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The Eucharist is truly the sacrament of union and at the same time it is the clearest and most convincing proof that God calls us and pleads with us to come to intimate union with Himself.

The soul that is attached to anything however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for, until the cord be broken the bird cannot fly.

It seems to the soul that the entire universe is a sea of love in which it is engulfed, for conscious of the living point or center of love within itself, it is unable to catch sight of the boundaries of this love.

During these painful times when you feel a terrible void, think how He is enlarging the capacity of your soul so that it can receive Him, making it, as it were, infinite just as He is infinite. So, as far as your will is concerned, try to remain perfectly joyous beneath the hand that is crucifying you ... look upon each pain as a token of love coming to you directly from God, in order that He may unite you to Him.

One is so happy living in intimacy with God, making one’s life a heart to heart exchange of love with the Divine Master and knowing that He will be found in the center of one’s soul. One is then never alone and one’s greatest need becomes a solitude in which to abide and appreciate the presence of this Adored Guest.

Mark well, however, that self-knowledge is indispensable, even for those whom God takes to dwell in the same mansion with Himself. Nothing else, however elevated, perfects the soul which must never seek to forget its own nothingness. Let humility be always at work, like the bee at the honeycomb, or all will be lost. But, remember, the bee leaves its hive to fly in search of flowers and the soul should sometimes cease thinking of itself to rise in meditation on the grandeur and majesty of its God. It will learn its own baseness better thus than by self-contemplation, and will be freer from the reptiles which enter the first room where self-knowledge is acquired.

Int. Castle Ch2.9

O Lord, what does it matter, when I can retire within myself, enlightened by faith, whether I feel or don't feel, whether I am in light or darkness, enjoy or do not enjoy?  I am struck by a kind of shame at making any distinction between such things...Help me to exalt You...above the sweetness and consolations which flow from You, because I have resolved to pass by all else in order to be united with You.

Only at the moment in which the soul for love of God divests itself of all that is not God - and love is just this! - can it be enlightened and transformed in God.

Oh, would that I could tell everyone what sources of strength, of peace and also of happiness they would find if they consented to live in this intimate union with Him. Only they do not know how to wait. If God does not bestow Himself in a manner they can feel, they leave His holy presence and when He comes to them, laden with graces, He finds nobody there. The soul has gone away into exterior things; it no longer dwells in its center. Recollect yourself from time to time.

It should be known that the Word, the Son of God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is hidden by his essence and his presence in the innermost being of the soul. Individuals who want to find him should leave all things through affection and will, enter within themselves in deepest recollection, and let all things be as not.

There is a vocation to suffer with Christ and thereby to cooperate in His redemptive work. If we are united to the Lord, we are members of the Mystical Body of Christ; Christ continues to live and to suffer in His members and the suffering borne in union with His is His suffering, integrated and made fruitful in His great redemptive work.

We must let ourselves be rooted in Christ. How? By never ceasing to dwell, whatever happens, with Him who dwells in us and is Love. He thirsts to associate us to all He is; to transform us in Him.