"GIVE us some advice as to how we ought to act concerning our spiritual direction," they said to her.
"With great simplicity and without depending too much on assistance, which may fail you at any moment. You would soon be forced to say with the Spouse in the Canticles: 'The keepers . . . took away my veil from me and wounded me,' it was only 'when I had a little PASSED BY them I found Him whom my soul loveth.' [3] If with detachment you humbly inquire where is your Beloved, the keepers will direct you. Nevertheless, most frequently, you will find Jesus only after you have passed by all creatures. For my part, I have many a time repeated this verse of the Spiritual Canticle of St. John of the Cross:
Send me no more
A messenger
Who cannot tell me what I seek.
All they who serve
Relate a thousand graces of Thee;
And all wound me more and more,
And they leave me dying,
WHILE THEY BABBLE I KNOW NOT WHAT."
Trans. D. Lewis, M. A.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
[3] Cant., v, 7; iii, 4.
[THE BLESSED VIRGIN]
HOW I love the Blessed Virgin! Had I been a Priest, oh! how I should have spoken of her. She is represented as unapproachable, rather ought she to be shown as imitable. She is more Mother than Queen. I have heard it said that all the Saints are eclipsed by her radiant brightness as the sun at rising makes the stars disappear. How strange that seems—a mother eclipsing the glory of her children! I think quite the contrary. I believe that she will immensely increase the splendour of the elect . . . The Virgin Mary! how simple does her life appear to me. . .
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII