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What does it matter to the soul that is recollected in itself, enlightened by this Word, whether it feels or does not feel, whether it be in light or in darkness, in sensible joy or not? It is, as it were, ashamed to make any distinction between such things, while it feels that it is still affected by them and heartily despising itself for its want of love, it quickly turns its gaze upon its Master that He may deliver it.

Only by means of faith in divine light exceeding all understanding does God manifest Himself to the soul. The more intense a man's faith, the closer is His union with God.

When a soul is happy, living in close union with God, so as to make its life an intimate friendship with the Divine Master, when it knows how to find Him in its inmost depths, then it is never lonely again, and it feels the need of solitude in order to enjoy the Presence of the Guest it adores. You must give Him His rightful place in your heart, which He has made capable of loving so passionately; if you realized how good He is, how He is all love!

We must let ourselves be transformed into one and the same image with Him, and that, quite simply, by loving all the time.

Just as the angels in heaven incessantly sing His praises, so does a Carmelite echo those praises here on earth, whether near to the tabernacle where God who is Love lives imprisoned, or in the intimate depths of her soul's heaven, where faith tells her God dwells. Our vocation's objective is love, the greatest thing a human heart can possess.

We object when He hands us the chalice of His suffering. It is so difficult for us to resign ourselves to suffering. To rejoice in it strikes us as heroic. What is the value of our offering of self if we unite ourselves each morning only in word and gesture, rather than in thought and will, to that offering which we, together with the Church, make of Him with whom we are in the one body?

As the soul abode in solitude, abandoning all created help and consolation in order to obtain fellowship and union with the Beloved, it deserved thereby the peace of solitude in the Beloved, in whom it reposes alone, undisturbed by any anxiety.

How people delude themselves as to the real meaning of union with God! There are those who think they have reached it because they enjoy sensible consolations; they make one think of children playing with ashes which the wind blows away. No. no! True union lies not in enjoyment, but in self-abnegation.

As we said, the soul is not united with God in this life through understanding, or through enjoyment, or through imagination, or through any other sense; but only faith, hope, and charity (according to the intellect, memory, and will) can unite the soul with God in this life.

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.

Since I have no other desire than to unite myself to the heart of Jesus, for that reason I try to keep up my effort in the practice of those virtues that can render me a true copy of my dear God.

A soul united to Jesus and identified with him can do everything. It seems to me that this can be reached only by prayer.