"If you wish, you can"
O my Lord, how you are the true friend; and how powerful! When you desire you can love, and you never stop loving those who love you! All things praise you, Lord of the world! Oh, who will cry out for you, to tell everyone how faithful you are to your friends! All things fail; you, Lord of all, never fail!
Little it is, that which you allow the one who loves you to suffer! O my Lord! How delicately and smoothly and delightfully you treat them! Would that no one ever pause to love anyone but you! It seems, Lord, you try with rigor the person who loves you so that in extreme trial he might understand the greatest extreme of your love. O my God, who has the understanding, the learning, and the new words with which to extol your works as my soul understands them? All fails me, my Lord; but if you do not abandon me, I will not fail you...
I already have experience of the gain that comes from the way you rescue the one who trusts in you alone. While in [a] great affliction ... these words alone were enough to take it away and bring me complete quiet: "Do not fear, daughter; for I am, and I will not abandon you; do not fear"... And behold, by these words alone, I was given calm together with fortitude, courage, security, quietude and light, so that in one moment I saw my soul transformed.
Our Lady to Saint Mechtilde