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.