August 26th, Carmelites around the world celebrate the feast of the Transverberation (piercing) of St. Teresa of Avila’s heart. Transverberation is a mystical grace wherein the Saint’s heart was pierced with a “dart of love” by an angel.

[O, Lord,] you respond clearly, but not everyone hears clearly. All ask what they wish, but do not always hear the answer they wish. Your best servant is he who is intent not so much on hearing his petition answered, as rather on willing whatever he hears from you.... All my hope lies only in your great mercy.
[Excerpt from the Confessions of Saint Augustine]

The cross of Christ spanned the jaws of death like a bridge by which souls might pass from the region of the dead to the land of the living. Let us offer our Lord the great and all-embracing sacrifice of our love, pouring out our treasury of hymns and prayers before him who offered his cross in sacrifice to God for the enrichment of us all.
[Excerpt from a sermon by St. Ephrem, deacon]

Prayer is the offering in spirit that has done away with the sacrifices of old.... We pray in spirit, and so offer in spirit the sacrifice of prayer.
[From the treatise On Prayer by Tertullian]