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To yield up our cloak means, I think, to renounce our last rights, to consider oneself as the servant, the slave of others. When we have abandoned our mantle it is easier to walk, to run; therefore Jesus adds: "And whosoever will force thee one mile, go with him other two." ssss1

It is not enough that I should give to whosoever may ask of me, I must forestall their desires, and show that I feel much gratified, much honoured in rendering service; and if they take a thing that I use, I must seem as though glad to be relieved of it.

HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX

Matt., v, 40. Matt., v, 41.

IF it is hard to give to whoever asks, it is still harder to let what belongs to us be taken, without asking it back, or rather, I ought to say it seems hard; for the yoke of the Lord is sweet and light: ssss1 when we accept it we feel its sweetness immediately.

HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX

Cf. Matt., xi, 30.

WHEN Charity is deeply rooted in the soul it shows itself exteriorly: there is so gracious a way of refusing what we cannot give, that the refusal pleases as much as the gift.