The Necklace

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  “SHE WAS one of those pretty, charming young ladies, born, as if through an error of destiny, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no hopes, no means of becoming known, appreciated, loved, and married by a man either rich or distinguished; and she allowed herself to marry a petty clerk in the office of the Board of Education. . . .  She had neither frocks nor jewels, nothing. And she loved only those things. She felt that she was made for them. She had such a desire to please, to be sought after, to be clever, and courted.” —THE NECKLACE Guy de Maupassant    France, 1884 (pic by Grok) Read this short story here:  https://americanliterature.com/author/guy-de-maupassant/short-story/the-necklace

Dryness

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“Dry spells are the instrument of God, for your good. Yes, it is true in such times, your five senses have been deprived and all outward progress of outward piety ends. Know this: In such times you are either going to leave off prayer, and perhaps even a large part of your Christian walk, or you will be driven to a comfort which has nothing to do with the outward senses…

There is always a veil that comes to us in relationship to times of dryness; it is a time when we do not know what He is doing. If we always knew what His working was (as He works on our outward man and works in our inward man) we would become very presumptuous. We would imagine we were doing quite well if we always knew what He was doing, would we not? We might even reckon that we had drawn very near to God. Such a conclusion would soon be our undoing.


A dependence upon outward circumstances, everything about your spiritual understanding depending on your outward senses all of this must go by the way. How? By dryness!


“Two Spiritual Experiences. ,” in The Spiritual Guide by Miguel de Molinos (1628-1696)

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