Great Throughts Treasury

"Old friends of God scarcely ever fail him, for they stand above all that can make them fail."

"Oh, how sweet your presence will be to me, you who are the supreme good! I must draw near you in silence and uncover your feet that you may be pleased to unite me to you in marriage [Ru. 3:7], and I will not rest until I rejoice in your arms. Now I ask you, Lord, not to abandon me at any time in my recollection, for I am a squanderer of my soul."

"Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more lovely than the dawn, Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover, Lover transformed in the Beloved!"

"One dark night, fired with love's urgent longings ? ah, the sheer grace! ? I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled. In darkness, and secure, by the secret ladder, disguised, ? ah, the sheer grace! ? in darkness and concealment, my house being now all stilled."

"One human thought alone is worth more than the entire world, hence God alone is worthy of it."

"On a dark night, kindled in love with yearnings ? oh, happy chance! ? I went forth without being observed, my house being now at rest. In darkness and secure, by the secret ladder, disguised ? oh, happy chance! ? In darkness and in concealment, my house being now at rest."

"One hour of purgation here is more profitable than are many there."

"Pay no attention to anything which your faculties can grasp. You should never desire satisfaction in what you understand about God, but in what you do not understand about Him Never stop with loving and delighting in your understanding and experience of God, but love and delight in what is neither understandable nor perceptible of Him."

"Outward light enables us to see that we may not fall; it is otherwise in the things of God, for there it is better not to see, and the soul is in greater security."

"Perfection does not lie in the virtues that the soul knows it has, but in the virtues that our Lord sees in it. This is a closed book; hence one has no reason for presumption, but must remain prostrate on the ground with respect to self."

"Our journey toward God must proceed through the negation of all. One should remain in emptiness and darkness regarding all creatures. He should base his love and joy on what he neither sees nor feels ? that is, upon God who is incomprehensible and transcendent."

"Pray in our secret chamber, or in the solitary wilderness, and at the best and most quiet time of night."

"Preserve a loving attentiveness to God with no desire to feel or understand any particular thing concerning Him."

"Pure contemplation consists in receiving."

"Reflect how necessary it is to be enemies of self and to walk to perfection by the path of holy rigor, and understand that every word spoken without the order of obedience is laid to your account by God."

"Preserve a habitual remembrance of eternal life, recalling that those who hold themselves the lowest and poorest and least of all will enjoy the highest dominion and glory in God."

"Reflect that your guardian angel does not always move your desire for an action, but he does always enlighten your reason. Hence, in order to practice virtue do not wait until you feel like it, for your reason and intellect are sufficient."

"Reveal Thy presence, and let the vision and Thy beauty kill me, behold the malady of love is incurable except in Thy presence and before Thy face."

"Rejoice habitually in God, who is your salvation [Lk. 1:47], and reflect that it is good to suffer in any way for him who is good."

"Reflect that the most delicate flower loses its fragrance and withers fastest; therefore guard yourself against seeking to walk in a spirit of delight, for you will not be constant. Choose rather for yourself a robust spirit, detached from everything, and you will discover abundant peace and sweetness, for delicious and durable fruit is gathered in a cold and dry climate."

"Secret contemplation is the science of love. It is an infused and loving knowledge of God, which enlightens the soul and at the same time enkindles it with love, until it is raised up step by step, even unto God its Creator. For it is love alone that unites and joins the soul with God."

"See that you do not interfere in the affairs of others, nor even allow them to pass through your memory; for perhaps you will be unable to accomplish your own task."

"See that you are not suddenly saddened by the adversities of this world, for you do not know the good they bring, being ordained in the judgments of God for the everlasting joy of the elect."

"Since a double measure of bitterness must follow the doing of your own will, do not do it even though you remain in single bitterness."

"Since, when the hour of reckoning comes, you will be sorry for not having used this time in the service of God, why do you not arrange and use it now as you would wish to have done were you dying?"

"Since God is inaccessible, be careful not to concern yourself with all that your faculties can comprehend and your senses feel, so that you do not become satisfied with less and lose the lightness of soul suitable for going to him."

"Seek in reading and you will find in meditation; knock in prayer and it will be opened to you in contemplation."

"Some of these beginners, too, make little of their faults, and at other times become over-sad when they see themselves fall into them, thinking themselves to have been saints already; and thus they become angry and impatient with themselves, which is another imperfection. Often they beseech God, with great yearnings, that He will take from them their imperfections and faults, but they do this that they may find themselves at peace, and may not be troubled by them, rather than for God's sake; not realizing that, if He should take their imperfections from them, they would probably become prouder and more presumptuous still. They dislike praising others and love to be praised themselves; sometimes they seek out such praise. Herein they are like the foolish virgins, who, when their lamps could not be lit, sought oil from others."

"Souls will be unable to reach perfection who do not strive to be content with having nothing, in such fashion that their natural and spiritual desire is satisfied with emptiness; for this is necessary in order to reach the highest tranquility and peace of spirit. Hence the love of God in the pure and simple soul is almost continually in act."

"Sometimes, too, when their spiritual masters, such as confessors and superiors, do not approve of their spirit and behavior (for they are anxious that all they do shall be esteemed and praised), they consider that they do not understand them, or that, because they do not approve of this and comply with that, their confessors are themselves not spiritual. And so they immediately desire and contrive to find someone else who will fit in with their tastes; for as a rule they desire to speak of spiritual matters with those who they think will praise and esteem what they do, and they flee, as they would from death, from those who disabuse them in order to lead them into a safe road?sometimes they even harbor ill-will against them. Presuming thus, they are wont to resolve much and accomplish very little. Sometimes they are anxious that others shall realize how spiritual and devout they are, to which end they occasionally give outward evidence thereof in movements, sighs and other ceremonies; and at times they are apt to fall into certain ecstasies, in public rather than in secret, wherein the devil aids them, and they are pleased that this should be noticed, and are often eager that it should be noticed more."

"Spiritual things in the soul believes that, if trials come to it, that it will never escape from them. And if spiritual blessings come, the soul believes its troubles are now over."

"Spiritual wounds of love are very delightful and desirable. The soul would desire to be ever dying a thousand deaths from the thrusts of the lance, for they make her go out of herself and enter into God."

"Strive always to keep God present and to preserve within yourself the purity he teaches you."

"Speak little and do not meddle in matters about which you are not asked."

"Strive for the greater honor and glory of God in all things."

"Strive to preserve your heart in peace; let no event of this world disturb it; reflect that all must come to an end."

"Suffering for God is better than working miracles."

"Take God for your bridegroom and friend, and walk with him continually; and you will not sin and will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you."

"That person has truly mastered all things who is not moved to joy by the satisfaction they afford or saddened by their insipidness."

"Take neither great nor little notice of who is with you or against you, and try always to please God. Ask him that his will be done in you. Love him intensely, as he deserves to be loved."

"The annihilation of the memory in regard to all forms (including the five senses) is an absolute requirement for union with God. This union cannot be wrought without a complete separation of the memory from all forms that are not God. In great forgetfulness it is absorbed in a supreme good. #8. Once he has the habit of union he no longer experiences these lapses of memory in matters concerning his moral and natural life. All the operations of the memory and other faculties in this state are divine."

"The blind person who falls will not be able to get up alone; the blind person who does get up alone will go off on the wrong road."

"The breathing of the air, the song of the sweet nightingale, the grove and its beauty"

"The bride has entered the pleasant and desirable garden, and there reposes to her heart?s content; her neck reclining on the sweet arms of the Beloved."

"The Father spoke one Word, which was his Son, and this Word he speaks always in eternal silence, and in silence must it be heard by the soul."

"The deep caverns of sense, with strange brightness, give heat and light together to their Beloved. ?Together? because the communication of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in the soul are made together, and are the light and fire of love."

"The fly that clings to honey hinders its flight, and the soul that allows itself attachment to spiritual sweetness hinders its own liberty and contemplation."

"The entire world is not worthy of a human being's thought, for this belongs to God alone; any thought, therefore, not centered on God is stolen from him."

"The devil fears a soul united to God as he does God himself."

"The further you withdraw from earthly things the closer you approach heavenly things and the more you find in God."