XCI 

I AM very glad that your retreat has been so satisfactory, 
and that God gives you so much inward as well as 
outward peace. I pray that He Who has begun this 
good work in you may fulfil it to the day of the coming 
of Christ. It only needs now that you should make use 
of these peaceful days to grow in recollection. You 
ought to sing with your whole heart the Amen and 
Alleluia which re-echo in the Heavenly Jerusalem, this 
is a token of continual acquiescence in God's Will, and 
unreserved sacrifice of yours to His. At the same time 
you should hearken inwardly to God, with a heart free 
from all the flattering prejudices of self-love, so that you 
may faithfully receive His Light as to the veriest trifles 
which need correction. Directly that He points these 
out, we must yield without argument or excuse, and give 
up whatever touches the jealous love of the Bridegroom 
without reserve. Those who yield in this manner to the 
Spirit of Grace will see imperfection in their purest 
deeds, and an inexhaustible fund of refined evil in their 
hearts. All this leads them in self-abhorrence to cry out 
that God Alone is good. They strive to correct them- 
selves calmly and simply, but continuously, stedfastly, 
and that all the more because their heart is undivided 
and peaceful They reckon on nothing as of them- 
selves, and hope only in God ; they give way neither to 
self-delusion nor laxity. They know that God never fails 
us, though we so often fail Him. They yield them- 
selves wholly to grace, and above all things dread any re- 
sistance thereof. They blame themselves without being 
discouraged, they bear with themselves while striving to 
amend.