"Now this is how I want you to act. Why? Because this is how people act who are in love with God. They don’t evade the troubles they encounter, whether from the devil or because of obedience. No, the more they find to suffer, the happier they are… For they know that the more their love and will are bound here below, the more generous they are, and the more closely they are bound to Christ.

"You may say to me, ‘What can I do when I experience such darkness and blindness of spirit that there doesn’t seem to be a thread of light by which I can hang on to hope?’ … Answer the devil’s discouragement by saying, ‘If divine grace were not in me, I would have no good will but would be following your tricks and my own evil thoughts. But I trust in our Lord, Jesus Christ, who will keep me safe right up to the end of my life.’

"I want you to open the eye of your reason and you will see that knowledge precisely through all the darkness and all the devils’ annoyances. And we grow in zeal and in love for God because we see that without God there is no defending ourselves. And we discover God in ourselves by discovering our good and holy will.

"So we have seen how we find God in time of darkness, how in bitter things we find sweetness, and it is only through the impassioned, consummate love we conceive and continually discover in their baptism of the blood and of the fire that is the Holy Spirit."

-- Saint Catherine of Siena (from last month’s Magnificat)