“O my God, must Thy Love--disdained--remain within Thy Heart? Methinks that if Thou shouldst find souls offering themselves as victims of holocaust to Thy Love, Thou wouldst consume them rapidly; that Thou wouldst be glad not to restrict the flames of infinite tenderness pent up within Thee. “If Thy Justice--the Justice which Thou dost exercise on earth--be pleased to find voluntary victims on which to discharge its weight, how much the more must Thy Merciful Love also desire _its_ victims, since _Thy Mercy reacheth even to heaven_.[6] “O Jesus, that happily I may be that holocaust consume Thy little victim in the fire of Divine Love.” HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VIII Ah! since that day love penetrates me and surrounds me; this _Merciful Love_ each moment renews and purifies me, leaving in my heart no trace of sin. No, I cannot fear Purgatory; I know that I do not merit even to enter with the Holy Souls into that place of expiation, but I know too that the fire of Love is more sanctifying than the fire of Purgatory, I know that Jesus cannot will needless suffering for us, and that He would not inspire me with the desires I feel if He were unwilling to fulfil them. HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VIII To offer oneself as a Victim to Divine Love is not to offer oneself to sweetness--to consolation; but to every anguish, every bitterness, for Love lives only by sacrifice; and the more a soul wills to be surrendered to Love, the more must she be surrendered to suffering. HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII In order to love Jesus, to be His victim of love, the more weak and miserable we are, the more fitting are we for the operations of this consuming and transforming Love.... The sole desire to be victim suffices; but we must consent to remain always poor and without strength, and there lies the difficulty, for _where shall be found the truly poor in spirit_? _He must be sought afar off_,[7] saith the author of the _Imitation_.... He did not say that we must seek him amongst great souls, but afar off, that is to say in lowliness, in nothingness.... Oh! let us keep _afar off_ from all that glitters, let us love our littleness, and be satisfied to feel nothing, then shall we be truly poor in spirit, and Jesus will come to seek us how far soever we may be; He will transform us into flames of Love!... VI LETTER TO SŒUR MARIE DU SACRÉ-CŒUR (_Her sister Marie._) To be truly a Victim of Love requires absolute self-surrender. _The soul is consumed by Love only in so far as she surrenders herself to Love._ COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES