in the face of God, so that He shall give them no comfort in it.
I am most truly sorry for them, because they serve God at their
own cost; for of those who pray, God Himself defrays the charges,
seeing that for a little trouble He gives sweetness, in order
that, by the help it supplies, they may bear their trials.

13. But because I have much to say hereafter of this sweetness,
which our Lord gives to those who persevere in prayer, [5] I do
not speak of it here; only this will I say: prayer is the door to
those great graces which our Lord bestowed upon me. If this door
be shut, I do not see how He can bestow them; for even if He
entered into a soul to take His delight therein, and to make that
soul also delight in Him, there is no way by which He can do so;
for His will is, that such a soul should be lonely and pure, with
a great desire to receive His graces. If we put many hindrances
in the way, and take no pains whatever to remove them, how can He
come to us, and how can we have any desire that He should show us
His great mercies?

14. I will speak now--for it is very important to understand
it--of the assaults which Satan directs against a soul for the
purpose of taking it, and of the contrivances and compassion
wherewith our Lord labours to convert it to Himself, in order
that men may behold His mercy, and the great good it was for me
that I did not give up prayer and spiritual reading, and that
they may be on their guard against the dangers against which I
was not on my guard myself. And, above all, I implore them for
the love of our Lord, and for the great love with which He goeth
about seeking our conversion to Himself, to beware of the
occasions of sin; for once placed therein, we have no ground to