Feast of St Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart

If you would like to read a nice biography and learn more about St Teresa Margaret, please visit this excellent site. I read somewhere a long time ago (read: years) that St Teresa Margaret is the best preserved incorrupt saint without any type of preservative (I love St Bernadette, but she's been waxed in recent years). St Teresa Margaret is one many jewels in Carmel. It's so unfortunate that her cult is not more widespread in the USA...

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"...I sometimes am in doubt as to which way I must turn... I feel greatly confused; I certainly do not want to offend God. I have no desire other than belong wholly to Him."

"I am telling you in strict confidence, sure of your discretion, that I find myself in pain because I am not doing anything to correspond to the demands of love. I feel that I am continually being reproached by my Sovereign Good, and yet, I am very sensitive to the slightest movement contrary to the love and knowledge of Him. I do not see; I do not feel; I do not understand anything interiorly or exteriorly that could impel me to love. Everything is an obstacle and prevents me from throwing myself unreservedly into the arms of God, and I am so aware of this fact that I scarcely know how to occupy my mind - even the very things that could help me to love present obstacles to me, and I strive hard to avoid these. I have no other remedy than to work in complete faith, but on account of my cold-heartedness, this also is painful to me. However, thanks to a continual vigilance over the inferior faculties and over the suggestions of the common enemy (the devil), I think that these things are helping to make me a little less imperfect."

-- From the letters of St Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart

Sound familiar? I think we can relate to her feelings...