1. "My Son, if you set your peace on any person because you have a high opinion of him, and are familiar with him, you shall be unstable and entangled. But if you betake yourself to the ever-living and abiding Truth, the desertion or death of a friend shall not make you sad. In Me ought the love of your friend to subsist, and for My sake is every one to be loved, whosoever he be, who appears to you good, and is very dear to you in this life. Without Me friendship has no strength or endurance, neither is that love true and pure, which I unite not. You ought to be so dead to such affections of beloved friends, that as far as it in you lies, you would rather choose to be without any companionship of men. The nearer a man approaches to God, the further he recedes from all earthly solace. The deeper also he descends into himself, and the viler he appears in his own eyes, the higher he ascends towards God.
2. "But he who attributes anything good to himself, hinders the grace of God from coming to him, because the grace of the Holy Ghost ever seeks the humble heart. If you could make yourself utterly nothing, and empty yourself of the love of every creature, then should it be My part to overflow unto you with great grace. When you set your eyes upon creatures, the face of the Creator is withdrawn from you. Learn in all things to conquer yourself for your Creator's sake, then shall you be able to attain unto divine knowledge. How small soever anything be, if it be loved and regarded inordinately, it holds us back from the highest good, and corrupts."
IMAGE: Mattia Preti, St. Paul the Hermit (c. 1675)
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