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ET, then, very high value on your soul, since the Father of fathers, and Lord of lords, has created it for His own abode and temple. Esteem it so highly, as never to suffer it to be degraded nor to incline to any other object. Let your desires and your hopes be ever directed towards the coming of your Lord, Who will not visit your soul unless it remains in solitude. Do not suppose, that in the presence of others He will open His lips, unless it be with words of reproach and abandonment. He wills that the soul shall be alone, having put aside, as far as may be, its own thoughts, its own desires, and, what is much more to the purpose, its own will. Yet you ought not to impose penances indiscreetly on yourself, nor go in quest of opportunities of suffering for the love of God, simply under the guidance of your own will; but only with the advice of your spiritual father, and of those who are over you, and who, under God, have the rule over you, for He, using them as His instruments, disposes your will to do whatever He wills, and in the way that He wills. You are not to do your own