f the trials that
beset the spiritual life. But during the time that the vision lasted,
sometimes for days, or a little previous to that time, his soul was
violently agitated by a thought that brought him no little uneasiness.
There flashed upon his mind the idea of the difficulty that attended
the kind of life he had begun, and he felt as if he heard some one
whispering to him, "How can you keep up for seventy years of your life
these practices which you have begun?" Knowing that this thought was a
temptation of the evil one, he expelled it by this answer: "Can you,
wretched one, promise me one hour of life?" In this manner he overcame
the temptation, and his soul was restored to peace. This was his first
trial besides what has already been narrated, and it came upon him
suddenly one day as he was entering the church. He was accustomed to
hear Mass daily, and to assist at Vespers and Compline--devotions from
which he derived much consolation. During Mass, he always read over
the history of the Passion, and his soul was filled with a joyful
feeling of uninterrupted calm.

Shortly after the temptation just spoken of, he began to experience
great changes in his soul. At one time he was deprived of all
consolation, so that he found no pleasure in vocal prayer, in hearing
Mass, or in any spiritual exercise. At another, on the contrary, he
suddenly felt as if all sorrow and desolation were taken from him,
experiencing the relief of one from whose shoulders a heavy cloak had
suddenly been lifted. On noticing all this, he was surprised,
wondering what could be the import of these changes which he had never
before experienced, and he said to himself, "What new kind of life is
this upon which I am entering?"

At this time he became acquainted with some holy persons who
manifested great confidence in him, and gladly conversed with him; for
though he had, as yet, little knowledge of spiritual things, still he
spoke with great fervor on religious subjects, and incited his
hearers to make greater progress in the way of God's service. Among
those holy persons who dwelt at Manresa, there was one lady well
advanced in years who had long been given to the service of God, and
who was so well known in many places in Spain that his Catholic
Majesty, the King of Spain, had desired her presence on one occasion
in order to take counsel with her about certain projects that he had
in his mind. This lady, speaking one day to our new soldier of