The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese of Lisieux Quotes

“Even if you have suffered, even if you have sometimes been disappointed by life, even if, at certain times, you had the feeling that God was very far away (we all have this feeling when living through a time of trial) or had abandoned you, in spite of all of that, never doubt God’s love, never doubt his faithfulness.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

“Jesus does not need books or learned doctors to instruct souls. He who is the doctor of doctors teaches without any need of words. … I have never heard him speak, but I feel that he is in me, that at every moment he is guiding me, inspiring me with what I should say or do. Just when I need it, I discover lights that I had not seen before. It is not usually during my prayer that they are most abundant, but rather amidst my daily occupations.23 I find this passage tremendously significant. That is often the way things happen in our lives. Apparently nothing in particular happens during the actual time of prayer, but because we have been faithful to it, God instructs us in secret, he places things in us without our being aware of it. And when we need to give someone advice or have to make a decision, we receive a light there and then.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

“The point is to move from "Why?" to "How?" The real question isn't "Why is this happening to me?" but "How should I live through these things?" How am I called to face this situation? What call to growth is being made to me through this? That question will always get an answer.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese of Lisieux

“If you are wondering what penance to take up next Lent, I suggest this one: try to be joyful, happy, and to thank God all the time. Nothing will do you as much good as that.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese of Lisieux

“If trust disappears when we do wrong, it shows that our trust was based on ourselves and our deeds. Discouragement is a clear sign that we've put our trust in ourselves and not at all in God.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese of Lisieux

“The two main signs of pride are despising others and getting discouraged.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese of Lisieux

“Therese felt clearly that she could not become a saint through her own efforts alone. Her own merits or her good works could not save her. In this way she was simply agreeing with the message of the Gospel and of St. Paul: We are not saved by our deeds, by what we accomplish. We are saved by grace, by mercy, and this grace is received through faith and trust.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese of Lisieux

“Living in the present moment means accepting the poverty in us: not insisting on going over and over the past or taking control of the future, but contending ourselves with today.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese of Lisieux

“She was there, God was there, and that was enough.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

“In a vulnerable, wounded world like ours, where nevertheless the Holy Spirit is addressing all Christians with a ringing call to holiness and inspiring them with a desire to live out the Gospel message in all its depth, I think there is no better path than the one St. Thérèse of Lisieux offers us: her little way of trust and love.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

“The Bible is not a privileged possession of Protestants: all believers, absolutely, must be nourished on Scripture. ... We are constantly bombarded with messages of every kind. Only God's Word, passed on to us in a special way in Scripture, has the necessary depth, clarity, and authority to help us find our way. Only Scripture enables us to discover the truth, not as something abstract, but as God's presence in our lives and the very specific way he offers us day after day.

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This simple spiritual experience of discovering Holy Scripture as light, encouragement, and strength for our path today--for Scripture has an authority possessed by no human word, no human reasoning--is one all Christians can and should have.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese of Lisieux

“When a person is faithful to his or her times of prayer, day after day, week after week, it’s like someone with a well in the garden that’s choked with rubbish—branches, leaves, stones, mud—but underneath is water, clean and pure. In spending time in prayer, you’re setting to work patiently to unblock the well. What comes up at the start is the mud and dirt: our wretchedness, worries, fears, guilt, self-blame—the things we normally avoid. Plenty of people run away from themselves. There’s a real fear of silence today! But those who have the courage to go forward into the desert end up finding an oasis.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

“when we have a question to which we need to know the answer in order to do God’s will today, he always responds.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

“every time we respond to a call from God, we receive grace and are interiorly strengthened. Because God is faithful: if he asks us to take this or that step forward, he comes to the aid of our weakness.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

“Whatever our personal limitations and situations, we can all love right where we are: in the kitchen, the bathroom, the office—it makes no difference. What the Church needs most is genuine love. We attach too much importance to externals, actions, and visible effectiveness, whereas all that counts, all that really bears fruit in the Church, is the truth and purity and sincerity of love; that is what we should ask God for most of all and put into practice.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

“The two main signs of pride are despising others and getting discouraged.13 Those who are humble and accept their littleness don’t get discouraged because they put their trust in God and not in themselves.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

“Instead of bearing your poverty as a handicap, an obstacle, accept it and welcome it as a grace.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

“You might go so far as to say that when our hearts remain constantly in the act of thanksgiving, evil has no more hold on them. For in a grateful heart there is no longer any room for rancor, blame, unpleasantness, jealousy, all the rest. Our hearts, remaining pure, are able to perceive God's action.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese of Lisieux

“Holiness is different; it is a real desire to love God and our neighbor and, eschewing a kind of halfway love, go to love's extremes.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese of Lisieux

“This is worth noting. Thérèse had a great love for Holy Scripture. All the lights that guided her along the way, all her great spiritual intuitions, she found in Scripture. Every time a question came up that upset her a little, she went to the Bible to find the answer. She received astonishing lights that enabled her to acquire a deep understanding of the Scriptures. On this point too, she anticipated Vatican II, which laid great stress on the importance of returning to the Bible if we want to be real Catholics.”
― Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux