Mother Teresa Quotes

We must free ourselves to be filled by God. Even God cannot fill what is full.

The more we empty ourselves, the more room we give God to fill us.

Perhaps God waits for us to be empty, so he may fill us with himself.

even God could do nothing for someone already full. You have to be completely empty to let Him in to do what He will.

When you're full of yourself, God can't fill you. But when you empty yourself, God has a useful vessel.

It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself.

The humility of Jesus can be seen in the crib, in the exile to Egypt, in the hidden life, in the inability to make people understand Him, in the desertion of His apostles, in the hatred of His persecutors, in all the terrible suffering and death of His Passion, and now in His permanent state of humility in the tabernacle, where He has reduced Himself to such a small particle of bread that the priest can hold Him with two fingers. The more we empty ourselves, the more room we give God to fill us.

Before there can be fullness there must be emptiness. Before God can fill us with Himself we must first be emptied of ourselves.

God gives His gifts where He finds the vessel empty enough to receive them.

Far better it is for you to say: "I am a sinner," than to say: "I have no need of religion." The empty can be filled, but the self-intoxicated have no room for God.

Humility consists of knowing that in this world the whole soul, not only what we term the ego in its totality, but also the supernatural part of the soul, which is God present in it, is subject to time and to the vicissitudes of change. There must be absolutely acceptance of the possibility that everything material in us should be destroyed. But we must simultaneously accept and repudiate the possibility that the supernatural part of the soul should disappear.

Blessed are the poor in spirit." Blessed are they who are stripped of every thing, even of their own wills, that they may no longer belong to themselves.

What a relief to be empty! Then God can live your life.

God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.

Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray Him to empty us.

I believe many a man is praying to God to fill him, when he is full already with something else. Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray Him to empty us.

Christ dwells in that heart most eminently that hath emptied itself of itself.

Until man is nothing, God can make nothing of him. - Martin Luther

I firmly believe that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and self-seeking and every thing that is contrary to God's law, the Holy Ghost will come and fill every corner of our hearts; but if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and self-seeking and pleasure and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God; and I believe many a man is praying to God to fill him when he is full already with something else.

Let us not go faster than God. It is our emptiness and our thirst that He needs, not our plentitude.

Let's not get too full of ourselves. Let's leave space for God to come into the room.

We 'have all we want' is a terrible saying when 'all' does not include God. We find God an interruption. As St. Augustine says somewhere, 'God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full - there's nowhere for Him to put it.'

If you are discouraged it is a sign of pride because it shows you trust in your own power. Your self-sufficiency, your selfishness and your intellectual pride will inhibit His coming to live in your heart because God cannot fill what is already full. It is as simple as that.

Our problem is that we assume prayer is something to master the way we master algebra or auto mechanics. But when praying, we come "underneath," where we calmly and deliberately surrender control and become incompetent.