Chapter 42: How the just delight in God, and how God takes pleasure in them, especially when they commit all their good desires to Him

ON one occasion, when the Saint was prevented by illness from communicating, and she felt her devotion also lan guishing, she addressed herself thus to God : " 0 Sweetness of my soul ! knowing — alas ! only too well — how unworthy I am to approach the Sacrament of Thy Body and Blood, I would abstain from Communion, if I could find consolation in any creature out of Thee; but since I can behold nothing from east to west, nor from north to south, in which I can find any consolation or pleasure, either for body or soul, except in Thee alone, and as I am parched and thirsty, and breathless from desire, I come to Thee, the Fountain of living water." Our Lord, in His benign love, replied thus : " As you assure Me that you can find no pleasure apart from Me, so I assure you also that I do not wish to find pleasure in any creature apart from you." But as the Saint reflected, that although the Lord had promised this at that time, still at some future period it might be otherwise,

He answered her thoughts thus : " My will is the same as My power, and therefore I can do nothing except what I will." " But, 0 most loving Lord," replied the Saint, " what subject of complacence canst Thou find in one who is the repulse and shame of all creatures '? " " The Eye of My Divinity," He replied, "takes extreme pleasure in re garding you, on account of the various great gifts which I have bestowed on you. Your words are as a concert of sweet music to My Divine ears, whether you utter them to offer Me your love, to pray for sinners or for the souls in purgatory, to instruct or to correct others, or when you speak in any manner for My glory ; and though men may obtain no advantage from your words, and they may remain without effect, still the good intention which prompted them, and which has Me only for its object, makes them resound sweetly in My ears, and will cause them to touch even My very inmost heart. The hope with which you sigh after Me ascends as a fragrant odour before Me ; your prayers and desires are sweeter to Me than any perfume; and in your love I find the greatest pleasure."

Then the Saint began to desire ardently a restoration of her former health, that she might be able to observe the austerities of her Order with more exactness. But our Lord replied lovingly : " Why does My spouse become importunate to Me, as if she would oppose My will? " "What, Lord!" she replied ; " how can a desire, which seems to me to be only for Thy glory, be so opposed to Thy will? " "From the manner in which you ask it," replied our Lord, "I con sider it only as the desire of a child; but if you should ask it more earnestly, I should not be pleased at your request."

From these words the Saint knew that the desire of health, from a pure intention of serving God, is indeed good ; but that it ^ far more perfect to abandon oneself entirely to the Divine will, and to believe that all which God ordains for us, whether of prosperity or adversity, can not but be for our advantage.