WHEN we really love, we rejoice in the happiness of the loved one and make every sacrifice to procure it for him. COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES TRUE love is nourished by sacrifice, and the more the soul denies itself natural satisfactions, the stronger and the more disinterested becomes its tenderness. COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES THE good God does not need years to accomplish His work of love in a soul; one ray from His Heart can, in an instant, make His flower bloom for eternity. . . VI LETTER TO HER SISTER CÉLINE LOVE can supply for length of years. Jesus, because He is Eternal, regards not the time but only the love. V LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS I DESIRE no sensible consolation in loving; provided Jesus feel my love that is enough for me. Oh! to love Him and to make Him loved . . . how sweet it is. . . V LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS O JESUS, I ask of Thee only Peace! . . . Peace, and above all LOVE--love without bound or limit. Jesus, let me for Thy sake die a martyr; give me martyrdom of soul or body. Ah! rather give me both the one and the other! HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII I HAVE no longer any desire unless it be to love Jesus even to folly! Yes, LOVE it is that draws me. I can say these words of the canticle of our Father, St. John of the Cross: In the inmost cellar Of my Beloved have I drunk; and when I went forth Over all the plain I knew nothing, And lost the flock I followed before. My soul is occupied And all my substance in His service; Now I guard no flock, Nor have I any other employment: My sole occupation is love. (_Spiritual Canticle, Trans. D. Lewis._) HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII OH! if souls weak and imperfect as mine, felt what I feel, not one would despair of reaching the summit of the mountain of Love, since Jesus does not demand from us great deeds, but only self-surrender and gratitude. _I have no need,_ saith He, _of the goats of thy flocks . . . If I were hungry I would not tell thee . . . Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving._ [3] See then, all that Jesus asks of us! He has not need of our works but only of our _love_. This very God who declares that He needs not to tell us if He were hungry, did not hesitate to _beg_ of the Samaritan woman a little water . . . He thirsted!!! But in saying: "_Give me to drink_," [4] it was the love of His poor creature that the Creator of the universe besought. He thirsted for Love! And now, more than ever is Jesus athirst. He meets with none but the ungrateful and the indifferent among the disciples of the world; and amongst _His own_ disciples He finds, alas! very few hearts that surrender themselves without any reserve to the tenderness of His infinite Love. HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI [3] _Cf._ Ps. xlix, 9, 12, 14. [4] John, iv, 7.