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THE CORONATION 479
acknowledge benefits only when sweetened by caresses.
As soon as adversity or labor is to be encountered for the
sake of God, they at once give way to discontent, sorrow,
discouragement and impatience, by which they frustrate
the designs of the Lord and make themselves incapable
of perfection in virtue.
554. All this arises from a deficiency of prudence,
knowledge and true love, which prevents these souls from
looking to their own and their neighbor s advance. For
they look to themselves, rather than to God; and are
governed more by selflove, than divine love and charity.
Tacitly they are guilty of great presumption, since they
attempt to direct God s will and even to reprehend it, pro
fessing their readiness for great labors in his service un
der such and such conditions and their inability under
other conditions. They are unwilling to risk their credit
and their comfort, even for the common good and for
the glory of God. They think that, as they do not openly
proclaim their refusal, they do not make themselves guilty
of this temerity ; yet it is the devil, who conceals it from
them, in order that they may incur guilt.
555. In order that thou, my daughter, mayest not fall
into this monstrous sin, thou shouldst discreetly ponder
what I give thee to understand and record, and how
much I desire thee to imitate me. I could not fall into
such sins, yet in continual watchfulness I prayed to the
to his
Lord to govern me in all my actions according
will and pleasure only, and I
gave myself no liberty of
doing anything that was not according to his greater
pleasure. Hence I sought for myself the forgetfulness
and the retirement from all creatures. Thou art subject
to sin, and thou knowest how many snares the dragon,
by himself and through the creatures, has laid in order
to lead thee into it: hence thou hast good reason for
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