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Saint John of the Cross wrote, in The Ascent of Mount Carmel: "Would that I could persuade spiritual persons that the way of God consisteth not in the multiplicity of meditations, ways of devotion or sweetness, though these may be necessary for beginners, but in one necessary thing only, in knowing how to deny themselves in earnest, inwardly and outwardly, giving themselves up to suffer for Christ's sake, and annihilating themselves utterly. He who shall exercise himself herein, will find all this and much more. And if he be deficient at all in this exercise, which is the sum and root of all virtue, all he may do will be but beating the air--utterly profitless, notwithstanding great meditations and communications."

-- Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 2 : Phases of Mystical Development > # 73