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What do you think serving God involves other than avoiding evil, keeping His commandments, and being occupied with the things of God as best we can? When this is had, what need is there of other apprehensions or other lights and satisfactions from this source or that.

Abide in peace, banish cares, take no account of all that happens, and you will serve God according to his good pleasure and rest in him.

The soul in which God dwells has no other function than of an altar.

The light of faith is like the light of the sun which blinds our eyes because its light is stronger than our powers of sight. So the light of faith transcends our comprehension.

In all the events of life, however untoward they may be, the wise man encourages us to rejoice instead of giving way to sadness. In so doing we will not lose the greater good, peace of mind in both prosperity and adversity.

Until slumber comes to the appetites through the mortification of sensuality, and until this very sensuality is stilled in such a way that the appetites do not war against the spirit, the soul will not walk out to genuine freedom, to the enjoyment of union with its Beloved.

Let the soul, then, be 'enclosed' without anxiety. He who, when the doors were shut, entered bodily among His disciples and said 'Peace be with you' in an unexpected and inconceivable way, will enter spiritually into the soul when it keeps the door of its powers closed-that is, memory, understanding and will.

Reflect that the most delicate flower loses its fragrance and withers fastest; therefore guard yourself against seeking to walk in a spirit of delight, for you will not be constant. Choose rather for yourself a robust spirit, detached from everything, and you will discover abundant peace and sweetness, for delicious and durable fruit is gathered in a cold and dry climate.

Be therefore earnest in prayer, and hope in detachment and emptiness. Your good will not be long in coming.

What God communicates to the soul in this intimate union is totally beyond words. One can say nothing about it just as one can say nothing about God Himself that resembles Him.

To find God we must work ourselves according to our capacity. The soul therefore, remembering the saying of the Beloved 'Seek and you shall find', is resolved to seek Him actively and not rest until it finds Him. For there are many who do not want God to cost them anything except empty words.

There are others who are vexed with themselves when they observe their own imperfectness, and display an impatience that is not humility; so impatient are they about this that they would fain be saints in a day.