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O my God, how fervent and strong is the charity of a soul who is united with You by love! Those whom You have taken to Yourself in this way, cannot confine themselves to their personal advantage, and be satisfied with it. Nor would it suffice for them to go to heaven alone, but with solicitude and affection wholly celestial, and with utmost diligence, they endeavor to lead many others with them. Grant, O Lord, that my love for You may have the same effect on me.

Let us believe in love with the beloved Apostle, John (1 Jn. 4:16) and since we possess Him within us, what matter the nights which may darken our sky? If Jesus seems asleep, let us rest near Him; let us be very calm and silent and not wake Him, but wait in faith.

Mary is the place of this meeting; better still, she is the temple in which is consummated God's espousals with humanity, the hidden sanctuary in which the Spouse is united with the bride, the desert that flowers at the breath of God.

He wants you to go out from yourself to leave all preoccupations, in order to retire into that solitude which He is choosing for Himself in the depths of your heart. He is always there, even when you do not feel Him. He is waiting for you, to establish with you ... an intimate union.

Yet, as is evident through experience, souls who will pass on to so happy and lofty a state as is the union of love must usually remain in these aridities and temptations for a long while no matter how quickly God leads them.

God communicates Himself to the soul in this interior union with a love so intense that the love of a mother who tenderly caresses her child, the love of a brother or the affection of a friend bears no resemblance to it.

Courage then, O soul most beautiful! You now know that your Beloved dwells hidden within your own breast. Endeavor therefore to be truly hidden with Him.

It is clear, then, that for the soul to come to unite itself perfectly with God through love and will, it must first be free from all desire of the will, howsoever slight. That is, that it must not intentionally and knowingly consent with the will to imperfections, and it must have power and liberty to be able not so to consent intentionally.

I love You so much, my heart burns with love for You, that I cannot live calm and happy, while You, my Beloved Spouse, suffer.

Oh how desirable is this union with God's will! Happy is the soul that has reached it. Such a soul will live tranquilly in this life, and in the next as well. Nothing in earthly events afflicts it unless it finds itself in some danger of losing God or sees that He is offended: neither sickness, nor poverty, nor death...for the soul sees well that the Lord knows what He is doing better than it knows what it is desiring.

Strive to get to know Jesus who is the intimate Friend of our souls. In Him is found the tenderness of a mother to an infinite degree: comfort to those who are suffering, strength to fulfill our obligations. Gaze at Jesus annihilated in the manger, on the Cross, in the tabernacle. There He tells us how much He loves us.

He is within us to sanctify us, so let us ask Him to be Himself our sanctity.