er heart by the Holy Spirit. The next morning when she told the old
Franciscan of the effect of his words, he was much astonished.

"These words," she observes, "brought into my heart what I had been
seeking so many years; or rather they made me discover what was there,
but what I had not been enjoying for want of knowing it. O my Lord, Thou
wast in my heart, and didst require of me only a simple turning inward
to make me perceive Thy presence. O Infinite Goodness, Thou wast so
near, and I went running hither and thither in search of Thee, and did
not find Thee. My life was wretched, yet my happiness lay there within
me. I was poor in the midst of riches, and I was dying of hunger close
by a table spread and a continual feast. O Beauty, ancient and new, why
have I known Thee so late? Alas! I sought Thee where Thou wast not, and
did not seek Thee where Thou wast. It was for want of understanding
these words of Thy Gospel, where Thou sayest, 'The kingdom of God is not
here or there; but the kingdom of God is within you.'" [1]

[Footnote 1: _La Vie_, premiere partie, ch. viii., 7.]

There can be no doubt that her heart now realised something of the great
fundamental truth that "God is Love." She had been trying to propitiate
Him, as a Being of awful majesty and purity, by good works, strict
conduct, severe penances. Now she saw at a glance the mistakes of her
former conceptions of the Divine Being, and all her faculties drank in
the grand verity of the boundless love of God.

Her own account of this vital change is as follows: "I told this good
father that I did not know what he had done to me; that my heart was
totally changed; that God was there, and I had no more difficulty in
finding Him; for from that moment was given me an experience of His
presence in my soul; not by mere thought or intellectual application,
but as a thing which one really possesses in a very sweet manner. I
experienced these words of the spouse in the Canticles: 'Thy name is as
ointment poured forth: therefore do the virgins love thee.' For I felt
in my soul an unction which like a healing balm cured in a moment all my
wounds, and which even spread itself so powerfully over my senses that I
could scarcely open my mouth or my eyes. That night I could not sleep at
all, because Thy love, O my God, was for me not only as a delicious oil,
but also as a devouring fire, which kindled in my soul such a flame as
threatened to consume all in an instant. I