o a state of entire recollection,
and began to treat with our Lord in a way, when I think of it, of too
great familiarity. But it was love that spake, and every one allows love
great familiarity, and no one so much as our Lord. My soul overlooked
the distance between herself and her Lord. She forgot herself, as she so
often does, and began to talk impertinences and to take too great
freedoms. I entreated our Lord with many tears. I judged my friend to
be already a good man, but I must have him much better, and I said so too
freely, I fear. 'O Lord,' I remember I said,' Thou must not deny me this
favour that I ask. This is a man for us to make a friend of.' And far
more than that. And He did it. Yes, He did it. O His immense bounty
and goodness! He regards not the words but the affection with which the
words are uttered. That must be so, when He endures with such an
impertinent and over-familiar and irreverent wretch as I am; endures and
answers. May He be blessed to all eternity!

(10) _The Best Result of Prayer_.--To Father Gratian. To-day I received
three letters from your Reverence by the way of the head-post. The whole
matter is in a nut-shell. That prayer is the most acceptable which
leaves the best results. Results, I mean, in actions. That is true
prayer. Not certain gusts of softness and feeling, and nothing more. For
myself, I wish no other prayer but that which improves me in virtue. I
would fain live more nearly as I pray. I count that to be a good prayer
which leaves me more humble, even if it is still with great temptations,
tribulations, and aridities. For it must never be thought that because a
man has much suffering, therefore he cannot have prayed acceptably. His
suffering is as incense set forth before God. Tell my daughters that
they must work and suffer as well as pray, and that it is the best prayer
that has with it the most work and the most suffering.

(11) _A Bishop taught to Pray_.--To Don Alonzo Velasquez, Bishop of Osma.
Your Reverence enjoined me the other day to recommend you to God. I have
done so: not regarding my own inconsiderableness, but your requisition
and your rights. And I promise myself from your goodness that you will
take in good part what I feel compelled to say to you, and will accept
that which proceeds only from my obedience to you. Recognising, then,
and representing to our Lord, the great favours He has done you in having
bestowed upon you humi