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Spiritual persons must exercise care that in their heart and joy they do not become attached to temporal goods. They must fear lest, through a gradual increase, their small attachments become great.

Be very attentive to His voice, and remember that when He thus takes His place in a heart, it is to dwell there alone and apart. You understand what I mean... I am not referring to the religious life, which is the great break with the world, but to that detachment, that purity of intention which, as it were, throws a veil over all that is not God and enables us to cling to Him unceasingly by faith.

Nothing so pleases Him as to see those souls developing and nothing can raise them so high as to become, in some way, equal with God. That is why He asks of the soul the tribute of its love, since it is the property of love to equalize, as far as possible, the lover with the beloved.

All the being of creation, then, compared with the infinite Being of God, is nothing. And therefore the soul that sets its affection upon the being of creation is likewise nothing in the eyes of God, and less than nothing; for, as we have said, love makes equality and similitude, and even sets the lover below the object of his love.

I cannot understand how humility exists, or can exist, without love, or love without humility, and it is impossible for these two virtues to exist save where there is great detachment from all created things.

If a man puts anything in his line of vision, however small, it is enough to obstruct his sight and prevent him from seeing other things in front of him; just so any small desire or idle act in the soul is sufficient to obstruct its vision of great and Divine things.

He who desires nothing but God does not walk in darkness, however blind and poor he may think himself to be.

In what does true poverty consist? It is to not even possess our own will, in being detached from our own judgement.

There is no time (Communion) when I have less consolation-yet this is not to be wondered at, since it is not for my own satisfaction that I desire to receive Our Lord but solely to give Him pleasure.

He should not go seeking after new things which can only satisfy the desires in a superficial manner (and even here cannot satisfy fully) while leaving the spirit weak and empty, without deep inner virtue.

How impossible it is for a soul to judge the things of God aright! To do so it must completely get rid of its desire and pleasures apart from God.

The soul suffers many trials, for the Lord wants the poor gardener to think that all the trouble he has taken in watering the garden and keeping it alive is lost. Then is the proper time for weeding and rooting out the smaller plants, and this must be done, however small they may be, if they are useless; for we know that no efforts of ours are availing if God withholds from us the water of grace, and we must despise ourselves as nothing and as less than nothing. By doing this we can gain great humility and then the flowers will begin to grow afresh.