Letter (number unidentified). To A Carmelite Nun, 1579

How to bear persecution.

... In order to profit and advance by means of persecutions and injuries it is well to refled: that God has been ofFended by them before I have. When the blow strikes me. He has already been ofFended by the sin. The soul that loves its Bridegroom ought already to have pledged itself to be entirely His and to have no will of its own, and if He bears with the injury, why should we resent it? Our only sorrow should be that God has been offended, for the soul itself is not diredily affedled but is only reached by the sensitiveness of the body which richly deserves to suffer in this world.

To die or suffer — this should be our wish.

No one is tempted more than he is able to bear.

Nothing happens except by the will of God.

•My father,' said Eliseus to Elias: you are the chariot of Israel and the driver thereof.' . .