The Way of the Seven Fold Secret by Lilias Trotter

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branch that has lost its own life to find it in the new life
which flows on till leaves and flowers and fruit appear.
My brother, read the secret once more. Thou must
accept the severance from the past, as complete as that
of the branch that is cut off to be grafted in: that is to
say a turning with true repentance from the old life of
Adam with all its sins and evil desires and vain purposes,
and a confession to God that all has been sin and worthlessness
in the past; for confession to Him is as a knife
that severs. Thus wilt thou find thy refuge and thy
dwelling-place in the Heart of Jesus that was wounded
for thee, and in the Precious Blood that He shed. And
thou must abide in that shelter till it becomes indeed thy
home and all the fibres of thy heart become locked in
together with it, as the grafted branches abide in the
Vine, drawing from it the new life.
Once more you see that the uniting of the spirit of
man to Christ is not necessarily a long and gradual
process, but rather is it one swift and definite act, maintaining
its hold till it becomes a condition. For our God
is the God of miracles, and His miracles are swift in the
inner and spiritual world as in the world of nature. It is
-only when we are left to our own efforts, that we go
wearny.
And you see in the similitude of the new life flowing
from the vine to the branch, the difference between the
life eternal as you have sought it hitherto, and the life
eternal that is revealed in the Gospel; for the life eternal
.according to you is sought as the ultimate goal of the
Road, and the gift of life eternal according to the Gospel
is bestowed at its beginning. All the rest of our time
down here, if we are fairhful to our calling, is the unfolding
of the Divine life that began in union with God.