July 25, 2026

Choose What Awakens Love

The important thing is not to think much but to love much, and so do that which most stirs you to love.

Teresa wrote this in 1577 while guiding her Carmelite nuns through what she called the dwelling places of the soul, a map of prayer she composed almost in secret, late at night, under orders from her superiors. Many sisters worried they were praying the wrong way, comparing their methods to others and feeling bound by rules they had not chosen for themselves. Teresa cuts through that anxiety by handing the choice back to each soul: judge your practice not by technique but by whether it moves you toward love. It is a quiet declaration of inner freedom, that no one else gets to dictate the path your devotion takes.