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If you desire that devotion be born in your spirit and that the love of God and the desire for divine things increase, cleanse your soul of every desire, attachment, and ambition in such a way that you have no concern about anything. Just as a sick person is immediately aware of good health once the bad humor has been thrown off and a desire to eat is felt, so will you recover your health, in God, if you cure yourself as was said. Without doing this, you will not advance no matter how much you do.

I find I am doing nothing to correspond to love...I feel within me a continual reproach of the Sovereign Good, and on the other hand everything seems to hinder me from simply rushing forward to God...I find no other remedy but to live by faith. I cannot imagine what painful fare living without love would be for one who burns with desire for this love.

It remains to be said, then, that even though this happy night darkens the spirit, it does so only to impart light concerning all things; and even though it humbles individuals and reveals their miseries, it does so only to exalt them; and even though it impoverishes and empties them of all possessions and natural affection, it does so only that they may reach out divinely to the enjoyment of all earthly and heavenly things, with a general freedom of spirit in them all.

But please do tell me, O child Mary, which way could one follow to acquire a love so high?... An anxious and constant desire for that love, and removing from ourselves self- love! For, love hinders love. The loves that hinder this high love are of three kinds: a great and grand self love; a great and anxious love of created things; and a great and restless love of creatures.

If you want to find a hidden treasure you must enter the hiding place secretly, and once you have discovered it, you will also be hidden just as the treasure is hidden. Since, then, your beloved Bridegroom is the treasure hidden in a field for which the wise merchant sold all his possessions [Mt. 13:44], and that field is your soul, in order to find him you should forget all your possessions and all creatures and hide in the secret inner room of your spirit and there, closing the door behind you (your will to all things), you should pray to your Father in secret [Mt. 6:6]. Remaining hidden with him, you will experience him in hiding, that is, in a way transcending all language and feeling.

There are not two doctrines of St. John of the Cross, one for religious and one for seculars; there is only one, which applies to all Christians indiscriminately and does not require a special state of life, but only a disposition of will, namely the disposition of not wanting to be confined to mediocrity and therefore of not refusing generous renunciation at every privation required for attaining a more intimate union with God.

More than ever, I understand that the smallest events of our life are conducted by God; He is the One who makes us desire and who grants our desires.

This sweetness and trace of himself that God leaves in the soul greatly lightens her and makes her run after him. For then the soul does very little or nothing of her own in order to advance on this road; rather, she is moved and attracted by the divine footprints, not only to go out, but even to run along this road in many ways, as we said.

...the preparation of the soul for this union, as we said, is not that it should understand or perceive or feel or imagine anything, concerning either God or aught else, but that it should have purity and love -- that is, perfect resignation and detachment from everything for God's sake alone; and, as there can be no perfect transformation if there be not perfect purity, and as the enlightenment, illumination and union of the soul with God will be according to the proportion of its purity, in greater or in less degree; yet the soul will not be perfect, as I say, if it be not wholly and perfectly bright and clean.

More effective than the mortification one practices according to one's own choice is the cross that God lays upon one, exteriorly and interiorly.

The person who is detached from creatures is not disturbed during prayer or otherwise, and so, without losing precious time, he easily acquires heavenly treasure.

The soul must be attached to nothing, whether of sense or spirit, which would introduce noise into the deep silence. The voice of God speaks to the heart in this secret place, in utmost peace and tranquility.