Jesus be in your soul, my daughter in Christ.
Thank you for your letter. And I thank God for having desired to use you in this foundation [in Córdoba], since His Majesty has done this in order to bring you greater profit. The more he wants to give, the more he makes us desire — even to the point of leaving us empty in order to fill us with goods. You will be repaid for the goods (the love of your sisters) that you leave behind in Sevilla.
Since the immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart, the Lord wants you to be alone. For he truly loves you with the desire of being himself all your company. And Your Reverence will have to strive carefully to be content only with his companionship, so you might discover in it every happiness.
Even though the soul may be in heaven, it will not be happy if it does not conform its will to this. And we will be unhappy with God, even though he is always present with us, if our heart is not alone, but attached to something else. […]
Best regards to Sister María de la Visitación, and thank Sister Juana de San Gabriel for her greetings. May God give Your Reverence his Spirit.
From Segovia, July 8, 1589
Fray John of the Cross
Saint John of the Cross
Letter 15 to Madre Leonor de San Gabriel
John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Carmelite Quotes 
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