the young Carmelite. On this date in 1986, Saint John Paul II signed the decree recognizing the heroicity of her virtues, by which she received the title Venerable.

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Saint John Paul II waves farewell to the faithful at the conclusion of the Mass of Beatification of Teresa of Jesus of the Andes in Parque O’Higgins, Santiago, Chile, 3 April 1987. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (by permission).

#cross #JesusChrist #StTeresaOfTheAndes #suffering #willOfGod

Quote of the day, 14 January: St. Teresa of the Andes

The life of the Carmelite consists in loving, contemplating, and suffering. She lives only with her God. Between her and Him, there are no creatures; there is no world—there is nothing. Thus her soul attains the fullness of love, becomes one with His divinity, and reaches perfection through contemplation and suffering.

She contemplates God alone and, like the angels in heaven, sings the praises of the Being par excellence. Solitude, detachment from all earthly things, and the poverty in which she lives are powerful means that foster the contemplation of God, who is Love. Finally, intense suffering purifies her.

The Carmelite silently endures the trials of the spirit, which may be even more terrible than those of the body. Jesus Christ, in His Passion, did not complain even once; yet when His soul bore the weight of suffering, He could not refrain from saying: “My soul is sorrowful even unto death. My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want” (Mt 26:38–39). What sorrow, then, must the soul experience when the spirit undergoes a suffering that the Man of Sorrows declared sufficient to cause death!

At another moment, Jesus cried out from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). The Carmelite often finds herself surrounded by darkness that hides her Beloved. She feels rejected and without protection. Is there any suffering greater for a soul who has left everything to follow the God she loves than to find herself alone, without Him?

The Carmelite has no distractions to draw her away from her pain. She lives for Him, and nothing can make her forget her suffering for even an instant. She remains in solitude.

Saint Teresa of the Andes

Her Intimate Spiritual Diary, 47 (1919)

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: A Carmelite nun holds her rosary as she walks through the monastery. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (By permission).

#CarmeliteSpirituality #CarmeliteVocation #contemplation #solitude #StTeresaOfTheAndes

Blessings for the New Year 2026

Thou crownest the year with thy bounty…
Psalm 65:11

#greetings #NewYear #Psalms #StTeresaOfTheAndes

Quote of the day, 27 December: St. Teresa of the Andes

I’d love, my Isabel, to converse with you about my Jesus, I’d love to inflame you in His love, for I still don’t love Him enough; but I can’t do it.

I wish, my sister, that you could see in Jesus, in the Word, the love He has demonstrated for us; but I don’t dare to cross that infinite abyss in which I lose myself, especially since you have already delved into it more deeply than I have myself.

Let’s look for nothing but love in Him, for God is love. Love is His essence, and in love all His infinite perfections are found.

After the holidays, I will tell you how we celebrate Christmas in Carmel. Do you remember how, last year, Jesus through His birth brought to birth in me peace of soul? I’ll keep you there very close to Him tonight, or better still, I’ll pray that He lets you kiss His little Feet.

Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

Letter 149 to Elisa Valdes Ossa, November 1919 (excerpts)

Note: This undated letter reflects the influence of Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity on the spirituality of Teresa, the young Carmelite. Earlier in the letter, Teresa notes that she has been in Carmel for six months.

Featured image: Nativity scene in Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna. Image credit: Daniel Furxer, Pfarrmedien Österreich / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

#Christmas #friendship #love #peace #StTeresaOfTheAndes

Quote of the day, 9 November: St. Teresa of the Andes

I am reading Elizabeth of the Holy Trinity. I love her. Her soul is similar to mine. Although she was a saint, I will imitate her and be a saint. I want to live with Jesus in the depths of my soul. I want to defend him from his enemies.

I want to live a life of Heaven, as Elizabeth says, being a praise of glory:

Living a divine life. Loving with a pure love of God. Giving myself to Him without reserve. Living in an intimate communion with the Spouse of my soul.

By fulfilling God’s will in everything. How? By fulfilling my duty at every moment, with joy. Nothing should disturb me. All must be peace, like that which floods the angels in heaven.

Living in silence; for thus the Holy Spirit will bring forth harmonious sounds and the Father, together with the Spirit, will form [in me] the image of the Word.

Suffering, since Christ suffered all His life and was the praise of His Father’s glory. I will suffer with joy for my sins and for sinners.

Living a life of faith. Looking at everything from the supernatural point of view. Reflecting Christ in our actions like a mirror.

Living in a continuous thanksgiving: may our thoughts, desires and acts be a perpetual thanksgiving.

Living in continuous worship, like the angels; repeating: “Sanctus, sanctus”, etc. And since we cannot constantly be in prayer, at least before each exercise renew the intention, and thus we shall be a praise of glory and live a life of Heaven. Moreover, we must become more inflamed in the zeal of divine glory.

Saint Teresa of the Andes

Diary, 15 July 1917

Donoso Brant, PS n.d., Diario escrito por Teresa de Los Andes, viewed 7 November 2025, https://www.santateresadelosandes.cl/DIARIO%20ESCRITO%20POR%20TERESA%20DE%20LOS%20ANDES.pdf.

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

Featured image: The Andes mountains are always a stunning view in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. The Cuernos del Paine are one of the features that await tourists to the nation’s Southern Patagonia region. Image credits: St. Teresa of the Andes and St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, Discalced Carmelites (By permission); Torres de Paine National Park, Adobe Stock (Stock photo)

#diary #holiness #resolutions #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #StTeresaOfTheAndes

Quote of the day, 24 October: St. Teresa of the Andes

Today, ever since I got up, I feel very sad. It seems that suddenly my heart is breaking.

Jesus told me that He wants me to suffer with joy. […] He told me that He joyfully ascended Calvary and laid His head on the cross for the salvation of humankind.

“Is it possible that you are the one searching for Me and that you want to be like Me? Then, come with Me and take up the cross with love and joy.”

Saint Teresa of the Andes

Her Intimate Spiritual Diary
24 October 1915

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: St. Teresa of the Andes before she entered the Carmel of Los Andes. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (By permission), modified with AI tools by Carmelite Quotes

#CrossOfChrist #joy #love #StTeresaOfTheAndes

Quote of the day, 13 July: St. Teresa of the Andes

Let us praise the Lord and give Him thanks for the great favor He has bestowed on your little daughter. I have permission, and with God’s help, I will fly to the dear little dovecote on May 7.

My father gave me his permission last Sunday. Saint Joseph was the one who wrought this miracle.

Yesterday, I went to Communion for the first time since receiving his permission. I assure you that I could not keep from weeping in the face of such a great favor from my dear Jesus. I am at the peak of happiness and pain.

When I consider the favor Our Lord granted me and on the other hand, when I see my misery and unworthiness, I am filled with confusion. Then, I throw myself into the arms of the One who is all mercy and, casting myself there, remain completely surrendered to my celestial Bridegroom.

He does everything in me. All I do is love Him and this so imperfectly. I love Him and for Him I am going to give up everything. That everything, however, is such a small thing in comparison with the everything of His love.

Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

Letter 80

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: St. Teresa of the Andes is depicted in this collage against the backdrop of the Chilean Andes. Image credit: Carmelite Quotes

#familyLife #Jesus #mercy #StTeresaOfTheAndes #vocation

13 July: Saint Teresa of Jesus Fernández Solar (Not observed in 2025)

July 13
SAINT TERESA OF JESUS FERNÁNDEZ SOLAR
Virgin

Memorial
In the houses in Chile: Feast

Pastoral note: In the year 2025, this Memorial gives way to the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Juanita Fernández Solar was born at Santiago, Chile, on July 13, 1900. From her adolescence she was devoted to Christ. She entered the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns at Los Andes on May 7, 1919, where she was given the name of Teresa of Jesus. She died on April 12 of the following year after having made her religious profession. She was beatified on April 3, 1987, at Santiago, Chile, and canonized on March 21, 1993, by Saint John Paul II and proposed as a model for young people. She is the first Chilean and the first member of the Teresian Carmel in Latin America to be canonized.

From the Common of Virgins, except the following:

Office of Readings

Second Reading
Diario y cartas (Los Andes, 1983), 373, 359, 376

From the Spiritual writings of Saint Teresa of Jesus

Jesus alone is beautiful; He is my only joy. I call for Him, I cry after Him, I search for Him within my heart. I long for Jesus to grind me interiorly so that I may become a pure host where He can find His rest. I want to be athirst with love so that other souls may possess this love. I would die to creatures and to myself, so that He may live in me.

Is there anything good, beautiful or true that we can think of that would not be in Jesus? Wisdom, from which nothing would be secret. Power, for which nothing would be impossible. Justice, which made Him take on flesh in order to make satisfaction for sin. Providence, which always watches over and sustains us. Mercy, which never ceases to pardon. Goodness, which forgets the offenses of His creatures. Love, which unites all the tendernesses of a mother, of a brother, of a spouse, and which, drawing Him out of the abyss of His greatness, binds Him closely to His creatures. Beauty which enraptures… what can you think of that would not be found in this Man-God?

Are you perhaps afraid that the abyss of the greatness of God and that of your nothingness cannot be united? There is love in Him. His passionate love made Him take flesh in order that by seeing a Man-God, we would not be afraid to draw near Him. This passionate love made Him become bread in order to assimilate our nothingness and make it disappear into His infinite being. This passionate love made Him give His life by dying on the cross.

Are you perhaps afraid to draw near Him? Look at Him, surrounded by little children. He caresses them, He presses them to His heart. Look at Him in the midst of His faithful flock, bearing the faithless lamb on His shoulders. Look at Him at the tomb of Lazarus. And listen to what He says of the Magdalene: “Much has been forgiven her, because she has loved much.” What do you discover in these flashes from the Gospel except a heart that is good, gentle, tender, compassionate; in other words, the heart of a God?

He is my unending wealth, my bliss, my heaven.

Responsory

R/. I have come to rate all as loss in the light of the surpassing knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ: I am racing to grasp the prize * since I have been grasped by Christ Jesus.
V/. I give no thought to what lies behind but push on to what lies ahead as I run toward the prize to which God calls me on high * since I have been grasped by Christ Jesus.

Prayer

God of mercy, joy of the saints,
you set the young heart of Saint Teresa ablaze
with the fire of virginal love for Christ and for His Church;
and even in suffering made her a cheerful witness to charity.
Through her intercession,
fill us with the delights of your Spirit,
so that we may proclaim by word and deed
the joyful message of your love to the world.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Juanita Fernández Solar | Credit: Discalced Carmelites

Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.

#DiscalcedCarmelite #JuanitaFernandezSolar #LiturgyOfTheHours #Memorial #StTeresaOfTheAndes #virgin

Quote of the day, 11 June: St. Teresa of the Andes

J.M.J.T.
June 11, 1919
My dear Luís:

May the love of Jesus take possession of your soul.

I don’t think you’ll blame me for not answering your two little letters immediately, since my time is not my own. I gave away everything I had—even my own will! I must do everything Our Lord asks of me moment by moment, so that it’s only now that I’ve read your last letter. What a joy!

How happy I find myself in sacrificing everything for God! It’s all nothing in comparison with the way Our Savior sacrificed Himself from the cradle to the Cross and from the Cross to the point of annihilating Himself under the form of bread till the end of time. Oh, how great is this infinite love—a love unknown, a love not returned by most of humanity.

Luís dear, throughout these days I have kept you here with me in this retreat…. How I’d like to share with you what I feel, little brother of my soul. How I’d love to show you the lovely infinite, the horizon beyond creation that I experience and contemplate.

I love God now a thousand times more than I did before, because I hadn’t known Him. He reveals and makes Himself known to souls that really seek to know and love Him. Everything on earth, Luís, seems to shrink, to lose value before the Divinity which, like an infinite Sun, continues to shine upon my miserable soul with its rays.

Oh, if you could go to the depths of my soul even for an instant, you’d see me captivated by that Beauty, by that incomprehensible Goodness. How I’d love to bind the hearts of creatures and surrender them to divine Love!

You’ve never known the heaven that I, through God’s mercy, possess in my heart. Yes. I have a heaven in my soul, because God is there, and God is heaven.

Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

Letter 107 to her brother Luis (excerpt)
11 June 1919

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Andes mountains are always a stunning view in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. The Cuernos del Paine are one of the features that await tourists to the nation’s Southern Patagonia region. Image credit: Adobe Stock (Stock photo)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
When has God helped you recognize that He is living within you, creating a heaven in your soul?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#divineLove #happiness #heaven #retreat #StTeresaOfTheAndes