NOTWITHSTANDING the trial which deprives me of every feeling of enjoyment I can yet exclaim, "Thou hast given me delight, O Lord, in all Thou dost." [3] For is there a greater joy than to suffer for Thy Love? The more intense the suffering and the less apparent to human eyes, the more lovingly dost Thou smile upon it, O my God. And even—supposing an impossibility—if Thou wert unaware of it, I would still be happy to suffer, in the hope that by my tears I might perhaps prevent, or make reparation for one single sin against faith.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX
[3] Ps., xci, 5.
MINE is not an unfeeling heart, and it is just because of its capacity to suffer deeply that I desire to offer to Jesus every kind of suffering it can endure.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX
LIFE is full of sacrifices, it is true; but why look for happiness in it? Is it not simply "a night to be passed in a bad Inn" as says our Holy Mother Saint Teresa?
My heart has an ardent thirst for happiness, but well do I see that no creature is capable of allaying this thirst. On the contrary, the more I might drink of the waters of that enchanted spring the more burning would be my thirst.
I know a fountain where they that drink shall yet thirst, [4] but with a thirst most sweet, a thirst one can always satisfy; this fountain is the suffering that is known to Jesus alone! . . .
II LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACRÉ-CŒUR
[4] Cf. Eccles., xxiv, 29.