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True love feeds on sacrifice and becomes more pure and strong the more our natural satisfaction is denied.

...it is not enough for me to give to the one who asks, I ought to anticipate the wish; I should show myself honored by the request for service, and if anything set apart for my use be taken away I should appear glad to be rid of it.

It is enough to keep closed the outside doors, which are the senses; then it seems to me that the soul cannot go elsewhere than to its center which is God.

I know, too, that our progress has nothing to do with the body, which is the thing that matters least. What the journey which I am referring to demands is great humility, and it is the lack of this, I think, if you see what I mean, which prevents us from making progress.

Let your desire be to see God; your fear lest you lose Him; your joy in that which will take you to Him, and thus shall you live in great peace.

It is in prayer that the soul learns to know Jesus and thus to love him. Since love cannot be satisfied with difference but with equality, the result is union in similarity.

When we proceed with all this caution, we find stumbling-blocks everywhere; for we are afraid of everything, and so dare not go farther, as if we could arrive at these Mansions by letting others make the journey for us!

These persons are most imperfect and unreasonable; for they set bodily penance before subjection and obedience, which is penance according to reason and discretion, and therefore a sacrifice more acceptable and pleasing to God than any other.

If I did not suffer from moment to moment, I would not be able to keep patience, but I see only the present moment; I forget the past and take care not to peer into the future.

He is always with you, be always with Him, through all your actions, in your sufferings, when your body is exhausted, remain in His sight, see Him present, living in your soul.

Time is but a shadow, a dream; already God sees us in glory and takes joy in our eternal beatitude. How this thought helps my soul! I understand then why He lets us suffer.

A supernatural soul does not stop to deal with secondary causes, but solely with God. And how life thus becomes simplified! ... then the soul is truly great, truly free, for its will is ‘enclosed’ in that of God.