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We object when He hands us the chalice of His suffering. It is so difficult for us to resign ourselves to suffering. To rejoice in it strikes us as heroic. What is the value of our offering of self if we unite ourselves each morning only in word and gesture, rather than in thought and will, to that offering which we, together with the Church, make of Him with whom we are in the one body?

O little Jesus, my only treasure, I abandon myself to every one of Your adorable whims. I seek no other joy than that of making You smile.

We come home exhausted, shattered. New vexations possibly await there....and there is still so much to do until evening. Should we not immediately go to it? No, not before calm sets in at least for a moment. Each one must know, or get to know, where and how she can find peace. The best way, when it is possible, is to shed all cares again for a short time before the tabernacle. Whoever cannot do that...should take a breathing space in her own room...When there is no place in which to retreat, if duties prohibit a quiet hour, then at least she must for a moment seal herself inwardly against all other things and take refuge in the Lord. He is indeed there and can give us in a single moment what we need.

They must be content simply with a loving and peaceful attentiveness to God, and live without concern, without effort, and without the desire to taste or feel him.

How sweet is the way of Love! True, one may fall and be unfaithful to grace, but Love knows how to draw profit from everything, and quickly consumes whatever may be displeasing to Our Lord, leaving in the heart only a deep and humble peace.

There You will show me
What my soul has been seeking,
And then You will give me,
You, my Life, will give me there
What You gave me on that other day:

The breathing of the air,
The song of the sweet nightingale,
The grove and its living beauty
In the serene night,
With a flame that is consuming and painless.

Death can hold no bitterness for the soul that loves. It brings with it all the sweetness and delights of love. There is no sadness in the remembrance of it when it opens the door to all joy.

The more interior the suffering is and the less apparent to the eyes of creatures, the more it rejoices You, O my God!

I have often said to you, and I repeat it again, forsake and resign yourself, and you shall enjoy a great inward peace.

Let him have a fixed determination not to allow himself to be beaten, for, if the devil sees that he has firmly resolved to lose his life and his peace and everything that he can offer him rather than to return to the first room, he will very soon cease troubling him.

You are the true peace of the heart, You are its only rest; outside of You all things are hard and uneasy.

I am content, nay, full of joy, to be without all consolation. I should be ashamed if my love were like that of earthly brides who are ever looking for gifts from their bridegrooms, or seeking to catch the smile which fills them with delight. Therese, the little Spouse of Jesus, loves Him for Himself. . . .