Imitation of Christ

Esto purus, et liber intus, sine alicujus creaturæ implicamento. Oportet te esse nudum, et purum cor ad Jesum gerere, si vis vacare, et videre, quam suavis est Dominus. Et revera ad hoc non pervenies, nisi gratia ejus fueris præventus, et introtractus, ut omnibus evacuatis et licentiatis, solus cum Deo uniaris. Quando enim gratia Dei venit ad hominem, tunc potens sit ad omnia. Et quando recedit, tunc pauper et infirmus erit, et quasi tantum ad flagella relictus. In his non debes dejici, nec desperare, sed ad voluntatem Dei æquanimiter stare, et cuncta supervenientia tibi ad laudem Jesu Christi perpeti. Quia post hiemem sequitur aestas, post nectem redit dies, et post tempestatem serenitas magna. 

Be pure and free within yourself, and be not entangled by any created thing. You ought to bring a bare and clean heart to God, if you desire to be ready to see how gracious the Lord is. And in truth, unless you be prevented and drawn on by His grace, you will not attain to this, that having cast out and dismissed all else, you alone are united to God. For when the grace of God comes to a man, then he becomes able to do all things, and when it departs then he will be poor and weak and given up unto troubles. In these you are not to be cast down nor to despair, but to rest with calm mind on the will of God, and to bear all things which come upon you to the praise of Jesus Christ; for after winter comes summer, after night returns the day, after the tempest a great calm.

Imitation of Christ, II, 8:5