If it seems to you that God has given you some virtue, consider it an undeserved gift that can be taken away from you again, as is often the case due to special divine providence.
Have you never experienced this, sisters? I have!
Sometimes it seemed to me that I do not cling to anything, and when I was tested, I proved that it was really true. At other times, however, I felt that I clung to something so much that I hardly recognized myself, and it even concerned things I had mocked the day before. (…)
Similarly, sometimes it seemed to me that I did not notice the slander and grumbling against me: and at times I also managed it, so I reveled in it. However, on other days, one single word was enough for me to fall into such torment that I longed to die, for everything seemed to me exhausting.
And I do not experience these transformations alone… I know that it is so.
(Terezie od Ježíše, Cesta k dokonalosti XXXVIII,5)
