grace, among others, did His Majesty bestow on me, that ever
since my first Communion never in confession have I failed to
confess anything I thought to be a sin, though it might be only a
venial sin. But I think that undoubtedly my salvation was in
great peril, if I had died at that time--partly because my
confessors were so unlearned, and partly because I was so very
wicked. It is certainly true that when I think of it, and
consider how our Lord seems to have raised me up from the dead, I
am so filled with wonder, that I almost tremble with fear. [11]

21. And now, O my soul, it were well for thee to look that danger
in the face from which our Lord delivered thee; and if thou dost
not cease to offend Him out of love thou shouldst do so out of
fear. He might have slain thee a thousand times, and in a far
more perilous state. I believe I exaggerate nothing if I say a
thousand times again, though he may rebuke me who has commanded
me to restrain myself in recounting my sins; and they are glossed
over enough. I pray him, for the love of God, not to suppress one
of my faults, because herein shines forth the magnificence of
God, as well as His long-suffering towards souls. May He be
blessed for evermore, and destroy me utterly, rather than let me
cease to love Him any more!


1. Ch. iv. section 6. The person to whom she was taken was a
woman famous for certain cures she had wrought, but whose skill
proved worse than useless to the Saint (Reforma,
lib. i. ch. xi. section 2).

2. Schram, Theolog. Mystic., section 483. "Magni doctores