Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved.

All the powers of soul and body,memory, understanding, and will, interior and exterior senses, thedesires of spirit and of sense, all workin and by love.

Would that men might come at last to see that it is quite impossible to reach the thicket of the riches and wisdom of God except by first entering the thicket of much suffering, in such a way that the soul finds there its consolation and desire. The soul that longs for divine wisdom chooses first, and in truth, to enter the thicket of the cross.

Beloved, all that is harsh and difficult I want for myself, and all that is gentle and sweet for thee.

To love is to be transformed into what we love. To love God is therefore to be transformed into God.

The road is narrow. He who wishes to travel it more easily must cast off all things and use the cross as his cane. In other words, he must be truly resolved to suffer willingly for the love of God in all things.

The purest suffering bears and carries in its train the purest understanding.