What can I say to you on the return of your miseries, save that as the enemy returns we must resume our arms and bring back our courage, in order to fight more valiantly than ever?
290.
Beware of yielding to any kind of distrust, for the heavenly goodness does not permit you to fall in order to abandon you, but to humble you, and teach you to keep a firmer and closer hold of the hand of his mercy.
291.
What happiness to serve God in the desert without manna, without water, with no consolation save that of being under his guidance, and suffering for Him!
292.
When you meet with some contradiction, take your resolutions and place them in the wounds of our Lord, and pray Him to preserve them and you with them; then wait in these blessed retreats until the tempest has past.
293.
The throes and pangs of spiritual birth are painful to nature; our souls must give birth not exteriorly, but interiorly to the sweetest, the most pleasing, the most beautiful child that could be desired. It is the good Jesus whom we must form within ourselves. Courage! we must suffer much that He may be born in us.