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...the harm done to us by our failure to understand well this humility and self-knowledge…self-knowledge is the most important thing for us.

...or if, as I have said, you are very careful about your prayer, you will soon find yourselves gradually reaching the summit of the mountain without knowing how. But how harsh it sounds to say that we must take pleasure in nothing, unless we also say what consolations and delights this renunciation brings in its train, and what a great gain it is, even in this life!

The Majesty! How victorious! How joyful! Indeed, like one coming forth from a battle where he has gained a great kingdom! And all of that, plus Himself, He desires for you. Well, is it such a big thing that from time to time you turn your eyes to look upon one who gives you so much?

What did You possess, my Lord, but trials, sufferings, and dishonor?...In sum, my God, it does not fit those of us who want to be your true children, and hold on to their inheritance, to flee suffering. Your heraldry consists of five wounds.

The safest way is to want only what God wants. He knows more than we ourselves do, and He loves us. Let us place ourselves in His hands so that His will may be done in us, and we cannot err if with a determined will we always maintain this attitude.

Thus if you should at times fall, don’t become discouraged and stop striving to advance. For even from this fall God will draw out some good...

However great the abundance of this water He gives, there cannot be too much in anything of His. If He gives a great deal, He gives the soul, as I said, the capacity to drink much; like a glass-maker who makes the vessel a size he sees is necessary in order to hold what he intends to pour into it.

Life is long, and there are in it many trials, and we need to look at Christ our model, how He suffered them, and also at His apostles and saints, so as to bear these trials with perfection.

I am consoled to hear the clock strike, for at the passing of that hour of life it seems to me I am drawing a little closer to the vision of God.

For then [the soul] didn’t understand the tremendous gain trials bring. Perhaps they were the means by which God brought it to the center, and the company it has gives it much greater strength than ever.

His Majesty knows what is good for us; it is not for us to advise Him how to treat us, for He has the right to tell us that we know not what we ask. Remember, it is of the greatest importance- the sole aim of one beginning to practice prayer should be to endure trials, and to resolve and strive to the utmost of her power to conform her own will to the will of God.

Knowing ourselves is something so important that I wouldn’t want any relaxation ever in this regard… While we are on this earth, nothing is more important to us than humility.