to fall out, that our Lord will give me any
persons without giving them wherewith to make me suffer, whether it be
for the purpose of drawing them into a spiritual life, or never to
leave me without the cross. She was one on whom the Lord had conferred
very singular graces. She was in high reputation in the country, where
she passed for a saint. Our Lord brought her to me, to let her see the
difference between the sanctity conceived and comprised in those gifts,
with which she was endowed, and that which is obtained by our entire
destruction, even by the loss of those very gifts, and of all that
raised us in the esteem of men. Our Lord had given her the same
dependence on me, as I had in regard to Father La Combe.

This girl fell grievously sick. I was willing to give her all the
assistance in my power, but I found I had nothing to do but to command
her bodily sickness, or the disposition of her mind; all that I said
was done. It was then that I learned what it was to command by the
Word, and to obey by the Word. It was Jesus Christ in me equally
commanding and obeying.

She, however, continued sick for sometime. One day, after dinner, I was
moved to say to her, "Rise and be no longer sick." She arose and was
cured. The nuns were very much astonished. They knew nothing of what
had passed, but saw her walking, who in the morning had appeared to be
in the last extremity. They attributed her disorder to a vivid
imagination.

I have at sundry times experienced, and felt in myself, how much God
respects the freedom of man, even demands his free concurrence; for
when I said, "Be healed," or, "Be free from your troubles," if such
persons acquiesced, the Word was efficacious, and they were healed. If
they doubted, or resisted, though under fair pretexts, saying, "I shall
be healed when it pleases God, I will not be healed till He wills it;"
or, in the way of despair, "I cannot be healed; I will not quit my
condition," then the Word had no effect. I felt in myself that the
divine virtue retired in me. I experienced what our Lord said, when the
woman afflicted with the issue of blood touched him. He instantly
asked, "Who touched me?" The apostles said, "Master, the multitude
throng thee, and press thee; and sayest thou, Who touched me?" He
replied, "It is because virtue hath gone out of me" (Luke 8:45, 46).
Jesus Christ had caused that healing virtue to flow, through me, by
means of His Word. When that virtue met not with a c