Page 7 - APPENDIX

God’s pure love for us! Oh, how great it is! ... He loves
us even though we are most unworthy, mean and ungrateful
creatures, nor does He seek His own advantage in loving us:
On the contrary, in return for His love he receives endless
ingratitude from us. Is that not a most pure and disinterested
love of our Supreme Good? ... Pure love in a soul is known
from its affections, that is, from the uninterrupted practice of
virtues; but as it is easy to practice virtue in times of
sweetness and external consolation, one cannot be sure if
there is pure love at such times.
But let times of dryness come, times of abandonment,
boredom, fear and hesitation, and infirmities of every sort;
pains and sorrows, persecution, scorn and disgrace, being
forsaken by everyone even in dire need, when soul is beset by
countless temptations from the devil, and hell bursts out in all
its fury: it is in such circumstances that you can tell if there is
pure love in the soul.

If the person bears everything in silence, and with a truly
heroic fidelity embraces all pain and contempt, even craving
more of it, and with a magnanimous heart faces the powers of
hell out of love for the Supreme Good and keeps for God a
superhuman fidelity: one can rightly say that such a generous
soul is permeated through and through with pure love.

The person herself may not be conscious of it; in fact, she
feels as cold as ice, but to such a person one might say with
all truth: “Rejoice, blessed soul, because you are God’s own
beloved Bride. He finds his delight in you”. However, a true,

- 749 -