found all science and all knowledge in an infinite degree.

In a word, God is a Being infinitely great, infinitely incomprehensible in His existence and His perfections. He alone can comprehend Himself.

In regard to the second when God is pleased to elevate a soul, He communicates Himself to it, He makes it participate in His holiness, His wisdom, His might; He illuminates it with His lights, He fills it with the power of His Spirit, He reveals Himself to it, He transports it and causes it to soar to the very sphere of the Adorable Trinity, and there He pours down upon this soul the fulness of His gifts and graces, causing it to taste a felicity above every felicity.

The soul, seeing itself loaded with the boundless benefits of the Most High, receives them with sentiments of the profoundest gratitude, but, knowing its weakness and its wretchedness, and fearing to make an ill use of the gifts of God, it casts them into the Bosom of the Divinity, to whom it attributes them, proclaiming thereby that it regards God as its beginning and its end, proclaiming, above all, that it believes itself incapable of everything, and abandons itself entirely to God. Thus disengaged and detached from everything, the soul loses itself in the Bosom of God and reposes in Him; but in this season of Divine benedictions and favours it does not forget what it is, and in its highest exaltation it preserves the sentiment of its baseness and nothing

ness.

In regard to the third when the soul is in sin, it finds itself plunged into a deep abyss. There it is encompassed with darkness and is the victim of its enemies, the demons, who hold it captive by the chains

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of its passions. This soul, in itself so beautiful and so noble, is through its sin in a state of blackness and of foulness which renders it hideous in the eyes of God, of angels, and of saints. It is separated from God, and estranged from Him by an infinite distance. Nevertheless, God, who is ever merciful, does not wish to abandon this soul notwithstanding its sins. He sends it rays of light and graces that it may know its state and groan over its iniquities. He makes it feel its misery in having lost His friendship. He shows it how good He has been to it, with what mercy and patience He still treats it, and how desirous He is of restoring it to His friendship. He neglects nothing, He employs every means, until He succeeds in winning that soul.

The soul cannot of itself emerge from its abyss, break its chains, and attain to God, but it lifts its eyes towards Him and breathes forth its supplications to Him. God draws near to that soul, He gives it the grace of repentance, which breaks its bonds asunder and enables it to emerge from the abyss. Then He clothes it with the white robe of innocence and purity, by the forgiveness of the sins of which it accuses itself to the minister of the Saviour Jesus.

The soul, however, is still on the borders of the abyss which it has just quitted. There the devil and the passions deal it rude assaults, in order, if possible, to enchain it anew. It encounters a thousand obstacles, a thousand hindrances, which prevent its advancing on the road of virtue; at every step it must enter on a new conflict, and gain a new victory. Happily God is not wanting to it; He upholds it, He sustains its courage, and little by little it flies from the abyss and walks with more facility towards Heaven.

In conclusion: I beheld the disproportion there is between God and man. In God all is infinite; in man all is limited. God is sufficient to Himself, He has need of no one, He is His own glory, His own felicity; He is, He has been, He will be from everlasting to everlasting. The world did not exist, man was not created, the angels did not people the Heavens, yet God needed nothing for His eternal happiness, for He was infinitely good, infinitely great, infinitely perfect.

But man did not make himself; he is the work of God. He had a beginning, he will have an end; he holds all from God, and however exalted a man may be in grace, in merit, in perfection, he is nothing compared with God. It is impossible to comprehend the difference there is between them. However profound may be the knowledge of man, it is limited, very limited; the knowledge of God has no limits, it is infinite. Who, then, can sufficiently abase himself before Thee, O my God, who art so holy, so perfect, so powerful, so incomprehensible !

Receive, Monsieur le Curé, the homage of my deepest veneration and respect.

Your very humble servant,

MIMBASTE, 30th August, 1843.

MARIE.

LETTER XVII.

Of entrance on the way of perfection, and progress

MONSIEUR LE CURÉ,

therein.

You have asked me whether the Saviour Jesus ever spoke to me on any occasion of a soul's

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entrance on the way of perfection, and its advanceHere are the lights which the Saviour

ment therein.

has been pleased to give me on this subject :

"When a soul is in the state of grace and desires to enter on the way of perfection and to advance therein, it humbles itself profoundly before God. It acknowledges that of itself it is nothing but sin, that it is impossible for it to do good, and that it has a permanent and continual need of Divine assistance. By these sentiments of humility it draws God near to it. God, in truth, never resists the humble. He inspires that soul with confidence, He gives it courage and firmness, He attracts it to Himself, He breathes into it by degrees the fire of a charity which increases more and more. This charity makes that soul desire God alone, seek God alone, will the possession of God alone, disengage itself from everything that is not God, forget everything in God, in order to occupy itself with God alone. Its eyes become, as it were, closed to the light of day; it has eyes and sees not, because it desires to look at all things only with the eyes of its soul. The light which it seeks is not that of the sun, but that of grace, which is the light of God enlightening souls.

"Thus that soul raises itself above the things of earth, above itself, and God pours down upon it so many more graces as He sees it is empty of creatures and of itself. Thus that soul stifles the sentiments of nature, masters its passions, and quenches them, renounces the light of the flesh in order to follow that of the Spirit of God.

"God, seeing it in these admirable dispositions, communicates Himself to it, and gives it a participation in His own perfections. The more it advances on

the road of perfection, the more does the heavenly light increase within it, the more does it understand that there is but one only evil, sin, because sin estranges from God; that there is but one only good, God and His love. How marvellous is the action of God upon that soul! How marvellous the intercourse of God with that soul!

“The soul which knows Him well hates, detests, flies from nothing so much as sin; it loves, desires, seeks nothing so much as God and the accomplishment of His will. It abandons itself wholly to God, with its troubles, its afflictions, its joys, and its happiness; it keeps its eyes fixed on God, and walks by the impulse of grace towards perfection, as a boat moves towards the shore by aid of the breeze which carries it onward.

“It may abandon itself to God, that skilful mariner who knows all the perils, all the dangers, all the storms of the sea of this world. He will avoid them, and steer it securely to the haven of salvation. Sometimes He will appear to slumber; tempests will arise, depths will seem to open, ready to engulf that soul, but it is not the soul itself which conducts that bark, it is not the soul which directs it; it is God who commands the raging winds and stays them by His word. That soul is in safety, and its security reposes on the confidence which it places in the Saviour."

Receive, Monsieur le Curé, the homage of my most profound respect, and the assurance of my entire obedience to all your directions.

Your very humble servant,

MIMBASTE, 10th September, 1843.

MARIE.