nly
in that spirit what fruits would they bring forth in the lives of the
hearers! With my true children I could communicate best in silence, in
the spiritual language of the divine Word. I had the consolation some
time before to hear one read in St. Augustine a conversation he had
with his mother. He complains of the necessity of returning from that
heavenly language to words. I sometimes said, "Oh, my Love, give me
hearts large enough to receive and contain the fulness bestowed on me."

After this manner, when the Holy Virgin approached Elizabeth, a
wonderful commerce was maintained between Jesus Christ and St. John the
Baptist, who after this manifested no eagerness to come to see Christ,
but was drawn to retire into the desert, to receive the like
communications with the greatest plenitude. When he came forth to
preach repentance, he said, not that he was the Word, but only a Voice
which was sent to make way, or open a passage into the hearts of the
people for Christ the Word. He baptized only with water, for that was
his function; for, as the water in running off leaves nothing, so does
the Voice when it is past. But the Word baptized with the Holy Ghost,
because He imprinted Himself on souls, and communicated with them by
that Holy Spirit. It is not observed that Jesus Christ said anything
during the whole obscure part of His life, though it is true that not
any of His words shall be lost. Oh Love, if all thou hast said and
operated in silence were to be written, I think the whole world could
not contain the books that should be written. John 21:25.

All that I experienced was shown me in the Holy Scripture. I saw with
admiration that there passed nothing within my soul which was not in
Jesus Christ and in the Holy Scriptures. I must pass over very many
things in silence, because they cannot be expressed. If they were
expressed they could not be understood or comprehended.

I often felt much for Father La Combe, who was not yet fixed in his
state of interior death, but often rose and fell into alternatives. I
was made sensible that Father La Combe was a vessel of election, whom
God had chosen to carry His name among the Gentiles, and that He would
show him how much he must suffer for that name. A carnal world judges
carnally of them, and imputes to human attachment what is from the
purest grace. If this union by any deviation be broken, the more pure
and perfect it is, the more painfully will it be felt; the sep