Sayings of Light and Love (Maxims)

Selected from the writings of St. John of the Cross.

Prologue

O my God, sweetness and joy of my heart, behold how my soul for love of Thee will occupy itself with these maxims of love and light. For though the words thereof are mine, I have not the meaning and the power, and these are more pleasing to Thee than the language and the knowledge thereof. Nevertheless, O Lord, it may be that some may be drawn by them to serve and love Thee, and profit where I fail: that will be a consolation to me, if through me Thou shalt find in others what Thou canst not find in me. O my Lord, Thou lovest discretion, and light, but love, more than all the other operations of the soul; so then let these maxims furnish discretion to the wayfarer, enlighten him by the way, and supply him with motives of love for his journey. Away, then, with the rhetoric of the world, sounding words and the dry eloquence of human wisdom, weak and delusive, never pleasing unto Thee. Let us speak to the heart words flowing with sweetness and love, and such as Thou delightest in. Thou wilt be pleased herein, O my God, and it may be that Thou wilt also remove the hindrance and the stones of stumbling from before many souls who fall through ignorance, and who for want of light wander out of the right way, though they think they are walking in it, and following in all things in the footsteps of Thy most sweet Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and imitating Him in their life, state, and virtues according to the rule of detachment and poverty of spirit. But, O Father of mercy, do Thou give us this grace, for without Thee, O Lord, we shall do nothing.

Imitation of Christ

1. There is no progress but in the following of Christ, Who is the way, the truth, and the life, and the Gate by which he who will be saved must enter. Every spirit, therefore, that will walk in sweetness at its ease, shunning the following of Christ, is, in my opinion, nothing worth.

2. Your first care must be to be anxiously and lovingly earnest in your endeavours to imitate Christ in all your actions; doing every one of them to the uttermost of your power, as our Lord Himself would have done them.

3. Every satisfaction offered to the senses which is not for God’s honour and glory you must renounce and reject for the love of Jesus Christ, Who while upon earth, had, and sought for, no other pleasure than doing the will of His Father; this, He said, was His meat and drink.

4. In none of your actions whatever should you take any man, however holy he may be, for your example, because Satan is sure to put his imperfections forward so as to attract your attention. Rather imitate Jesus Christ, Who is supremely perfect and supremely holy. So doing you will never go astray.

5. Inwardly and outwardly live always crucified with Christ, and you will attain unto peace and contentment of spirit, and in your patience you shall possess your soul.

6. Let Christ crucified alone be enough for you; with Him suffer, with Him take your rest, never rest nor suffer without Him; striving with all your might to rid yourself of all selfish affections and inclinations, and annihilation of self.

7. He who makes any account of himself, neither denies himself nor follows Christ.

8. Love tribulations more than all good things, and do not imagine that you are doing anything when you endure them; so shall you please Him Who did not hesitate to die for you.

9. If you wish to attain to the possession of Christ, never seek Him without the cross.

10. He who seeks not the cross of Christ, seeks not the glory of Christ.

11. Desire to make yourself in suffering somewhat like our great God, humiliated and crucified; for life, if not an imitation of His, is worth nothing.

12. What does he know who does not know how to suffer for Christ? The greater and the heavier the sufferings, the better is his lot who suffers.

13. All men desire to enter into the treasures and consolations of God; but few desire to enter into tribulations and sorrows for the Son of God.

14. Jesus Christ is but little known of those who consider themselves His friends; for we see them seeking in Him their own comfort, and not His bitter sorrows.

The Theological Virtues

15. Because it is the function of the theological virtues to withdraw the soul from all that is less than God, it is theirs, therefore, to unite with Him.

16. Without walking truly in the practice of these three virtues, it is impossible to attain to the perfect love of God.

Faith

17. The way of faith is sound and safe, and along this souls must journey on from virtue to virtue, shutting their eyes against every object of sense and of clear and particular perception.

18. When the inspirations are from God they are always in the order of the motives of His law, and of the faith, in the perfection of which the soul should ever draw nearer and nearer to God.

19. The soul that travels in the light and verities of the faith is secured against error, for error proceeds ordinarily from our own proper desires, tastes, reflections, and understanding, wherein there is generally too much or too little; and hence the inclination to that which is not seemly.

20. By the faith the soul travels protected against the devil, its strongest and craftiest foe; and St. Peter knew of no stronger defence against him when he said: ‘Resist him, strong in the faith’

21. The soul that would draw near unto God and unite itself with Him, must do so by not comprehending rather than by comprehending, in utter forgetfulness of created things; because it must change the mutable and comprehensible for the immutable and the incomprehensible, Who is God.

22. Outward light enables us to see that we may not fall; it is otherwise in the things of God, for there it is better not to see, and the soul is in greater security.

23. It being certain that in this life we know God better by what He is not than by what He is, it is necessary, if we are to draw near unto Him, that the soul must deny, to the uttermost, all that may be denied of its apprehensions, both natural and supernatural.

24. All apprehension and knowledge of supernatural things cannot help us to love God so much as the least act of living faith and hope made in detachment from all things.

25. As in natural generation no new form results without the corruption of the one previously existing—for this hinders the former by reason of the contrariety between them—so while the soul is under the dominion of the sensual and animal spirit, the pure and heavenly spirit can never enter.

26. Let no created thing have a place in your heart if you would have the face of God pure and clear in your soul; yea, rather empty your spirit of all created things, and you will walk in the divine light; for God resembles no created thing.

27. The greatest shelter of the soul is Faith; for the Holy Ghost gives it light: the more pure and refined the soul in a perfect living faith, the greater the infusion of charity, and the greater the communication of supernatural gifts and light.

28. One of the greatest gifts of God to the soul in this life—not permanent but transient—is that deep sense and understanding of God by which it feels and understands clearly, that it can neither understand nor feel Him at all.

29. The soul that leans upon its own understanding, sense, or feeling of its own—all this being very little and very unlike to God—in order to travel on the right road, is most easily led astray or hindered, because it is not perfectly blind in faith, which is its true guide.

30. There is one thing in our day that ought to make us afraid: persons who have hardly begun to make their meditations if they seem to hear anything in a brief recollection, pronounce it to have come from God; and so imagine, saying, God has spoken or I have had an answer from God, and it is not so: these persons have been speaking to themselves, out of a longing for such communications.

31. He who should now inquire of God by vision or revelation would offend Him, because he does not fix his eyes upon Christ alone. To such an one the answer of God is: This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased, hear Him, and do not seek for new instructions, for in Him I have spoken and revealed all that may be desired and asked for; I have given Him to be your brother, master, companion, ransom, and reward.

32. We must be guided in all things by the teaching of Christ and His Church, and thereby seek the remedy for our spiritual ignorances and infirmities: it is thus that we shall obtain abundant relief; and all that goes beyond this is not only curiosity but great rashness.

33. You are not to believe that which you hear in a supernatural way, but only that which you learn through the teaching of Christ and His ministers.

34. The soul that seeks after revelations sins venially at least; so does the director who encourages or allows that seeking, be the end sought never so good; there is no necessity at all for this, seeing that we have our natural reason and the evangelical law to guide us in all things.

35. The soul that desires revelations undermines the perfect guidance of the faith, and opens a door for Satan to deceive it by false revelations; for he knows well how to disguise them so as to make them appear good.

36. The wisdom of the saints consists in knowing how to direct the will courageously to God, in the perfect fulfilment of His law and His holy counsels.

Hope

37. That which moves and overcomes God is earnest Hope; in order to attain to the union of love, the soul must journey in hope of God alone; for without it nothing will be obtained.

38. A living hope in God makes the soul so courageous and so earnest in the pursuit of the things of everlasting life, that it looks on this world—so indeed it is—as dry, weak, valueless, and dead, in comparison with that it hopes for hereafter.

39. The soul in hope strips itself of all the trappings of this world, setting the heart upon nothing, hoping for nothing in it or of it, clad in the vesture of the hope of everlasting life.

40. Through a living hope in God the heart is so raised up above the world and delivered from all its snares, that not only it cannot come into contact with it, and be attached to it, but it cannot even regard it.

41. In all your trials have recourse at once to God with confidence, and you will be comforted, enlightened, and instructed.

42. The soul that retains the slightest desire for earthly things, is more unseemly and impure in the way of God than if it were labouring under the heaviest and most impure temptations and darkness, provided the rational will did not consent to them; such a soul may, with greater confidence, draw near to God in obedience to the divine will; for our Lord hath said: Come unto Me all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will refresh you.

43. Have an earnest desire that God may give you all He knows you to be deficient in, for His greater honour and glory.

44. Have a continual trust in God, esteeming in yourself and in your brethren that which He most esteems; namely, spiritual graces.

45. The more God gives, the more He makes us desire; until He leaves us empty that He may fill us with good things.

46. So pleased is God with the hope in which the soul is ever looking unto Him with eyes turned away from everything else, that it may be truly said of it that it obtains all that it hopes for.

Fear of God

47. If you have sweetness and delight, draw near to God in fear and in truth, and you will never be deceived nor entangled in vanity.

48. Do not rejoice in temporal prosperity, because you do not certainly know that it makes eternal life secure.

49. Though a man prosper in all his undertakings, and though every wish of his heart may be gratified, he ought in such a case to fear rather than rejoice; for this multiplies the occasions of forgetting God, and the risks of offending Him.

50. Do not presume upon vain joy; knowing how many and how grievous are the sins you have committed, and not knowing whether you are pleasing unto God. But always fear and always hope in Him.

51. How can you venture to live without fear, seeing that you must appear before God to give an account of your lightest words and thoughts?

52. Remember that the called are many, the chosen few; and if you are not careful, your final ruin is more certain than your salvation; especially as the way that leadeth to eternal life is so strait.

53. As in the hour of death you will certainly be sorry that you have not employed all your time in the service of God, why is it that you do not now so employ your time, as you will wish you had done when you are dying?

Charity

54. The strength of the soul lies in its faculties, passions, and desires; if these be directed towards God by the will, and withdrawn from all that is not God, the soul then keeps its strength for Him and loves Him with all its might, as our Lord commands us.

55. Charity is like a fine robe of many colours, which lends grace, beauty, and freshness, not only to the white garment of faith and the green vesture of hope, but also to all the virtues; for without charity no virtue is pleasing in the sight of God.

56. The worth of love does not consist in high feelings, but in detachment: in patience under all trials for the sake of God Whom we love.

57. God has a greater esteem for the lowest degree of purity of conscience, than for the greatest work you can do for Him.

58. To seek God in Himself is to be without every consolation for His sake; an inclination to the choice of all that is most unpleasing, whether in the things of God or in the things of the world; this is to love God.

59. Do not imagine that God is pleased with many good works, so much as with the doing of them with a good will, without self-seeking or human respect.

60. Herein a man may know whether he really loves God: is he satisfied with anything less than God?

61. As the hair which is frequently dressed is the cleaner, and is the more easily dressed upon all occasions, so is it with the soul which frequently examines its thoughts, words, and works, doing all things for the love of God.

62. As the hair is to be dressed from the top of the head if it is to be thoroughly cleansed, so our good works must have their beginning in the highest love of God, if they are to be thoroughly pure and clean.

63. To restrain the tongue and the thoughts, and to set the affections regularly upon God, quickly sets the soul on fire in a divine way.

64. Study always to please God; pray that His will may be accomplished in you; love Him much, for it is His due. (See 311.)

65. All our goodness is a loan: God is the owner; God worketh, and His work is God.

66. We gain more by the goods of God in one hour, than in our whole life by our own.

67. Our Lord has always manifested the treasures of His wisdom and His Spirit to men; but now that wickedness manifests itself the more, He manifests them still more.

68. In one sense the purification of a soul from the contradictions of desire is a greater work of God than its creation out of nothing; that nothing offered no resistance to His Majesty: not so the love of the creature.

69. That which God intends is to make us God by participation, He being God by nature: as the fire changes everything into fire.

70. At the close of life you will be examined as to your love: learn then to love God as He wishes to be loved, and give up all that is your own.

71. The soul that seeks God wholly, must give itself wholly to Him.

72. New and imperfect lovers are like new wine, easily spoiled until the scum of imperfections has been cleared away, and the fervour with the coarse satisfaction of sense has died out.

73. The passions rule over the soul and assail it in proportion to the weakness of the will in God, and to its dependence on creatures; for then it rejoices so easily in things which do not deserve to be rejoiced in; hopes for that which is of no profit, and grieves over that in which perhaps it ought to rejoice, and fears where there is nothing to be afraid of.

74. They provoke the divine Majesty to anger exceedingly, who, while seeking for spiritual food, are not content with God only, but will intermingle therewith carnal and earthly satisfactions.

75. He who loves any other thing together with God makes light of Him, because he puts into the balance with Him that which is at an infinite distance from Him.

76. As a sick man is too weak for work, so the soul that is weak in the love of God is also too weak for the practice of perfect virtue.

77. To seek self in God is to seek for comfort and refreshment from God; that is contrary to the pure love of God.

78. To regard the gifts of God more than God Himself, is a great evil.

79. Many there are who seek their own pleasure and comfort in God, and gifts and graces from Him; but they who seek to please Him and to give Him something at their own cost—setting their own pleasure aside—are very few.

80. Few spiritual persons—even among those who think themselves most advanced—attain to a perfect resolution in well-doing, for they never entirely lose themselves on some point or other connected with the world or self, despising appearances and the opinions of men, so as to make their good works perfect and in detachment from all things for the sake of Christ.

81. Self-will and self-satisfaction in the works they do so prevail among men, whether ordinary or more advanced Christians, that scarcely one is to be found who works simply for God without looking for some consolation or comfort or other advantage in his work.

82. Some souls call God their Bridegroom and Beloved; but He is not really beloved by them, because their heart is not whole with Him.

83. What will it profit you if you give God one thing when He asks something else? Consider what God wills, and do it, for so will you satisfy your heart better than by doing that to which you are inclined yourself.

84. To find all satisfaction in God you must be satisfied with Him only, for in heaven itself, if you did not bend your will to His will, you would never be satisfied; so is it here, if your heart is set upon anything else.

85. As aromatic spices exposed to the air gradually lose their fragrance and the strength of their perfume, so the soul, not recollected in the love of God alone, loses the heat and vigour of virtue.

86. He who seeks nothing but God walks not in darkness, however mean and poor he may be in his own estimation.

87. For a man to suffer for God is a sign that he has given himself up to Him, and that he loves Him.

88. He who in the midst of dryness and abandonment is painfully anxious about the service of God, and afraid that He does not serve Him, offers Him a sacrifice that pleaseth Him well.

89. When God is really loved. He hears most readily the cry of the soul that loves Him.

90. The soul defends itself against its fleshly enemy by charity; for where there is a real love of God neither the love of self nor the love of creatures can enter in.

91. The loving soul is meek, gentle, humble, and patient; the soul that is hardened in self-love hardens itself still more. If Thou, O good Jesus, in Thy love dost not make the soul gentle, it will persist in its natural hardness.

92. The soul that loves is neither wearied nor wearies.

93. Behold the infinite wisdom and the hidden mysteries; Oh! the peace, the love, the silence of the divine bosom; Oh! the deep science God is teaching there; it is that which we call anagogic acts—ejaculatory prayer—Oh! how they set the heart on fire.

94. The perfect love of God cannot subsist without the knowledge of God and of self.

95. Perfect love naturally seeks nothing, and claims nothing, for itself, but all for the beloved; if this be so with earthly love, how much more with the love of God?

96. The old friends of God scarcely ever fail Him, because they are raised above all occasions of failure.

97. True love accepts prosperity and adversity with an even spirit, that of joy and delight.

98. The soul that labours to divest itself of all that is not God for God’s sake is immediately enlightened, and transformed, in God, in such a way that the soul seems to be God Himself, and to possess the things of God.

99. Satan fears a soul united with God, as he fears God Himself.

100. The soul, in the union of love, resists even the first impulses.

101. Purity of heart is nothing less than the love and grace of God. Hence our Lord says: Blessed are the pure in heart; that is, those who love; for blessedness is given to nothing less than love.

102. He who truly loves God is not ashamed before men of what he does for God; neither does he hide his good works out of shame, though the whole world may condemn them.

103. He who truly loves God thinks it a great gain to lose all he has, and his own life, for God.

104. If the soul had but one glimpse of the beauty of God, not only would it desire to die that it might see Him for ever, but it would joyfully undergo a thousand most bitter deaths to see Him again, if only for a moment.

105. He who acts out of the pure love of God, not only does not perform his actions to be seen of men, but does not do them even that God may know of them. Such an one, if he thought it possible that his good works might escape the eye of God, would still perform them with the same joy, and in the same pureness of love.

106. It is a great matter to be much exercised in love; in order that the soul, made perfect and consummated therein, may not be long detained, either in this life or the next, from the vision of God.

107. A pure and perfect work, wrought for God in a pure heart, makes a perfect kingdom for its Lord.

108. To the pure in heart high things and low are profitable, and minister to their greater purity; while to the impure, by reason of their impurity, both the one and the other are occasions of greater evil.

109. The pure in heart find in all things the knowledge of God, sweet, chaste, pure, spiritual, joyous and loving.

Peace

110. By keeping guard over the senses, which are the gates of the soul, we keep also and increase its tranquillity and purity.

111. Man would never lose peace if he forgot and cast aside his thoughts and notions, and withdrew from the sight, hearing, and conversation of men so far as he well may.

112. If we forget all created things, there is then nothing to disturb our peace; nothing to excite the desires that disturb it; for, as the proverb says, What the eye hath not seen, the heart doth not desire.

113. The restless and perturbed soul, the passions and desires of which are not wholly mortified, is, as such, incapacitated for spiritual good, for that enters only into the soul which is under control and ordered in peace.

114. Be assured of this: God reigns only in the peaceful and unselfish soul.

115. Be tranquil; put away superfluous thoughts, and make light of whatever may happen; so shall your service be pleasing unto God, and you shall rejoice in Him.

116. Keep your heart in peace; let nothing in this world disturb it: all things have an end.

117. Be not made sad by the adverse events of this life, for you know not the good they bring with them, ordained in the judgments of God, for the everlasting joy of the elect.

118. In all circumstances, however hard they may be, we should rejoice, rather than be cast down, that we may not lose the greatest good, the peace and tranquillity of our soul.

119. If the whole world and all that is in it were thrown into confusion, disquietude on that account would be vanity, because that disquietude would do more harm than good.

120. To endure all things with an equable and peaceful mind, not only brings with it many blessings to the soul, but also enables us, in the midst of our difficulties, to have a clear judgment about them, and to minister the fitting remedy for them.

121. It is not the will of God that the soul should be troubled by anything, or that it should be afflicted; for if men are afflicted because of the adversities of this world, that is the effect of their being weak in virtue; for the soul of the perfect rejoices in that which gives pain to the soul of the imperfect.

122. The heavens are stedfast, not subject to generation; and souls which are of a heavenly nature are stedfast, not subject to the generation of desires, nor of anything of that kind: they are in some measure like unto God, Who never changes.

Love of our Neighbour

123. Wisdom enters by love, silence, and mortification. It is great wisdom to know when to be silent, when to suffer, and never to regard the sayings, doings, or lives of others.

124. See that you do not intermeddle in the affairs of other people, nor discuss them in your own thoughts; for perhaps you will not be able to fulfil your own task.

125. Suspect no evil of your brother, for that takes away purity of heart.

126. Never listen to accounts of the frailties of others; and if anyone should complain to you of an other, humbly ask him not to speak about him at all.

127. Do not shrink from trouble: though it may seem to you more than you can bear. Let all men find you compassionate.

128. No one merits love except for the virtue that he has; and when love is so ordered, it is according to God, and in great freedom.

129. When the love and affection we give to the creature is purely spiritual and founded on God, the love of God grows with it; and the more we remember the earthly love, the more we also remember God and desire Him: the one grows apace with the other.

130. When the love of the creature springs from sensual vice, or from a purely natural inclination, in proportion to its growth is the diminution of the love of God and forgetfulness of Him; and from the recollection of the creature, remorse of conscience comes.

131. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit, saith our Saviour in His Gospel. So the love which grows out of sensuality ends in sensuality; that which is of the spirit ends in the spirit of God, and makes it grow. This is the difference between these two loves, that men may distinguish between them.

Disorderly Appetites

132. He who loves any creature out of the order of charity, becomes vile as that creature itself, and in one sense even viler; for love not only levels but subjects also the lover to the object of his love.

133. The passions and desires, when under control and restrained, are sources of all virtue, and also, when they have broken loose, of all the vices and imperfections of the soul.

134. Every desire hurts the soul in five ways, beside robbing it of the Spirit of God: i. It fatigues it. 2. Torments it. 3. Blinds it. 4. Defiles it. 5. Weakens it.

135. All created things are crumbs which fall from the table of God; and for that reason, they who go about feeding on the creature are rightly called dogs; they are, therefore, always hungry like dogs, and justly so, because crumbs excite rather than appease, hunger.

136. The desires are like restless and dissatisfied children begging of their mother, now one thing, now another, never contented; like one ill of a burning fever, never at rest, and whose thirst increases while the fever continues.

137. As a man dragging a cart up hill, so is that soul on its way to God, which does not throw aside the cares of this life, and does not deny itself.

138. As he is tormented who falls into the hands of his enemies, so is the soul afflicted and tormented which is carried away by its desires.

139. As a man is tormented and afflicted who lies down naked amid thorns and briars, so is the soul tormented and afflicted which lies down in the midst of its desires: they pierce, torture, and tear it painfully.

140. As vapours darken the air and hide the light of the sun, so the soul, captive to its desires, is, as to the understanding, in darkness, so that neither the sun of natural reason nor that of the supernatural wisdom of God can reach it or enlighten it.

141. He who feeds his desires is like a moth, or a fish dazzled by the light which the fishermen throw over the water, that it may not see the ruin which the fishermen have prepared for it.

142. Who can tell how impossible it is for the soul, subject to desires, to judge of the things of God? for while the film of desire is over the eye of its judgment, it sees nothing but that film, now of one colour, now of another; and so it comes to regard the things of God as not the things of God, and those which are not the things of God as the things of God.

143. A bird that has perched upon a twig covered with birdlime labours in a twofold way, in setting itself free, and in cleaning itself; so a soul, that has given way to desires; it has to set itself free in the first place, and then to clean itself of that which has clung to it.

144. As soot defiles the most beautiful and perfect face, so the unruly desires of the soul defile and pollute that soul which entertains them, and yet that soul in itself is the most beautiful and perfect image of God.

145. He that toucheth pitch, saith the Holy Ghost, shall be defiled with it. A soul touches pitch when it satisfies the desires of the will in any created thing.

146. If my object were to describe the foul and corrupt condition to which the desires reduce the soul, I should not be able to find anything so full of cobwebs and worms, not even corruption itself wherewith to compare it.

147. The desires are like the suckers which grow on a tree, they sap its strength and destroy its fertility.

148. There are corrupt humours which so weaken a man’s gait, and make him loathe his food, as the desire of the creature weakens the soul, indisposing it for the practice of virtue.

149. Many souls have no inclination for virtue, because their desires are not pure, and not for God.

150. As the young vipers, growing in the womb, feed on their mother and kill her, preserving their own lives at the cost of hers, so the unmortified desires prey on the soul and kill in it the life of God; they at last are the only things that live in it, because the soul has not killed them first.

151. As it is necessary to till the earth that it may bring forth fruit—for otherwise it will produce nothing but weeds,—so also is it necessary to mortify our desires, that the soul may be clean.

152. As wood is never transformed into fire if but one degree of heat necessary for that end be wanting, so the soul that has one imperfection can never be perfectly transformed in God.

153. Whether it be a strong wire rope, or a slender and delicate thread, that holds the bird, it matters not if it really detains it, for, until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly; so the soul, held in the bonds of human affections, however slight they may be, cannot, while they last, make its way to God.

154. The desires and attachments of the soul have the property attributed to the remora, which, though it be but a very little fish, yet it arrests the progress of the ship to which it clings.

155. O that spiritual men knew how they are losing the blessings and fulness of the Spirit, merely because they will not raise up their desires above trifles! and how they might have the sweetness of all things in the pure food of the Spirit—of which the manna was a figure—if they would only abstain from tasting other food.

156. The children of Israel did not find in the manna all the sweetness and strength they might have found in it; not because the manna did not contain them, but because they longed for other meat.

157. Of one spark cometh a great fire, and one imperfection is enough to beget others. We shall never see a soul negligent in resisting but one single desire, which has not many other desires, springing out of that weakness and imperfection from which the first proceeds.

158. Voluntary and perfectly deliberate desires, however slight they may be, if only habitual, are those which chiefly hinder our progress to perfection.

159. Any imperfection to which the soul is attached and accustomed, is a greater injury to virtue than a daily fall into many other and even greater imperfections, provided they do not result from the habitual indulgence of an evil inclination.

160. God is justly angry with certain souls whom He, by His mighty arm, has delivered from the world, and from the occasions of grievous sins, but who are weak and negligent in mortifying certain imperfections; for this He permits them to fall through their desires from bad to worse.

Prudence

161. Give heed to reason, that you may perform that which it dictates to you in the way of God: and it will serve you more than all good works heedlessly done, and all the spiritual sweetness you aim at.

162. Blessed is he who, setting his own tastes and inclinations aside, looks at things according to reason and justice, in order to accomplish them.

163. He who acts according to reason is as one who eats strong and substantial food; but he who in his works seeks the satisfaction of his own will, is as one who eats poor and unripe fruit.

164. No creature may transgress the limits which God has set for it in the order of its nature: and as He has appointed for man’s governance certain natural and rational laws, the transgression thereof, by seeking knowledge in a supernatural way, is neither holy nor becoming: moreover, God is displeased; and if at any time He vouchsafes an answer, it is out of condescension to the soul’s weakness.

165. Man knows not how to order his joy and grief reasonably and prudently, because he knows not the distance between good and evil.

166. We know not how to distinguish between our right hand and our left: for at every step we take evil for good and good for evil, and if this be as it were natural to us, what must it be if desire be added to our natural blindness.

167. The desire, as desire, is blind, because in itself it regards not reason, which is that which ever guides and directs the soul aright in its operations: so the soul, whenever it is guided by its desires, is blind.

The Angels

168. The angels are our shepherds, because they carry not only our message to God, but also those of God to our souls, feeding them with sweet inspirations and divine communications: as good shepherds they protect us, and defend us from the wolves, which are the evil spirits.

169. Through the secret inspirations which the angels convey to the soul, they effect a deeper knowledge of God, and make it love Him the more, till they leave it wounded with love.

170. The divine wisdom which in heaven illumines the angels, and cleanses them of their ignorances, is the same which illumines men upon earth, and cleanses them of their errors and imperfections; it flows from God through the first orders of the hierarchies down to the lowest, and thence to men.

171. The light of God, which illumines an angel, enlightening and setting him on fire with love, as pure spirit disposed for that inflowing, illumines man ordinarily in darkness, pain, and distress, because of his impurity and weakness: so is the sun to a weak eye; the light it gives is painful.

172. When man has become spiritualised and refined in the fire of divine love which purifies him, he is then within the union and inflowing of the loving illumination with the sweetness with which an angel receives them. There are souls who in this life receive a more perfect illumination than the angels.

173. When God gives great graces to a soul through the hands of an angel, He ordinarily allows the devil to know it, that he may assail that soul with all his might, according to the measure of justice, in order that the victory may be the more prized, and the soul, faithful in temptation, may be the more abundantly rewarded.

174. Remember that your guardian angel does not always move the will to act, though he always enlightens the reason; therefore do not promise yourself sensible sweetness always in your works, because reason and understanding are sufficient.

175. When the desires of man are occupied with anything that is not God, they embarrass the soul and shut the door against the light by which the angel moves it to virtue.

176. Consider what utter vanity it is to rejoice in anything but in the service of God, how dangerous and how fatal; how ruinous it proved to the angels who rejoiced and had complacency in their own beauty and their natural endowments; for this they fell deformed into the abyss.

A Spiritual Director

177. A soul without a director is like a kindled coal, which, left by itself, cools instead of burning.

178. He who insists on being left to himself, without a director to guide him, is like an unowned tree by the wayside; however fruitful it may be, the travellers pick its fruit, and none of it ripens.

179. The tree that is cultivated and kept carefully by its owner produces fruit in due season, and the owner is not disappointed.

180. He who falls alone remains alone in his fall; he makes little account of his soul, because he trusts in himself alone.

181. He who is carrying a burden when he falls, rises with difficulty under his burden.

182. He who falls, being blind, cannot rise, being blind and alone; and if he should rise by himself, he will walk in a direction that is not good for him.

183. If you are not afraid to fall by yourself, how can you venture to raise yourself alone? Remember that two are better than one.

184. Our Lord did not say in His gospel, where one is by himself there am I, but where there are at the least two: this is to show that no one should believe of himself, or confirm himself in, the things which he thinks are those of God, without the counsel and direction of the Church and her ministers.

185. Woe to him that is alone, saith the Holy Ghost; and therefore the soul has need of a director, for both will resist the devil more easily, being both together to learn and practise the truth.

186. It is the will of God that the government of one man should be in the hands, of another, and that we should not give perfect credit to those matters which He communicates supernaturally Himself, until they shall have passed through the human channel of another man’s mouth.

187. When God makes a particular revelation to a soul, he also inclines that soul to make it known to the minister of His Church, who stands in His place.

188. It is not every one who is fitted for the direction of souls; it being a matter of the last importance to give right or wrong advice in so serious a matter as that.

189. Let the soul that would advance, and not go back, take care into whose hands it commits itself; for, as the master, so the scholar, and as the father, so the child.

190. The inclinations and tastes of the director are easily impressed upon the penitent.

191. The chief solicitude of spiritual directors should be to mortify every desire of their penitents: to make them deny themselves in all they desire, so as to deliver them from so great misery.

192. However high the doctrine, adorned the eloquence, sublime the style, the fruits of the sermon will be, in general, no better than the spirit of the preacher.

193. A good style and action, high doctrines and correct expression, have a greater effect when accompanied by true spirituality; but without that the will is scarcely or but little inflamed, though the senses may be charmed and the understanding delighted.

194. God is angry with those who teach His law and keep it not; and who preach spirituality to others without being spiritual themselves.

195. For the highest parts, and even for the ordinary parts, of the way of perfection, you will scarcely find one capable guide throughout, such as men have need of: such an one must be wise, discreet, and experienced.

196. For though the foundations of direction be knowledge and discretion, yet if directors be without experience, they will never be able to guide the soul in the way in which God is leading it; they will make it go backwards, ordering it after low methods which they pick up in books.

197. He who shall presumptuously err in the direction of souls, being under obligation to give good counsel—as every one is in the office he undertakes—shall not escape punishment according to the evil he has done; for the work of God—and such is the direction of souls—demands great caution and counsel.

198. Who can be like St. Paul, who was all things to all, that he might save all? knowing all the ways by which God leads souls, which are so different one from another, that you can scarcely find one which in half its ways agrees with the ways of another.

Religion: Prayer

199. The greatest honour we can render unto God, is to serve Him in evangelical perfection: and whatever is beside this is of no value or advantage to man.

200. One thought of man is of more value than the whole world; God alone is, for that reason, the worthy object of it, and to Him alone is it due; every thought of man, therefore, which is not given to God, is a robbery.

201. In all nature there are correspondences; in sensible things correspond with those that are insensible; sense with things sensible; and man’s thoughts with the Spirit of God.

Necessity of Prayer

202. Never let your heart waste its affections, not even for a moment.

203. The soul cannot overcome the devil without prayer, nor penetrate his devices without humility and mortification: for the weapons of God are prayer and the Cross of Christ.

204. In all our necessities, trials, and afflictions, there is no better nor safer remedy than prayer, and hope that God will provide for us in His own way.

Fruits of Prayer

205. Let God be the Bridegroom and the beloved of your soul; remain always in His presence, and so you shall avoid sin, learn to love Him, and all things will prosper with you.

206. Enter into your innermost heart, and labour in the presence of God, the Bridegroom of the soul, Who is ever present doing you good.

207. Strive to be continually in the presence of God, and to preserve the purity which He teaches.

208. By prayer aridity is expelled, devotion increased, and the interior practice of virtue is established in the soul.

209. By shutting the eyes to the defects of others, keeping silence, and conversing continually with God, great imperfections are rooted out of your soul, which thereby becomes possessed of great virtues.

210. When prayer is made in the pure and simple understanding of God, it seems to the soul to have lasted but a moment, though in fact it occupied much time; this is that prayer of a moment, of which it is said that it pierces the clouds.

The Properties of Prayer

211. The powers and senses of the soul should not be employed altogether upon anything unless it be a matter which cannot be neglected; for the rest, they should be unoccupied for God.

212. Wait lovingly upon God, without any desire to feel or understand anything in particular of Him.

213. Strive to attain to that state in which nothing is of importance to you, and you of importance to none, so that being utterly forgotten you may be with God in secret.

214. He who will not allow his desires to carry him away will wing his flight like a bird whose wings are strong.

215. Do not nourish your soul upon anything else but on God: repel the remembrance of things, let peace and recollection fill your heart.

216. If you would attain to holy recollection, it must be by rejecting, and not by admitting.

217. Seek by reading and you will find by meditating; cry in prayer and the door will be opened in contemplation.

218. True devotion and spirituality consist in perseverance in prayer, with patience and humility, distrust ing yourself that you may please God only.

219. They call upon God in truth who pray for that which is most true: namely, that which belongs to their eternal salvation.

220. There is no better way to obtain the desires of our heart than to pray with all our might for that which is most pleasing unto God; for then He will grant us not only our salvation, which we pray for, but also that which He sees expedient for us, though we may never ask for it, and though it may have never entered into our hearts to do so.

221. Let every soul understand that, although God may not succour it in its necessities when it cries, He will not however fail it when the time comes; provided it does not lose heart and cease from prayer.

Motives for Prayer

222. When the will, the moment it feels any joy in sensible things, rises upwards in that joy to God, and when sensible things move it to pray, it should not reject them, it may and should make use of them for so holy an exercise; because sensible things, under these conditions, subserve the end for which God created them: namely, to be occasions of making -Him better known and loved.

223. He whose senses are subject to the Spirit, purged from all sensible objects, even in his first movements, elicits delight in the sweet knowledge and contemplation of God.

224. As it is a truth of sound philosophy that the life of every creature is in harmony with its constitution, so is it clear beyond all contradiction, that he whose life is spiritual—the animal life being mortified—must be wholly tending towards God.

225. The will of a devout person rests chiefly on the invisible; he requires but few images for his use, and these are such as are more conformable to divine, than to human, taste, ordering himself herein after the ways of the other world, and not of this.

226. The chief thing to be regarded in images is devotion and faith; if these be absent, the image will not be sufficient. What a perfect living image our Lord was upon earth, and yet those who had no faith, though they were about Him, and saw His wonderful works, were none the better.

Place for Prayer

227. Keep yourself apart for one thing only, that which brings everything with it; solitude, accompanied by prayer and spiritual reading: and there abide, forgetting all things, if there be no obligation upon you to remember them. You will please God more by keeping watch over, and perfecting, yourself, than if you gained everything: for what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, if he loses his own soul?

228. Pure spirituality gives no heed to matters which do not concern it, or to human respect; but alone and apart from all created forms, communicates interiorly in sweet tranquillity with God; for the knowledge of Him lies in a divine silence.

229. For the purposes of prayer that place is to be chosen in which sense and spirit may be least hindered from rising upwards unto God.

230. The place of prayer must not be pleasant and delectable to the senses—some people seek such a place—lest the issue should be recreation of sense, and not recollection of spirit.

231. He who goes on a pilgrimage will do well to do so when others do not, though it be an unusual season. When pilgrims are many, I would advise staying at home, for in general men return more dissipated than they were before they went. They who become pilgrims for recreation, rather than devotion, are many in number.

Hindrances to Prayer

232. He who interrupts the course of his spiritual exercises and prayer, is like a man who allows a bird to escape from his hand; he can hardly catch it again.

233. God being, as He is, inaccessible, do not rest on the consideration of objects perceptible by sense, and comprehended by the understanding. This is to be satisfied with what is less than God; so doing you will destroy that energy of the soul which is necessary for walking with Him.

234. Never admit into your soul that which is not substantially spiritual; for if you do so you will lose the sweetness of devotion and recollection.

235. He who relies much on sense will never be very spiritual; they deceive themselves who think they can in the sheer strength of our grovelling senses, attain to the power of the spirit.

236. The imperfect destroy true devotion, because they seek sensible sweetness in prayer.

237. The fly that touches the honey cannot fly; so the soul that clings to spiritual sweetness ruins its freedom and hinders contemplation.

238. He who will not dispose himself to pray in every place, but only there where his own taste is gratified, will frequently fail in his prayer; because, as they say, he can pray only in his own parish.

239. He who is not conscious of liberty of spirit amid the things of sense and sweetness, which should serve as motives to prayer, and whose will rests and feeds upon them, ought to abstain from the use of them, for to him they are a hindrance on the road to God.

240. It is very foolish, when spiritual sweetness and delight fail, to imagine that God has failed us also; and to imagine, that because we have such sweetness, that we have God also.

241. Very often many spiritual persons employ their senses upon sensible things, under the pretext of giving themselves to prayer, and raising their hearts to God; ‘now this that they do should be called recreation rather than prayer; pleasing themselves rather than God.

242. Meditation tends to contemplation, as means to an end. So when the end is attained, the means are laid aside; men rest at the end of their journey; thus, when the state of contemplation has been attained, meditation must cease.

243. As it is necessary, at the proper time, to give up the work of reflection and meditation in order to draw near unto God, lest it should prove an impediment, so also is it necessary not to give it up before the time lest we should go back.

244. There are three signs of contemplation and interior recollection of the soul: i. When the soul takes no pleasure in transitory things. 2. When it seeks solitude and silence, striving after that which is the more perfect. 3. When meditation, which was once a help, proves a hindrance. These three signs must be found together.

245. In the beginning of the state of contemplation the loving knowledge of God, as it were, imperceptible: in the first place, because it is most subtile and delicate, and, as it were, imperceptible; in the second place, because the soul has been accustomed to the practice of meditation, which is more cognisable by the senses.

246. The more the soul is disposed for tranquillity, the more will the loving knowledge of contemplation grow; the soul will feel it and relish it more than all other things whatever; because it brings with it peace and rest, sweetness and delight, without trouble.

247. They who have entered the state of contemplation, must not for that reason suppose that they are never to make a meditation any more; for in the beginning the habit of it is not so established that they can have it whenever they will; neither are they so far removed from meditation as to be unable to meditate as they were accustomed to do.

248. Except in the act of contemplation, in all exercises and good works, the soul must make use of memory and good meditations in such a way as to increase devotion and profit, particularly dwelling on the life, passion, and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, in order that its works, exercises, and life may be conformed to His.

249. The conditions of the ‘solitary sparrow’ are five: i. It ascends as high as it can. 2. It admits none to be its companion, even of its own kind. 3. It faces the wind. 4. It has no definite colour. 5. It sings sweetly. The contemplative soul should be like it; it must rise high above transitory things, making no more account of them than if they never existed; it must be so enamoured of solitude and silence as to suffer no creature to be in its company; it must face the wind of the Holy Ghost, corresponding to His inspirations, that so doing, it may become more worthy of His company; it must have no definite colour, bent upon nothing but on doing the will of God; it must sing sweetly in the contemplation and love of God.

250. Though occasionally, in the height of contemplation and simple view of the divinity, the soul may not remember the most sacred humanity of Christ, because God elevates the spirit to knowledge, the most supernatural, yet studiously to forget it is in nowise seemly, seeing that by the contemplation thereof, and loving meditation thereon, the soul will ascend to the highest state of union; for Christ our Lord is the truth, the gate, the way, and the guide to all good.

Obedience

251. The way of life demands little trouble and care, it demands denial of the will rather than much knowledge; he who inclines to pleasure and sweetness will be the less able to travel on it.

252. He who does not walk in the way of his own pleasure, nor in that of the pleasures which come from God, nor in that of those which come from creatures, and never does his own will, he shall never stumble.

253. Though you may undertake great things, yet, if you will not learn to deny your own will and to be obedient, casting away all anxiety about yourself and your own affairs, you will make no progress in the way of perfection.

254. Let others teach you, let others order you, let others rule over you, and you will become perfect.

255. God is more pleased with that soul which, in spiritual aridity and trouble, is subject and obedient, than with that which, without obedience, performs all its duties in great spiritual sweetness.

256. God would rather have from you the lowest degree of obedience and subjection, than all those services you attempt to render Him.

257. Subjection and obedience is the penance of reason and discretion; and therefore a more pleasing and acceptable sacrifice in the eyes of God than all other bodily penances.

258. Bodily penance, without obedience, is a most imperfect thing; beginners practise it out of a desire for it, and for the pleasure they find in it, and therefore, because they herein do their own will, grow in vice, rather than in virtue.

259. Inasmuch as a double bitterness results from fulfilling one’s own will; do not fulfil it, although it may be bitterness to remain quiet.

260. The devil prevails with ease over those who are alone, and who in the things of God order themselves according to their own will.

Fortitude, Patience

261. It is better when burdened to be with the strong, than unburdened with the weak. When you are loaded with afflictions you are with God, Who is your strength, and He is with the afflicted. When you are unburdened you are by yourself, who are weakness itself, for the virtue and fortitude of the soul grow and are made strong in tribulations.

262. Your flesh is weak, and no worldly thing can strengthen or comfort your spirit; that which is born of the world is worldly, and that which is born of flesh is flesh: a good spirit is born only of the Spirit of God, and is communicated neither through the world nor the flesh.

263. The most delicate flower is the first to wither, and to lose its fragrance: therefore take care you do not walk in the way of spiritual sweetness, for you will never be firm. Choose rather a strong spirit, attached to nothing, and you will find sweetness and abundance of peace. Savoury, sweet, and lasting fruit is gathered only in a dry and cold soil.

264. Though the road be plain and pleasant for men of good will, he who travels on it will travel little, and that with difficulty, if not possessed of courage, strength, and resolution.

265. Feed not in forbidden pastures, which are those of this life: the blessed are they who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be filled.

266. Verily he has overcome all things in whom pleasure in them excites no joy, and the bitterness of them no sadness.

267. By fortitude the soul labours, practises virtue, and overcomes vice.

268. Let your heart be strong against everything that may draw you to that which is not God, and be at home in the sufferings of Christ.

269. Rejoice in God always, for He is your salvation, and consider how blessed it is to suffer whatever may come from Him who is the true good.

270. If you incline to aridities and suffering for the love of God, He will esteem that in you of more value than all the spiritual visions, meditations, and consolations you may ever have.

271. Never, for good or for evil, suffer your heart to be otherwise than calm in the affections of love; that you may endure whatever may befall you.

272. We are not to measure our trials by ourselves, but ourselves by our trials.

273. If souls knew how much suffering and mortification help to the attainment of great blessings, they would never seek for consolation anywhere.

274. If a soul has more patience under suffering, a greater endurance in the absence of sweetness, that is a sign of greater progress in virtue.

275. The way of suffering is more secure and also more profitable than that of joy and action. In suffering, the strength of God is given to the soul, while in joy and action it has to do with its own weakness and imperfections: in suffering also virtues are required and practised; the soul is purified, and is rendered more prudent and cautious.

276. The soul that is not tried and proved in temptations and afflictions can never attain unto wisdom, as it is written in the book Ecclesiasticus: ‘What doth he know that hath not been tried? ‘

277. The most perfect suffering brings with it the most perfect understanding.

Modesty

278. The soul, by refraining from joy in the objects of sense, recovers itself from the distractions into which it has fallen through the excessive indulgence of the senses, and recollects itself in God: spirituality and the virtues it has acquired are also preserved and increased.

279. As the man who seeks pleasure in the things of sense, and rejoices in them, ought not, and deserves not, to be called by any other name than sensual, animal, and earthly, so he whose joy is beyond and above these things merits the name of spiritual; heavenly, and divine.

280. If you will deny yourself one joy in the things of sense, our Lord will repay you a hundredfold in this life, spiritually and temporally; and for one joy indulged in the things of sense, you shall have a hundred sorrows and afflictions.

281. All the functions and powers of his senses, who no longer lives after the flesh, are directed to divine contemplation.

282. Though the goods of sense may deserve to be somewhat rejoiced in when they help a man to raise his thoughts to God, yet this is so uncertain that in general they do a man more harm than good.

283. Until a man shall have so habituated his senses to the purgation from sensible joy, that all things raise him up to God, he must refrain from all joy in them, in order that he may wean his soul from the life of sense.

Silence

284. The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son: and He utters Him for ever in everlasting silence, and in silence the soul has to hear It.

285. That which we most require for our spiritual growth is the silence of the desire and of the tongue before God, Who is so high: the language He most listens to is that of silent love.

286. Speak little: and do not meddle in matters when you are not desired to do so.

287. Never listen to accounts of the frailties of others; and if any one should complain to you of another, humbly ask him not to speak about him at all.

288. Complain of no one: ask for nothing, but if it should be necessary to ask, do so in few words.

289. Abstain from contradiction: on no account let your words be other than pure.

290. Let your words be offensive to none; and about matters that will cause you no trouble if every body knew of them.

291. Preserve your spirit in peace, lovingly attentive to God; and when you must speak, do so calmly and peaceably.

292. Be silent about what God may say to you, remembering the words of Scripture: ‘My secret to me.’

293. Never forget that of every word uttered without the direction of obedience, God will require a strict account.

294. Intercourse with people beyond what is strictly necessary and required by reason, has never been good for any man, however holy he may have been.

295. It is impossible to make progress otherwise than by doing and suffering everything in silence.

296. For growth in virtue, the important thing is to be silent, and to work: conversation distracts, silence and work bring recollection.

297. The moment a person understands what is told him for his good, there is no necessity for him to ask for further direction, nor to speak about it, but to act upon it sincerely in silence, carefully, in humility, charity, and contempt of self.

298. I have understood that the soul which is ready for talking and the commerce of the world is but little attentive to God: for if it were otherwise, it would withdraw itself at once into silence within, and avoid all conversation whatever.

299. It is the will of God that the soul should delight in Him, rather than in any created thing, however useful or necessary it may be to it.

Humility

300. The first thing the soul must have in order to attain to the knowledge of God is the knowledge of itself.

301. God is more pleased with certain actions, however few they may be, done in silence and in secret, and without any desire that men might see them, than with a thousand grand actions undertaken with the intention of their being seen by men.

302. The secrecy of conscience is broken when a man reveals to others the good estate it is in, receiving for his reward the praise of men.

303. The Wise Spirit of God Who dwells in humble souls inclines them to keep His treasures in secret, and to cast out what is amiss.

304. Perfection consists not in those virtues which every one recognises in himself, but in those which God approves of. And as His approval is hidden from the eyes of men, no one has any reason to presume, and every one many, to make him afraid.

305. God, when He loves a soul, regards not its greatness, but rather the greatness of its contempt of self and its humility.

306. What you most seek, and most anxiously desire, you will never find if you seek it for yourself, not even in the most profound contemplation; but only in deep humility and submission of heart.

307. If you will glory in yourself cast away everything not your own: what remains will be nothing, and this thing you should glory in.

308. Do not despise others because, as it seems to you, they do not possess the virtues you thought they had: they may be pleasing to God for other reasons which you cannot discover.

309. Never excuse yourself:. listen calmly to the reprimand and consider it to come from God.

310. Look upon it as a special mercy of God, that people ever speak kindly to you: you do not deserve it.

311. Make neither much nor little of him who may be against you, and strive always to please God. Pray that His will may be done, and love Him much, for it is His due.

312. Love to be unknown to yourself and others: never regard the good nor the evil of others.

313. Never forget the life to come. Consider how many in heaven are great, and in great glory, who in their own eyes were of no account, humble and poor.

314. In order to mortify truly the desire of honour from which so many other desires proceed, you will do those things which will bring you into contempt, and you will wish others to despise you: you will speak disparagingly of yourself and you will contrive that others do so: you will think humbly and contemptuously of yourself, and you will wish others to do so also.

315. Humility and submission to your spiritual director, disclosing to him all that passes in your intercourse with God, will bring light, rest, contentment, and security.

316. Virtue consists not in what you have learned, and feel about God, however great that may be, nor in any personal experiences of this kind, but, on the contrary, in that which is not matter of feeling at all, in great humility, contempt of self, and of all that belongs to you profoundly rooted in the soul.

317. All visions, revelations, and impressions of heaven, however much the spiritual man may esteem them, are not equal in worth to the least act of humility: for this brings forth the fruits of charity, which never esteems nor thinks well of self, but only of others.

318. The communications which come really from God have this property, that they humble and exalt the soul at the same time, for in the way of the Spirit to descend is to ascend, and to ascend is to descend.

319. When God communicates His gifts and graces to the soul, He excites in it a repugnance to accept honours and distinctions; but in the way of humility and self-abasement, He gives it ease and readiness.

320. God hates to see men ready to accept dignities, even when it is His will that they should accept them; but it is not His will that they should do so eagerly and promptly.

321. When the devil speaks, he makes men ready and eager to accept dignities, but he makes them reject humiliations and self-abasement.

Vanity

322. He who loves superiorities and dignities, or the indulgence of his desires, stands before God, not as a son who is free, but as one of mean condition, and slave of his passions.

323. The soul that is not humble, the devil most easily deludes, and makes it believe a thousand lies.

324. There are many Christians in our day who have certain virtues, and who do great things, but all of no use to them in the matter of everlasting life, because in them they do not seek that honour and glory which belongs to God alone, but rather the empty satisfaction of their own will.

325. Empty joy in our good works is always attended by a great esteem of them; out of this comes boasting, and other faults such as we see in the Pharisee in the gospel.

326. Such is the misery of the children of men, that, so far as I can see, the greater part of their good works done in public are either sinful or worthless; or imperfect and defective in the sight of God because men will not detach themselves from self-interest and from human respect.

327. O souls created for, and called unto, a dignity so great! what are you doing, what is it that detains you? O miserable blindness of the children of Adam, who in a light so great are blind, and to such an invitation deaf! While they seek after greatness and honour they are themselves miserable and base, and of such blessings unworthy.

Voluntary Poverty

328. If rejoicing in riches can be made in any way endurable, it is when men spend and use them in the service of God; there is no other way of making them profitable: the same principle applies to all other temporal goods, titles, rank and office.

329. The spiritual man must be very careful of the beginnings of joy in temporal things, lest from little it should become great, increasing step by step; out of slight beginnings great evils result. One spark is enough to set a mountain on fire.

330. However small an attachment may be, be not too confident that you can cut it off at any time; cut it off at once: for if you have not the courage to destroy it when it is but beginning, how can you presume upon success when it has taken root and grown?

331. He who turns aside from what is little, will not stumble over what is large. Little matters cause great evils, because the fences and walls of the heart are broken down when they enter in; for the proverb says: he who has begun his work has accomplished the half of it.

332. Joy darkens the judgment as a cloud, for there can be no rejoicing in created things without the attachment of the will. The negation and purgation of this joy leave the judgment clear as the sky when the mist has been scattered.

333. He who is detached is not molested when he prays, nor at any other time, and so without wasting his time he gains with ease great spiritual treasures.

Avarice

334. Although temporal goods are not, in themselves, necessarily, occasions of sin, yet ordinarily, by reason of our frailty, the heart of man sets its affections upon them, and falls away from God, which is sin: for this reason the Wise Man saith: the rich shall not be free from sin.

335. The things of this world neither occupy nor injure the soul; it is not they that enter into it, but rather the will, and the desire of them, which dwell within it.

336. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the gospel, calls riches thorns, giving us to understand that he who sets his will upon them shall be wounded by sin.

337. It is vanity to desire to have children, as some do, who weary the world with their fretting for them: they know not if their children will be good, and servants of God: neither do they know whether the pleasure they expect from them may not be turned into disquietude, pain, and trouble.

338. The covetous man runs to and fro within the limits of the chain by which his heart is bound, and with all his efforts can scarcely set himself free, even for a moment, from the bondage of his thoughts on which his heart is set.

Poverty of Spirit

339. Consider how very necessary it is for you to set your face against yourself, and walk in the way of penance if you would attain to perfection.

340. If any one tempts you with lax opinions, and should even confirm them by miracles, trust him not; but rely rather upon penance and perfect detachment from creatures.

341. God in His law commanded the altar of sacrifice should be empty within. This is to teach us that He would have the soul emptied of all things, that it may be an altar worthy of His Majesty.

342. One desire only does God allow, and suffer in His presence within the soul—the desire of keeping the law perfectly, and carrying the cross of Christ. It is not said, in the sacred writings, that God commanded anything to be laid up in the ark with the manna except the book of the law and the rod of Moses, a type of the cross of Christ.

343. That soul which has no other aim than the perfect observance of the law of our Lord, and the carrying of the cross of Christ, will be a true ark containing the true manna, which is God.

344. If you wish devotion to be born in your heart, the love of God to grow, together with the desire for divine things, cleanse your soul from every desire and self-seeking, so that nothing of the kind remain with you. For as a sick man, freed from the evil humours which troubled him, feels instantly returning health and a taste for his food, so shall you recover your health in God if you rid yourself of your spiritual disorders: and if this be not done, whatever you may do, you will make no progress.

345. Live in this world as if God and your soul only were in it; that your heart may be a captive to no earthly thing.

346. Do not weary yourself to no purpose, nor seek spiritual joy and sweetness, unless it be by denying yourself in that which you aim at.

347. If you would attain to holy recollection, it must be by rejecting, and not by admitting.

348. Be interiorly detached from all things, and do not set your affection upon any temporal thing, and your soul will gather in a harvest of blessings beyond its comprehension.

349. The goods of God, which are beyond all measure, can be contained only in an empty and solitary heart.

350. So far as it lies in your power, refuse nothing asked of you, though you may have need of it yourself.

351. He will never attain to perfection who will not labour to be satisfied with this: that all his natural and spiritual desires should be satisfied in the absence of everything which is not God. This is most necessary for abiding peace and tranquillity of spirit.

352. Let your soul be always ordered by a desire not for that which is easy, but for that which is most difficult; not for that which is most pleasant, but for that which is most unpleasant; not for that which is elevated and precious, but for that which is vile and despised; not for great things, but for little things: not to seek for anything, but to seek for nothing; not for that which is best, but for that which is worst; desiring to enter, for the love of Jesus, upon detachment, emptiness, and poverty in everything in this world.

353. If you will cleanse your soul of strange possessions and desires, you will understand all things spiritually; and if you will restrain yourself from setting your heart upon them, you will rejoice truly in them, and understand them certainly.

354. All people will be your servants, and all things will minister to you, if only you will forget them and yourself.

355. You will never have to do with necessities greater than those to which you made your heart yield itself: for the poor in spirit are most happy and joyous in a state of privation; and he who has set his heart upon nothing, finds fulness everywhere.

356. The poor in spirit give generously all they have, and their pleasure consists in being thus deprived of everything for God’s sake, and out of love to their neighbour, ordering all things by the law of this virtue.

357. Poverty of spirit looks to the substance of devotion solely, and making use only of what is sufficient for it, is weary of the multiplicity and curiosity of visible means.

358. A soul withdrawn from exterior things, detached from its own will, even in divine things, will not be raised by prosperity nor subdued by adversity.

359. The poor that are naked shall be clothed; and the soul that will strip itself of all its desires, likings, and dislikings, God will clothe with His own purity, His own joy, and His own will.

360. The love of God in a pure and simple soul, detached from every desire, is frequently in act.

361. Restrain your desires, and you will find that which your heart longs for: how can you tell that your desire is according to the will of God?

362. If you desire to have your soul in peace and comfort, and to serve God in truth, do not rest satisfied with what you have done in the way of self-denial, for it may be that on the new road you have entered, you may find yourself as much hindered, or even more than you were; but give up everything that you have.

363. If you fail in the practice of self-denial, which is the sum and root of virtue: every other way is but beating the air, and you will make no progress, notwithstanding most profound meditations and communications.

364. Not only do temporal goods, the delights and the tastes of sense, hinder and thwart the way of God, but spiritual delights and consolations also, if sought for, or clung to eagerly, disturb the way of virtue.

365. Such is the nature of our vain concupiscence that it clings to everything: like the dry-rot, which wastes away what is sound, it has its way both in what is good and what is bad.

Prayer of the Enamoured Soul

1. O Lord God, my Love, if Thou art still mindful of my sins, and wilt not grant my petitions, Thy will be done, for that is my chief desire. Show Thou Thy goodness and mercy, and Thou shalt be known by them. If it be that Thou art waiting for my good works that in them Thou mayest grant my petition, do Thou give them and work them in me: send also the penalties which Thou wilt accept, and do Thou inflict them. But if Thou art not waiting for my good works; what art Thou waiting for, O most merciful Lord? why tarriest Thou? For if at last it must be grace and mercy, for which I pray in Thy Son, do Thou accept my worthless offering, according to Thy will, and give me this good also according to Thy will. O Lord Almighty, my spirit has fainted within me because it has forgotten to feed upon Thee. I knew Thee not, O my Lord, when I went after vanity.

2. Who can free himself from base and mean ways, if Thou, O my God, wilt not lift him up to Thee in pure love? Thou hastenest joyfully and lovingly, O Lord, to raise up him who has offended Thee, but I make no haste to honour and raise him up who has offended me. How shall a man raise himself up to Thee, for he is born and bred in misery, if Thou wilt not lift him up with the hand that made him? O Lord Almighty, if the shadow of the power of Thy justice in earthly sovereigns who govern and rule the nations can do so much, what cannot Thy almighty justice do, dealing with the just man and the sinner?

3. O Lord my God, Thou art not estranged from him who does not estrange himself from Thee. How is it that men say Thou art absent? O Lord my God, who is there that seeks Thee in pure and true love, who does not find thee to be the joy of His will? It is Thou who art the first to show Thyself, going forth to meet those who desire to meet Thee. Thou wilt not take away from me, O my God, what Thou hast once given me in Thy only begotten Son Jesus Christ, in Whom Thou hast given me all I desire. I will therefore rejoice, Thou wilt not tarry if I wait for Thee. Wait in hope then, O my soul, for from henceforth thou mayest love God in thy heart.

4. The heavens are mine, the earth is mine, and the nations are mine: mine are the just, and the sinners are mine: mine are the angels, and the Mother of God; all things are mine, God Himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine, and all for me. What dost thou then ask for, what dost thou seek for, O my soul? All is thine, all is for thee; do not take less, nor rest with the crumbs which fall from the table of Thy Father. Go forth and exult in thy glory, hide thyself in it, and rejoice, and thou shalt obtain all the desires of thy heart.

5. O sweetest love of God, too little known; he who has found Thee is at rest; let everything change, O my God, that we may rest in Thee. Everywhere with Thee, O my God, everywhere all things with Thee as I wish. O my Love, all for Thee, nothing for me: nothing for Thee, everything for me. All sweetness and delight for Thee, none for me: all bitterness and trouble for me, none for Thee. O my God, how sweet to me Thy presence, who art the sovereign Good. I will draw near to Thee in silence, and will uncover Thy feet, that it may please Thee to unite me to Thyself, making my soul Thy bride: I will rejoice in nothing till I am in Thine arms. O Lord, I beseech Thee, leave me not for a moment, because I know not the value of my soul.