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"At her creation the soul received all the means of attaining
perfection of which her nature was capable, in order that she
might conform to the will of God and keep herself from contracting
any stain; but being directly contaminated by original sin she
loses her gifts and graces and even her life. Nor can she be
regenerated save by the help of God, for even after baptism her
inclination to evil remains, which, if she does not resist it,
disposes and leads her to mortal sin, through which she dies anew.
"God again restores her by a further special grace; yet, she is
still so sullied and so bent on herself, that to restore her to
her primitive innocence, all those divine operations which I have
described are needful, and without them she could never be
restored. When the soul has reentered the path which leads to her
first estate, she is inflamed with so burning a desire to be
transformed into God, that in it she finds her purgatory. Not,
indeed, that she regards her purgatory as being such, but this
desire, so fiery and so powerfully repressed, becomes her
purgatory.
"This final act of love accomplishes its work alone, finding the
soul with so many hidden imperfections, that the mere sight of
them, were it presented to her, would drive her to despair. This
last operation, however, consumes them all, and when they are
destroyed God makes them known to the soul to make her understand
the divine action by which her purity was restored."
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