_ 68 _ Him I am stronger, a bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me: he shall abide between my breasts. So that you will not be frightened by the trials described in this letter that I suffer, a weak soldier of Christ, all this is little in comparison with what I desire, because of the consolations that the Lord gives in compensation for such sufferings, very different from those of Coimbra. There, trials are a distraction for the spirit of the imperfect, and here greater trials bring greater contemplation because you have nothing on which to rely save God. You are so persecuted by the world, with honour and with dishonour: they adore you, and they crucify you. The devil gives you no time to find remedies in parchments. In the college, you feel most devotion in tears, and besides those you feel very sad, which lessens devotion, but here we have consolation in thirst: in a desert land, pathless and waterless, I appeared. Oh brethren, prepare large travelling-bags of virtues ready for such a time, because you will find yourselves very naked without them. The first one and the foundation: extreme humility, self-knowledge, obedience, poverty and chastity, and great love. These are what reign in India. Humility is the knowledge of God which
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