Do not think, my sister’s, that because you do not go about trying to please people in the world you will lack food. You will not, I assure you: never try to sustain yourselves by human artifices, or you will die of hunger, and rightly so. Keep your eyes fixed upon your Spouse: it is for Him to sustain you; and, if He is pleased with you, even those who like you least will give you food, if unwillingly, as you have found by experience. If you should do as I say and yet die of hunger, then happy are the Nuns of St. Joseph’s! For the love of the Lord, let us not forget this: you have forgone a regular income; forgo worry about food as well, or you will lose everything.

Let those whom the Lord wishes to live on an income due so: if that is their vocation they are perfectly justified; but for us to do so, sisters, would be inconsistent.

From the book: The Way Of Perfection Saint Teresa Of Avila