HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VIII
“Pray for me,” she would often say, “when I implore Heaven to come to my aid, then it is that I feel most forsaken.”
“And in this desolation how do you avoid discouragement?” they asked her.
“I turn to the good God, to all the Saints, and I thank them just the same. I think they wish to see to what point I shall carry my trust.... But not in vain have these words of Job sunk into my heart: ‘Though He should kill me yet will I trust in Him.’[70] I acknowledge it was long before I reached this degree of abandonment; our Lord has taken me and placed me there!”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
It seems to me that nothing now hinders me from taking flight, for I no longer have any great desires, save to love, even unto dying of love. I am free, I have no fear, not even of what I most dreaded; I mean the fear of being a long time ill and consequently a burthen to the Community. If it gives pleasure to the good God I willingly consent to see my life of suffering, both of soul and body, prolonged for years. Oh! no, I do not fear a long life. I do not shun the combat. “The Lord is the rock upon which I am founded. Who teacheth my hands to fight and my fingers to war; He is my protector in whom I have hoped.”[71] Never have I asked God to let me die young; it is true I have ever believed that it would be so, but without seeking to obtain it.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. IX
Whatever the good God has given me has always pleased me, even the gifts which have appeared to me less good and less beautiful than those received by others.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
I have no greater desire to die than to live; if our Lord gave me the choice I would choose nothing; I only will what He wills; it is what He does that I love.