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you will thank Me affectionately, and will be grateful to those
people who give you the occasion to suffer, repaying them

with some benefit. By doing this, you will walk as upright
before Me; nothing will ever again give you restlessness, and
you will always enjoy peace.”

After I tried to exercise myself in these things for some
Time now doing it and now falling (although I see clearly

that I still lack this spirit of uprightness, and I am ever more
confounded, thinking of such great ingratitude of mine) He
spoke to me about, and made me understand, the necessity of
the spirit of mortification. (Although I remember that, in all

these things that He told me, He always added that everything
should be done for love of Him, and that the most beautiful
virtues, the greatest sacrifices, would render themselves

insipid if they did not take origin from love. “Charity,” He
said to me, “is a virtue that gives life and splendour to all others,
in such a way that, without it, they are all dead. My eye
receives no attraction, and they have no power over My Heart.

Be attentive, then, and let your works, even the least ones, be
invested by charity that is, in Me, with Me and for Me”).

So, let’s go back to mortification. “I want,” He said to
me, “that all your things, even the necessary ones, be done in
a spirit of sacrifice. See, your works cannot be recognized by
Me as Mine, if they do not have the imprint of mortification.

Just as a coin is not recognized by the peoples if it does not

carry on itself the image of their king even more, it is
despised and neglected the same with your works: if they
do not have the graft with My Cross, they cannot have any
value. See, now it is not about destroying the creatures, but

yourself making you die in order to live only in Me and of
My own Life. It is true that it will cost you more than what
you have done; but pluck up courage, do not fear it is not

you who will do it, but I Myself will operate in you.”
So I received more lights about the annihilation of myself.
He said to me: “You are nothing but a shadow as you try to

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