Do not measure yourself by others, who may not be led as you are. God
chooses to enrich some souls with brilliant gifts, but he has chosen
you, stripped of all, in the depths of spiritual poverty. This is the
perfect self-renouncement, without which, one cannot be the disciple of
the Lord Jesus. All other states, however elevated they may be, are
inferior to this pure, naked state of the soul. It is a state, which
despoils the lover of all he possesses in favor of his Beloved. It is
a state in which the soul is shielded from all inroads of the enemy;
who can reach only what remains of self in the creature, and not what
is enclosed in God.
God has chosen you for himself alone. You are the sanctuary, which is
open only to the high priest, in which is contained the ark of the
covenant--the essential, will of God--the sacred place, encompassed by
the clouds, where the glory of God appears. Oh! blessed poverty of
spirit, in which state the soul is enriched with the best gifts a God
can bestow!
Measure not your advancement by relation to the road passed over, but
by rapport to the end. There yet remains a great road to pass over,
since God himself is the way.
The more fully you enter into his designs, the more I love you.