confessor may not permit you (the Sisters of St. Joseph's) to
read it, I will put here some things concerning prayer which are
conformable to what I have said there, as well as some other
things which appear to me to be necessary." [30] Again: "As all
this is better explained in the book which I say I have written,
there is no need for me to speak of it with so much detail.
I have said there all I know. Those of you who have been led by
God to this degree of contemplation (and I say that some have
been led so far), should procure the book because it is important
for you, after I am dead." [31] At the end she writes: "Since
the Lord has taught you the way and has inspired me as to what I
should put in the book which I say has been written, how they
should behave who have arrived at this fountain of living water
and what the soul feels there, and how God satiates her and makes
her lose the thirst for things of this world and causes her to
grow in things pertaining to the service of God; that book,
therefore, will be of great help for those who have arrived at
this state, and will give them much light. Procure it.
For Father Domingo Banez, presentado of the Order of St. Dominic
who, as I say, is my confessor, and to whom I shall give this,
has it: if he judges that you should see this, and gives it to
you, he will also give you the other." [32] While the first and
second of these quotations may be found, somewhat weakened, in
the final version of the "Way of Perfection," the last one is
entirely omitted. Nor need this surprise us, for Father Banez
had his own ideas about the advisability of the publication of
the "Life." In his deposition, already referred to, he says: "It
was not convenient that this book should become public during her
lifetime, but rather that it should be kept at the Holy Office
(the Inquisition) until we knew the end of this person; it was