In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved… Never give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, perservere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction. In the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God.
In the inner stillness where meditation leads, the Spirit secretly annoints the soul, and heals our deepest wounds. Contemplation is nothing else but a secret, peaceful and loving infusion of God. Which, if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of Love.
Seek in reading, and you will find in meditation. Knock in prayer, and it will be opened to you in contemplation. Silence is God’s first language. However softly we speak, God is so close to us that we can be heard. Nor do we need wings to go in search of God, but merely to seek solitude and contemplate God within ourselves, without being surprised to find such a good guest there.
Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it, then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing. Do not let your eye be drawn by the false beacon lamps of wealth or position or fame or possessions. Be vigilant over your will and desires, for these are the corrupt forces that dwell within, and keep you from living free.
Live in faith and hope, though it be in darkness. For in this darkness, God protects the soul. Cast your care upon God, for you are God’s, and God will not forget you. Do not think that God is leaving you alone, for that would be to wrong him.
It is great wisdom to know how to be silent, and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others. In sorrow and suffering, go straight to God with confidence, and you will be strengthened, enlightened and instructed — for God leads every soul by a separate path.
Have a great love for those who contradict and fail to love you, for in this way love is begotten in a heart that has no love. The soul that walks in love neither tires others, nor grows tired.
Where there is no love, pour love in and you will draw love out. Love consists not in feeling great things, but in having great detachment, and in suffering for the Beloved. The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope, or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast — for, until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly.
When a soul has advanced so far on the spiritual road, as to be lost to all the natural methods of communing with God, when it seeks God no longer by meditation, images, impressions, nor by any other created ways, or representations of sense, but only by rising above them all — in the joyful communion with truth, by faith and love… then it may be said to have found the God of truth, because it has truly lost itself as to all that is not God, and also as to its own self.
To love is to be transformed into what we love. To love God, therefore, is to be transformed into God.
To reach satisfaction in all, desire its possession in nothing. To come to the knowledge of all, desire the knowledge of nothing. To come to possess all, desire the possession of nothing. To arrive at being all, desire to be nothing.