22 Quotes from St. Therese - Day 6

Far from being like those beautiful souls who from childhood practiced every kind of mortification, I felt no attraction for them. Without a doubt this came from my cowardice, because I could, like Celine [her sister], have found a thousand ways to make myself suffer. Instead of that I let myself always be coddled in cotton and fattened up like a little bird that has no need of doing penance. . . My mortifications consisted in breaking my will, which was always ready to impose itself; in holding my tongue instead of answering back; in doing little things for others without hoping to get anything in return, in not slumping back when I was sitting down; etc. etc. - St. Therese

From The Story of a Soul: A New Translation (Living Library)