The Dialogue

How the servants of God are deceived who go on loving God in the aforesaid way.

" BUT My servants, who are still in the imperfect love, seek and love Me because of the affection they have towards the consolation and delight they find in Me, and because I am the Rewarder of every good which is done, great or small, according to the measure of the love of him who receives the reward. For this reason I give mental consolation during the time of prayer, sometimes in one way and sometimes in another. I do not this in order that the soul ignorantly receive the consolation, that is, that she regard more the consolation than Me Who give it, but in order that she may regard the affection of My charity with which I give it, and the unworthiness with which she receives it, more than the delight of her own consolation. But if, ignorantly, she takes hold of the delight alone, without regarding My affection, she will receive damage from it and fall into snares of which I will tell thee ; one being that, deceived by her own consolation, she seeks this consolation and therein delights herself, and moreover, having at some former time experienced the consolation of My visitation in one way or another, she will endeavour to go back by the way which she has come, in order again to experience the same consolation. But I do not grant the consolation of My visitations in one way alone, which would appear as if I had but one way in which to do so, but I grant it in diverse ways, according as pleases My goodness, and according to the need and the necessity of the soul. But the soul, in her ignorance, will, nevertheless, seek My con solations in that way alone which she has experienced, thereby, as it were, imposing laws on the Holy Spirit.

A TREATISE OF PRAYER 145

She should not do so, but should pass on manfully by the doctrine of Christ crucified, receiving what it pleases My Goodness to give her, and in the manner, time and place that I choose. And if, nevertheless, I give not, it is through love and not through hatred, and that she may seek and love Me in truth, and not for her own delight, receiving My charity with humility. If she still goes on delighting in her own way and not in mine, when the object upon which she has fixed the eye of her intellect and in which alone she delights is taken from her, she will experience pain and intolerable confusion.

" Such as these, of whom I have spoken, desire to choose their own consolations in their own way, and so to go through life, and their ignorance is at times so great that, having imagined a particular consolation, and I, visiting them in any way except that of their imagination, they will resist Me and will not receive Me. A soul who would act thus is deceived by her own pleasure and spiritual delight, for it would be impossible to remain always in one state. She must either go forward to the virtues or turn right backwards. And neither could the mind remain stationary in the enjoyment of one delight alone without My Goodness increasing that delight. Many are the kinds of delights that I give to the soul — sometimes the delight of a mental joyousness, sometimes of contrition and displeasure of self, and, at times, I may be in the soul and she will not feel Me ; or I may form My Will, that is, My Incarnate Word, before the eye of the intellect, and it will not seem to her that she experiences that heat and delight in the sentiment of her soul at such a vision. At other times she will feel without any mental vision the greatest delight. These various methods I use through love to preserve her and to increase, in her, humility and perseverance, and to show her that she need place no rules for me, nor seek her end in consolation, but only in virtue founded in Me, and to teach her with humility to receive what I choose to give her in My own time and manner, and to believe, with lively faith, that I give her what I give, either for her own salvation or to bring her to great perfection.

146 THE DIALOGUE OF ST. CATHERINE

" She should then remain humble, making her beginning and end to be in My charity, and taking delight in this charity alone, according to My will and not according to hers. The only way not to be deceived is to receive everything through love of Me, being rooted and grounded in My sweet Will."