God Alone

"...Remain in a holy, peaceful fear of yourself, abandoning yourself more and more in your absolute nothingness and allow this nothing to disappear in the Infinite All that is the Supreme God; remaining stripped and naked of every gift, in true poverty of soul, without looking at gifts, but at the Sovereign Giver, with a deep detachment from everything created, from every gift and consolation, living in pure faith in God alone and returning every gift to the divine font from which they flow, without attaching yourself to anything sensible, but reposing in pure and naked faith on the bosom of God and receiving from the Highest Good with indifference whatever he grants, without looking at the gift, but using the gift of grace to lose yourself more in the depth of the Divinity in Jesus Christ our Lord. With highest fidelity remain alone in your interior temple in order to be reborn at every moment to a more godlike life in the Divine Word, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Read this part of this letter, and reread it. Even more, practice it..." ~Paul of the Cross to Thomas Fossi  (151st letter on October 6, 1768 in Vol. 3 on Page 447)

"...fixing their hearts on God alone, desiring only to love God, and to think only of Him, are brought into such great temptations by the Evil One, that a man in the world would be terrified thereby. Temptation is common to all these men; and yet in each case the origin is very different..." ~Johannes Tauler Inner Way Sermon 14 Page 71

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Thirst

"...I recommend that you stay always more in the sacred, interior desert in a true solitude of faith and love in sacred silence. Feed yourself on Jesus, drink his Precious Blood, relieve your thirst from the chalice of Jesus. But the more you drink, the more you will thirst. If you become inebriated, and I would really wish that much, then, indeed, sleep, for this divine inebriation makes one sleep. When you are sleeping this divine sleep in Jesus Christ, you will learn more than all the wise men of the world when awake and studying their sciences..." ~Paul of the Cross to Lucy Burlini  (2nd letter on August 9, 1749 in Vol. 2 on Page 179)

"...thirst for the Cross; and, with love and fervent longings, they bend beneath the Cross of their beloved Lord. Here the Holy Cross is exalted indeed on the sacred Day of the Cross. The sufferings and the example of our Lord are followed here with true dignity. St Paul, who was exalted even unto the third heaven, said: “God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Job said: “My soul rather chooseth hanging, and my bones death.”23 This he chose as the best that God had given him. This hanging on the Cross is pain to most men, because their God hung on the Cross for their sakes, therefore God ordains that man should experience horrible darkness, and be forsaken in his great misery. How can the power of love, which was kindled by the flame of love, sustain itself when thus cut off from all consolation in such a perceptible way?..." ~Johannes Tauler Inner Way Sermon 14 Page 74

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Cross

"...We must be born and revived there again by love for this Cross. Words cannot describe the merits of the Cross. Our Lord said: “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things unto Me.” By this He signifies that He wishes to draw to Himself our worldly hearts, and our love for and gratification in worldly things, which we had gladly possessed in the creature, and our haughty minds, which were well satisfied with ourselves, and with our worldly-mindedness and love, in the temporal gratification of our senses. All this He will draw unto Himself, that He may be thus exalted, and that He may become great in us and in our hearts; for to the man to whom God has ever been great, all creatures seem small, and fleeting pleasures are as nothing..." ~Johannes Tauler Inner Way Sermon 20 Page 96

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