I know the state of your soul very well, and I seem to see it always before me with its little emotions of sadness, surprise, and disquiet—emotions which continue to trouble it, because it has not yet cast deep enough the foundations of love of the cross and abjection.
335.
No, my dear daughter, it is not necessary to the practice of virtues to be continually mindful of all of them; that would only embarrass your thoughts and your affections. Humility and charity are the mother cords to which all the others are attached: one is the highest, the other the lowest. The safety of a whole edifice depends upon the foundation and the roof. These are the mother virtues, which the others follow as little chickens do the mother hen.
336.
I have just spoken of you with our Lord, but I dare not absolutely ask for your deliverance; for if it please Him to flay the victim, it is not for me to desire that He should not; but I implore Him to hold you by the hand as He has always done.
337.
God be praised! Live, Jesus! We must bear our cross; whoever bears it best, is through it made the stronger.
338.
There never was a saint who did not experience both ecstasy and rapture in life and its operations by overcoming himself and his natural inclinations.