this fire makes one and like unto itself all that it can overtop and
transform. Unity gives a man the feeling of being concentrated with
all his faculties on one point. It gives internal peace and repose
of heart. Unity of heart is a bond which draws and binds together
the body and the soul, and all exterior and interior forces, in the
unity of love.

HOW THE VIRTUES PROCEED FROM UNITY

FROM this unity of heart is born inwardness or the internal life,
for none can have inwardness unless he is one and united in himself;
fervour or inwardness is the introversion of a man into his own
heart, to comprehend and experience the internal operation or speech
of God. Inwardness is a sensible flame of love, which the Spirit of
God lights and kindles in a man, and a man knows not whence it
comes, nor what has happened to him.

ON SENSIBLE LOVE

FROM inwardness is born a sensible love which penetrates the heart
of man and the highest faculties of the soul. This love and delight
none can experience who has not inwardness. Sensible love is the
desire and appetite for God as for an eternal good in which all is
contained. Sensible love renounces all the creatures, not as needs
but as pleasures. Interior love feels itself touched from above by
the eternal love which it must practise eternally Interior love
willingly renounces and despises everything, in order to obtain that
which it loves.

ON DEVOTION