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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.

Souls are guarded jealously in the heart of God and what we think we sometimes understand of our soul is nonetheless always a fleeting reflection of that which will remain God's secret until the day in which everything will come to light. The hope in this future revelation gives me great joy.

The Beloved cares for nothing else but love. The soul therefore, anxious to please him perfectly, occupies itself unceasingly in pure love of God.

Terrible trials are suffered because we don’t understand ourselves, and that which isn’t bad at all but good we think is a serious fault. This lack of knowledge causes the afflictions of many people who engage in prayer; complaints about interior trials, at least to a great extent, by people who have no learning; melancholy and loss of health; and even the complete abandonment of prayer.

What joy for the soul to learn that God never abandons it even in serious sin, how much less when it is in a state of grace.

It is a great favor from God when he darkens [the faculties of the soul] and impoverishes the soul in such a way that it cannot err with them. And if one does not err in this, what need is there in order to be right other than to walk along the level road of the law of God and of the Church and live only in dark and true faith and certain hope and complete charity, expecting all our blessings in heaven, living here below like pilgrims, the poor, the exiled, orphans, the thirsty, without a road and without anything, hoping for everything in heaven?

My God, no one has sinned as I. And therefore do I rejoice and hope much, for the extent of Your mercy will be all the more clearly seen in me.

If God tells me through the prophets He is a faithful God, like a father and mother for me, that He is absolutely Love itself, then I ought to admit that my confidence in the arm that upholds me is reasonable, and that on the contrary, fear of falling into nothingness is foolish, unless I myself am the one who draws away from the arm that supports me.

With bold surrender, I wish to remain gazing upon You, O Lord, my divine Sun. Nothing will frighten me, neither wind nor rain, and if dark clouds come and hide You from my gaze, I will not change my place because I know that beyond the clouds You still shine on and Your brightness is not eclipsed for a single instant.

When evening comes, you will be examined in love. Learn to love as God desires to be loved and abandon your own ways of acting.

Things were in God's plan which I had not planned at all. I am coming to the living faith and conviction that - from God's point of view - there is no chance, and that the whole of my life, down to every detail, has been mapped out in God's divine providence and makes complete and perfect sense in God's all-seeing eyes.

...for the love of God let us exert ourselves, and leave our reason and our fears in His hands, paying no attention to the weaknesses of nature which might retard us.