Oh, then soul most beautiful among all creatures, so anxious to know the dwelling place of your Beloved so you may go in search of him and be united with him, now we are telling you that you yourself are his dwelling and his secret inner room and hiding place.
There is reason for you to be elated and joyful in seeing that all your good and hope is so close as to be within you, or better, that you cannot be without him.
I like to find at least a few moments each day spent in doing good for others out of love for God. These few moments, almost noticeably used, bring something like rays of peace and comfort behind them; they unite us with people and God by a pure feeling of tender sweetness.
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.
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.
Thus, no one ... can disturb the soul that is liberated and purged of all things and united with God. She enjoys now in this state a habitual sweetness and tranquility which is never lost or lacking to her.
May nothing make you waver. Look at Him. He's awaiting you and is filled with infinite love and will make you His bride. He wants to forge with you the most intimate union. He will make you divine, by joining Himself to you. You will live in Jesus amid infinite sweetness, purity, holiness, goodness, amid the love of One who is God.
True union can very well be reached, with God's help, if we make the effort to obtain it by keeping our wills fixed only on that which is God's will.
I like to find at least a few moments each day spent in doing good for others out of love for God. These few moments, almost unnoticeably used, bring something like rays of peace and comfort behind them. They unite us with people and God with purity and sweetness.
The Lord wishes us rather to make requests of Him and to remember that we are in His presence, for He knows what is fitting for us. I cannot believe in the efficacy of human activity in matters where His Majesty appears to have set a limit to it and to have been pleased to reserve action to Himself.
For, after all the efforts of the soul, it cannot by its unaided labors make itself fitted for union with God in love. God must take it to Himself into His own hands and purify it in the dark fire.
The bridal union of the soul with God is the goal for which she was created, purchased through the cross, consummated on the cross, and sealed for all eternity with the cross.
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.
