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286 ness with which we approach such exercises, chaining the spirit, and dragging it this way or that, thus dictating to God as to the way we would be led, and forcing it to go on the path of our own devising; thinking more of doing our own will in this than the Will of our Lord, which is nothing else than to seek God by flying from God, and to desire to content Him without doing His Will. If you really desire to make way on this path, and to reach the desired end, you must have no other aim or desire but to find God; and wherever He is pleased to manifest Himself to you, leave all else, and go no further as long as He wills to detain you, forgetting all things for the time, and reposing in your Lord. And when it pleases His Divine Majesty to retire and to manifest Himself no longer, then you may return to the path of your meditation, and seek Him by continuing it, having ever the same purpose and desire before you—to find by these means Him Whom you love; and having found Him, do as we have said, leave all else, with the consciousness that His desire is fulfilled.

This advice demands your attentive consideration; for many spiritual persons lose the fruits and the peace of their meditations by wearying themselves in them, imagining they have done nothing, unless every point has been