St Teresa of Avila
Prayer is the door
Prayer
is the door to those great graces which our Lord bestowed upon me.
If
this door be shut, I do not see how He can bestow them; for even if He entered
into a soul to take His delight therein, and to make that soul also delight in
Him, there is no way by which He can do so; for His will is, that such a soul
should be lonely and pure, with a great desire to receive His graces.
If
we put many hindrances in the way, and take no pains whatever to remove them,
how can He come to us, and how can we have any desire that He should show us
His great mercies?
Above
all I implore all for the love of our Lord, and for the great love with which
He goeth about seeking our conversion to Himself, to beware of the occasions of
sin: for once placed therein, we have no ground to rest on.
(Life 8, 5.6)
