"All things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted"
About this Quote
Spiritual advice that sounds like gardening is rarely just a metaphor for Saint Teresa of Avila; it is a disciplinary program. “All things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted” pushes against a Renaissance-era temptation as modern as any self-help feed: the chase for imported graces, borrowed certainties, secondhand holiness. Teresa insists that whatever lasts in the interior life has to rise from the hidden, local, lived core of a person - the “roots” - not from performances, visions, or spiritual tourism.
The intent is corrective. Teresa, a reformer who knew how easily devotion can become spectacle, re-centers the believer on ordinary fidelity: prayer that returns you to the same spot, the same vows, the same stubborn limits. “Planted” carries subtext about consent and constraint. You do not choose every condition of your life - your body, your temperament, your obligations, your era. Teresa turns that into a spiritual asset rather than an excuse. Grace is not an escape hatch; it is nourishment that works through the soil you already inhabit.
Context sharpens the line’s edge. Writing in Counter-Reformation Spain, under the shadow of the Inquisition and amid suspicion toward unregulated mystical experience, Teresa had to argue that deep interior prayer could be both radical and obedient. Rootedness becomes a safeguard against spiritual delusion and institutional anxiety alike: authentic transformation is slow, grounded, testable in humility and service. The sentence flatters no one. It tells you your sanctity won’t arrive by package delivery. It will grow, unglamorous and inevitable, from the place you keep trying to outgrow.
The intent is corrective. Teresa, a reformer who knew how easily devotion can become spectacle, re-centers the believer on ordinary fidelity: prayer that returns you to the same spot, the same vows, the same stubborn limits. “Planted” carries subtext about consent and constraint. You do not choose every condition of your life - your body, your temperament, your obligations, your era. Teresa turns that into a spiritual asset rather than an excuse. Grace is not an escape hatch; it is nourishment that works through the soil you already inhabit.
Context sharpens the line’s edge. Writing in Counter-Reformation Spain, under the shadow of the Inquisition and amid suspicion toward unregulated mystical experience, Teresa had to argue that deep interior prayer could be both radical and obedient. Rootedness becomes a safeguard against spiritual delusion and institutional anxiety alike: authentic transformation is slow, grounded, testable in humility and service. The sentence flatters no one. It tells you your sanctity won’t arrive by package delivery. It will grow, unglamorous and inevitable, from the place you keep trying to outgrow.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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