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56 order that you, bearing it out of love for Him, may be the more purified, and may be brought near and united to Him.

And, realising how greatly it pleases Him that you should suffer this, turn to yourself and say, "Ah, why so reluctant to bear this cross, which is laid upon you not by this or that person, but by your Father in Heaven?" Then turn to the cross, embrace it with the fullest resignation and joy, and say, "O cross, formed by Divine Providence before I was born! O cross, sweetened for me by the sweet love of my Crucified One—nail me now to thee, that I may give myself to Him Who, dying upon thee, hath redeemed me!"

And if, at the onset, the passion so prevail over you, that you cannot lift up your heart to God, but remain wounded, strive even then to do as at the beginning, and to fight as if you had not received a wound.

The most effectual remedy, however, against these sudden impulses, is to cut out without delay the cause from which they spring.

Thus, if you find out that your affection for any thing is so great, that, whenever it is presented to you, you fall into a sudden agitation of mind, the best precaution for the future lies in the habitual effort to uproot the affection.

But if the agitation is caused not by a thing,