Chapter V. How the Soul should keep herself in a state of inward Solitude, that God may work within her

SET, then, very high value on your soul, since the Father of fathers, and Lord of lords, has created it for His own abode and temple. Esteem it so highly, as never to suffer it to be degraded nor to incline to any other object. Let your desires and your hopes be ever directed towards the coming of your Lord, Who will not visit your soul unless it remains in solitude. Do not suppose, that in the presence of others He will open His lips, unless it be with words of reproach and abandonment. He wills that the soul shall be alone, having put aside, as far as may be, its own thoughts, its own desires, and, what is much more to the purpose, its own will. Yet you ought not to impose penances indiscreetly on yourself, nor go in quest of opportunities of suffering for the love of God, simply under the guidance of your own will; but only with the advice of your spiritual father, and of those who are over you, and who, under God, have the rule over you, for He, using them as His instruments, disposes your will to do whatever He wills, and in the way that He wills. You are not to do your own will, but to let God do in you what He wills. Let your will be always so freed from self, as to have no desire of your own; and if you have a desire concerning any thing, desire it only in such a manner as not to feel regret, if you should be thwarted in it, but that your peace of mind may remain as undisturbed as if you had entertained no wish in the matter. This is true liberty of spirit, not to bind one's self to any thing. If you yield up your soul to God in this state of detachment, unfettered and alone, you will see the wonders God will work in you. O wonderful solitude and secret chamber of the Most High, where only He will give audience, and speak to the inmost soul! O desert, thus made a Paradise, since in it alone God vouchsafes to be seen, and to be conversed with! "I will turn aside, and see this great sight." But if you would come hither, enter barefoot upon this ground, for it is holy. First, put off your shoes from your feet, that is, your affections from your soul, and leave them bare and free; carry neither purse nor scrip for this road; for you must desire nothing in this world, whatever others may seek; neither salute any one; fix all your thoughts and affections upon God alone, and not on creatures; leave the dead to bury the dead; you go your way to the land of the living, and let death have no part in you.