Let us begin to be devoted to Him in good earnest.
Let us cast everything besides out of our hearts.
He would possess them alone.
(p. 62)
I know that for the right practice of the presence of God, the heart must be empty of all other things, because God will possess the heart alone; and as He cannot possess it alone without emptying it of all besides, so neither can He act there, and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him.
We ought to give ourselves up to God,
with regard both to things temporal and spiritual,
and seek our satisfaction only in the fulfilling of His will,
whether He lead us by suffering or by consolation,
for all would be equal to a soul truly resigned.
We need to be faithful to God in prayer during those periods
when we experience aridity and irksomeness.
During these periods God tries our love to Him,
and this is when it is time for us
to make good and effectual acts of resignation,
where even one such act could very much promote our spiritual advancement.
(p. 6-7)
Perfect resignation to God is a sure way to Heaven.
(p. 17)
Having found in many books different methods of going to God,
and divers practices of the spiritual life,
I thought this would serve rather to puzzle me
than facilitate what I sought after,
which was nothing but how to become wholly God's.
This made me resolve to give all for the all...
I renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was not He,
and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world.
(p. 26 - 27)
In the beginning of the spiritual life we ought to be faithful in doing
our duty and denying ourselves; but after that, unspeakable pleasures
follow.
(p. 17)
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