Chapter VII. How the Soul, despoiled of its own Will, must present itself before God

YOU should begin, then, by degrees in this way, trusting sweetly in the same Lord Who calls you, saying:—"Come unto Me, all ye that travail, and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you." 'All ye that are athirst come to the Fountain.' This movement and Divine call you ought to follow, awaiting the inspiration with it of the Holy Spirit, that you may resolutely and blindly cast yourself into the sea of this Divine Providence and of the Eternal GoodPleasure, praying that it may be done in you, and that thus you may be irresistibly borne onward on the mighty waves of the Divine Will to the haven of your own individual perfection and salvation.

Having made this act, you should repeat it a hundred, a thousand times a day, labouring and endeavouring with all possible confidence to draw near, both inwardly and outwardly, with all the powers of your soul to those things which stir you up, and make you praise, love and trust God. And let these acts always be without force or violence to your heart; for if they are done with indiscreetness and eagerness, they may serve to weaken, and perhaps to harden you, and to render you incapable of them. Take the advice of those who are experienced, and seek to make it a habit, always in desire, and as frequently as possible in act, to give yourself to the contemplation of God's Goodness, and of His constant and tender blessings, and to receive with humility the drops which from His inestimable Goodness distil into your soul. Be on your guard against forcing yourself to shed tears or feel sensibly affected in your devotions, but be still, and with an interior solitude, wait until the Will of God be wrought in you; and when He gives you the feeling of devotion, it will be sweet, and come without effort or constraint on your part, and then accept it with all gentleness and tranquillity, and, above all, with all lowliness.

The key with which you can open the secrets of the spiritual treasury is, the knowledge how to deny yourself always and in all things; and the same key fastens the door upon distaste and dryness of spirit, when it springs from our own fault; for that dryness which God sends must be classed with the other treasures of the soul.

Delight to remain with Mary at the feet of Christ, and to listen to the words of your Lord. Take care that your enemies (of whom you are yourself the chief) do not hinder this holy silence. And when you seek God with your understanding, in order to find repose in Him, remember that you must not assign any limits to Him, or make any comparisons with your feeble and narrow imagination, for He is above all comparisons, and is Infinite, and is found through all, and in all, and all things are in Him. You will find Him present within your own soul, whenever you truly seek Him, that is to say, when you seek Him and not yourself; for His delights are to be with us, the children of men, to make us worthy of Him, since He has no need of us.

When you meditate do not bind yourself to certain points, so as never to depart from them, but wherever you find repose, there stop and taste the Lord, in whatever part of the way He shall be pleased to reveal Himself to you; and though you have made a digression, you need have no scruples, for the whole end of these exercises is to taste the Lord, with the intention, indeed, not of making the enjoyment itself the principal end, but rather of becoming more and more touched with the beauty of His works, and so drawn to imitate Him as much as possible. And when you have found the end, you have no reason to be any longer anxious about the means which are arranged for the purpose of attaining it. One of the hindrances to true peace and tranquillity, is the anxiety and carefulness with which we approach such exercises, chaining the spirit, and dragging it this way or that, thus dictating to God as to the way we would be led, and forcing it to go on the path of our own devising; thinking more of doing our own will in this than the Will of our Lord, which is nothing else than to seek God by flying from God, and to desire to content Him without doing His Will. If you really desire to make way on this path, and to reach the desired end, you must have no other aim or desire but to find God; and wherever He is pleased to manifest Himself to you, leave all else, and go no further as long as He wills to detain you, forgetting all things for the time, and reposing in your Lord. And when it pleases His Divine Majesty to retire and to manifest Himself no longer, then you may return to the path of your meditation, and seek Him by continuing it, having ever the same purpose and desire before you—to find by these means Him Whom you love; and having found Him, do as we have said, leave all else, with the consciousness that His desire is fulfilled.

This advice demands your attentive consideration; for many spiritual persons lose the fruits and the peace of their meditations by wearying themselves in them, imagining they have done nothing, unless every point has been used, and making the perfection of the meditation to consist in this mastership of the will, living and toiling after this, as one who labours at a task, without ever attaining that true repose and interior peace wherein the Lord truly abides and rests.