Quote of the day, 28 March: St. Teresa of Avila
Always grieve over any fault, if it is publicly known, that you see in a Sister. Here love shows itself, and it is practiced well when you know how to suffer the fault and not be surprised; so the others will do with respect to your faults, for you may have many more than you are aware of.
Recommend the Sister to God and strive yourself to practice with great perfection the virtue opposite the fault that appears in her. Make every effort to do this so that you teach that Sister in deed what perhaps through words or punishment she might not understand or profit by; and the imitation of the virtue in which one sees another excel has a great tendency to spread.
This is good advice; don’t forget it.
Saint Teresa of Avila
The Way of Perfection, chap. 7, no. 7
Note: St. Teresa of Avila was born on 28 March 1515 in Avila, Spain, to Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda and Beatriz Dávila y Ahumada. Her paternal grandfather, Juan Sánchez de Toledo, was a converso—a Jew who had converted to Christianity and later did public penance under the Inquisition. Teresa never denied this ancestry and it deepened her awareness of God’s grace and her own humility.
Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Monjas Carmelitas ante Ávila by the Italian painter Guido Caprotti was executed in oil on canvas in the year 1938. It forms part of the Caprotti Collection in the Palacio Superunda, Avila. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites
🎂 “Imitation of the virtue in which one sees another excel has a great tendency to spread.”
On her birthday, St. Teresa offers a challenge: bear with others’ faults, and quietly model the opposite virtue. Charity grows not by correcting—but by imitating Christ.
🕊️ What virtue could you practice today as a quiet gift for someone else?
💬 Let’s reflect together—share your thoughts in the comments!
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