7. Who can look upon our Lord, covered with wounds, and bowed down under persecutions, without accepting, loving, and longing for them? Who can behold but a part of that glory which He will give to those who serve Him without confessing that all he may do, and all he may suffer, are altogether as nothing, when we may hope for such a reward? Who can look at the torments of lost souls without acknowledging the torments of this life to be joyous delights in comparison, and confessing how much they owe to our Lord in having saved them so often from the place of torments? [9] But as, by the help of God, I shall speak more at large of certain things, I wish now to go on with the story of my life. Our Lord grant that I have been clear enough in what I have hitherto said! I feel assured that he will understand me who has had experience herein, and that he will see I have partially succeeded; but as to him who has had no such experience, I should not be surprised if he regarded it all as folly. It is enough for him that it is I who say it, in order to be free from blame; neither will I blame any one who shall so speak of it. Our Lord grant that I may never fail to do His will! Amen. 1. Ch. xxv. § 26. 2. Ch. xv. § 6. 3. Ch. xxxiii.; the foundation of the house of St. Joseph. 4. Ch. xxv. § 23. 5. The Bollandists, n. 185, attribute some of the severity with which her confessor treated the Saint to the spirit of desolation with which he was then tried himself; and, in proof of it, refer to the account which F. Baltasar Alvarez gave of his own prayer to the General of the Society. 6. See Relation, vii. § 7. 7. St. John of the Cross, Mount Carmel, bk. ii. ch. 22, § 14. 8. The visions of the Saint began in 1558 (De la Fuente) or, according to Father Bouix, in 1559. 9. St. Luke xvi. 28: "Ne et ipsi veniant in hunc locum tormentorum." Chapter XXVII. The Saint Prays to Be Directed by a Different Way. Intellectual Visions. 1. I now resume the story of my life. I was in great pain and distress; and many prayers, as I said, [1] were made on my behalf, that our Lord would lead me by another and a safer way; for this, they told me, was so suspicious. The truth is, that though I was praying to God for this, and wished I had a desire for another way, yet, when I saw the progress I was making, I was unable really to desire a change,--though I always prayed for it,--excepting on those occasions when I was extremely cast down by what people said to me, and by the fears with which they filled me.