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SPIRITUAL DRYNESS (ARIDITY)

 

There is a difference between possess­ing the presence of God and having the feeling of His presence. (Spiritual Conferences, 9)

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If God has stripped you of the sense of His presence, it is in order that even His presence may no longer occupy your heart, but Himself. (Letters to Persons in Religion, III 5)

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One single act done with dryness of spirit is worth more than many done with sensible devotion. (Spiritual Conferences, 7)

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He is always the same God, as worthy to be served in dryness as in consolation. (Spiritual Conferences, 3)

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There is a great difference between being occupied with God who gives us the contentment, and being busied with the contentment which God gives us. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 10)

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It is the supreme point of holy religion to be content with naked, dry, insensible acts, exercised by the superior will alone. (Letters to Persons in Religion, II 8)

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Look at the bees upon the thyme; they find there a very bitter juice, but in suck­ing it, they convert it into honey. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part I, Chapter 2)

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What does it matter whether God speaks to us amid thorns or amid flowers? (Letters to Persons in the World, VI 13)

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How long must we be like adolescents who like candy and cakes better than real nourishing food? (The Spirit of St. François de Sales, III, 9)

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It is far better to eat bread without sugar than sugar without bread. (The Spirit of St. François de Sales, XV, 1)

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Of all the efforts of perfect love, that which is made by acquiescence of spirit in spiritual dryness is the purest and noblest. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 3)

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The love that desires to walk to God's will through consolations walks ever in fear of taking the wrong path; but the love that strikes straight through dryness toward the will of God walks in assurance. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 2)

God's shadow is more healthful than His sun. (Letters to Persons in Religion, II 21)

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I do not say that we may not entertain wishes for deliverance from spiritual dryness, but I do say that we must not set our hearts upon it. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part IV, Chapter  4)

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God only abases us to lift us up. (Letters to Persons in Religion, II 7)

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When all fails us, when our spiritual pains have come to their extremity, this word, this disposition — O Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit — can never fail us. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 12)

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Do you think our Lady was less the Mother of our Lord when, overwhelmed with affliction, she breathed out that word, Yes, my Son, because so it has pleased Thee — than when with exalted voice she sang her Magnificat? (Letters to Persons in Religion, III 23)

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You must choose: is it better that there should be thorns in your garden in order to have roses, or that there should be no roses in order to have no thorns? (Letters to Persons in Religion, III 15)

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