Why speak of a delirious joy? No, this expression is not exact, for it was rather the calm and serene peace of the navigator perceiving the beacon which must lead him to the port...O luminous Beacon of love, I know how to reach You, I have found the secret of possessing Your flame.

St. Therese
Story of a Soul p 195

Then, in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love...my vocation, at last I have found it...MY VOCATION IS LOVE!... In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I shall be Love. Thus I shall be everything, and thus my dream will be realized.

St. Therese of Lisieux
Story of a Soul p 194

I finally had rest....If the Church had a body composed of different members, the most necessary and most noble of all could not be lacking to it, and so I understood that the Church had a heart and this heart was BURNING WITH LOVE....I understood that LOVE COMPRISED ALL VOCATIONS, THAT LOVE WAS EVERYTHING THAT IT EMBRACED ALL TIMES AND PLACES...IN A WORD THAT IT WAS ETERNAL!

St. Therese of Lisieux
Story of a Soul p 194

Is Your disdained Love to remain closed up within Your Heart?...It seems to me You would be happy not to hold back the waves of infinite tenderness within You. If Your justice loves to release itself,...how much more does Your Merciful Love desire to set souls on fire...O my Jesus let me be this happy victim; consume Your holocaust with the fire of Your Divine Love.

St. Therese of Lisieux
SS 181

I feel it more than ever before, Jesus is parched, for He meets only the ungrateful and indifferent among His disciples in the world, and among His own disciples, alas, He finds few hearts who surrender to Him without reservations, who understand the real tenderness of His infinite Love.

St. Therese of Lisieux
SS 189

Ah! my Jesus, pardon me if...my desires and longings reach even unto infinity...I feel within me the vocation of the WARRIOR, THE PRIEST, THE APOSTLE, THE DOCTOR, THE MARTYR...O Jesus, my love, my life, how can I combine these contrasts? How can I realize the desires of my poor little soul?

St. Therese
SS 192

Jesus, I cannot fathom the depths of...my bold desires. My excuse is that I am a child... But how will she prove her love since love is proved by works? Well, the little child will strew flowers...not allowing one little sacrifice to escape, not one look, not one word, profiting by all the smallest things and doing them through love. ...I shall sing, for could one cry while doing such a joyous action? I shall sing even when I must gather my flowers in the midst of thorns...

St. Therese
SS 192

Are my measureless desires only but a dream, a folly? Ah! if this be so, Jesus, then enlighten me, for you know I am seeking only the truth. If my desires are rash, then make them disappear...

St. Therese of Lisieux
Story of A Soul p 197