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"Look and see if there is a sorrow equal to mine," we think we are not capable of looking at it. Our soul rebels when it sees You unclothed, beaten and bruised, broken into bits to the extent that there is nothing in Your body that might be called "healthy."

The soul in this state must remember that if it is not conscious of making progress, it is making much more than when it was walking on foot, because God Himself is bearing it in His arms. Although outwardly it is doing nothing, it is in reality doing more than if it were working, since God is doing the work within it. And it is not remarkable that the soul does not see this, for our senses cannot perceive what God does in the soul. . . if the soul stays in God's care it will certainly make progress.

Never complain of anyone, but turn the complaints against yourself; because if you do not succeed in doing what you long to do, how can you complain if others fail?

Even in the world, one can listen to Him in the silence of a heart that only wants to be His.

I don't know what happens to me when I contemplate Our God exiled in the tabernacles for love of His creatures who forget and offend Him.  I'd like to live till the end of the world by suffering together with the Divine Prisoner.

After God places these three last kinds of good in the soul, he no longer remembers her former ugliness and sin, as he declares through Ezekiel [Ez. 18:22], for on account of these goods she is very agreeable to him. And once he has blotted out this sin and ugliness, he no longer reproaches her for it, or fails to impart more favors, since he never judges a thing twice [Na. 1:9].

It is in that soul in which less of its own appetites and pleasures dwell that He dwells more alone, more pleased, and more as though in His own house, ruling and governing it.

Don't be troubled when you're busy like you are now...You can pray to God while working. It's enough to think of Him.

There may come a day when my glory will sing to Him, and when my conscience will not feel compunction, where all sighs and fears will have ceased; but in the meantime, in silence and hope will be my strength.

The "good Catholic" who, with self-satisfaction fulfills his duties, reads a good newspaper, votes well, etc. but for the rest does what he pleases, has a long way to go before he attains a life that is lived in and that comes from the hands of God, with the simplicity of a child and the humility of the publican. But whoever has once traveled that way will not turn back again.

That is what life in Carmel means: to live in God, contemplating His goodness and beauty, and dedicated entirely to the fulfillment of His blessed Will. Then every immolation, every sacrifice becomes divine; through everything the soul sees Him whom she loves and everything leads her to Him... it is a continual communion. All day long she surrenders herself to Love, by doing the will of God, under His gaze, with Him, in Him, for Him alone.

...Sunday must be a great door through which celestial life can enter into everyday life, and strength for the work of the entire week, and how the great feats, holidays, and seasons of lent, lived though in the spirit of the Church permit the soul to mature the more from year to year to the eternal Sabbath rest.