Oh, if you had once come into that wine-cellar, out of doubt you would even with a certain thirstiness, more earnestly desire to be there and more often. But no man can enter into it, saving such as desire Me above all things, love Me above all things, esteem Me above all things, and make account of Me as All in all. For he that finds no other consolation but in Me, and not only that, but he that desires affliction so much in this world that he takes himself to be wronged, when I send him any consolation at all, and does as willingly accept it at My Hands, when I leave his soul barren without any comfort, as when I replenish it with My consolation, to whom all joy without Me is a torment, having his mind wholly fixed upon Me, and his desire only bent to serve Me. Such men as these are, I say, My special friends, at whole door do I freely knock, and willingly enter; these are the men to whom I gladly offer myself, and impart my secrets. These men I am wont to visit in sundry days, as seems fitting in My judgment, by stirring them up in such a manner as is agreeable for the devotion and love which they bear Me.Sometimes I present Myself to the eyes of their souls, wounded, naked, and tormented in all My members, and that they may find greater comfort in the love they bear Me, I show them My Wounds, to the end that they may touch them, bathe them, cleanse them, kiss them, and embrace them. And although their devotion in this behalf may seem ridiculous to worldly men, because they don’t know what it means, yet it is most acceptable to Me, and most profitable to them. For then I begin to forget all the pains which I have suffered, and also all the faults which such a spouse of Mine has committed against Me, and do wholly bend Myself to comfort her with My Spirit, and to lighten her with My grace.
~ Alloquia Iesu Christi ad Animam Fidelem, by Lanspergius ~
