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What you most seek and desire you will not find by this way of yours, nor through high contemplation, but in much humility and submission of heart.

First, let him have a habitual desire to imitate Christ in everything that he does, conforming himself to His life; upon which life he must meditate so that he may know how to imitate it, and to behave in all things as Christ would behave.

God is hidden within the soul, and the true contemplative will seek Him there in love.

Now I ask You, Lord, not to abandon me at any time in my recollection, for I am a squanderer of my soul.

Never give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, persevere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction.

David in this night says of himself, “My heart is inflamed, and my reins are changed, and I am brought to nothing, and knew not.” That is,“my heart hath been inflamed” in the love of contemplation.”

Ordinarily this contemplation, which is secret and hidden from the very one who receives it, imparts to the soul, together with the dryness and emptiness it produces in the senses, an inclination to remain alone and in quietude.

The fly that clings to honey hinders its flight, and the soul that allows itself attachment to spiritual sweetness hinders its own liberty and contemplation.

If the inordinate love increases, then, as will be seen, the soul will grow cold in the love of God, and owing to the recollection of that other love, forget Him- not without the feeling of some remorse of conscience. On the other hand, as the love of God increases, the soul will grow cold in the inordinate affection and come to forget it.

But God also, by means of this dark and dry night of contemplation, supernaturally instructs in his divine wisdom the soul that is empty and unhindered.

What you most seek and desire you will not find by this way of yours, nor through high contemplation, but in much humility and submission of heart.

God is hidden within the soul, and the true contemplative will seek Him there in love.