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Louis Davidson

Practical Graph Structures in SQL

Server and Azure SQL
Enabling Deeper Insights Using Highly Connected
Data
Louis Davidson
Cleveland, TN, USA

ISBN 978-1-4842-9458-1 e-ISBN 978-1-4842-9459-8

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9459-8

© Louis Davidson 2023

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively
licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is
concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in
any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks,

service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the
absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the
relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general
use.

The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the
advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate
at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Apress imprint is published by the registered company APress

Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY
10004, U.S.A.
To Val, what a life we have had so far… here’s to more of it.
Preface
I started working on my first book 23 years ago. It was on relational
database design. I had learned a little about graphs at that point from a
class I took by Dr. David Rozenshtein (his 1997 book The Essence of SQL
: A Guide to Learning Most of SQL in the Least Amount of Time was
essential). His class was very influential and taught me a lot about how
to think about SQL problems. This was a really long time ago (clearly),
but in that same class, one of the sections was on trees in SQL Server. I
was hooked on the subject.
In my 2012 edition of my database design book, I started to include
hierarchies as one of the topics. In my latest book, that came out after
SQL Server 2019 arrived, I promised a book of SQL Graph. This book in
your hands is the answer to that challenge.
This is my first programming-based book in many years. Usually I
am more interested in helping you shape a design, but in this case, I
want to show you the mechanics of building a graph database solution
using SQL Server and leave it more to you to decide what to do with it
from there. Part of this is due to the newness and relative complexity of
the topic, but also because graphs are meant to be very flexible
structures…way more flexible than the standard relational databases.
The chapters of the book are as follows:
Chapter 1: What a graph is and ways graphs can be used. I touch on
some of the underpinnings of what makes a graph a graph and a taste
of the theory that mathematicians use to describe and work with
graph data structures.
Chapter 2: How graphs are implemented and the algorithms that are
used to process them. While the basic structure of the graph is really
simple, there is some value to understanding how graph structures
are built in coding and having some idea of what you will see in the
rest of the book.
Chapter 3: The syntax that Microsoft has implemented for use with
graph data stored in SQL Server tables is similar to what you
probably already know from working with relational tables, but it is
so much more. In this chapter, I teach you how to use the syntax
provided by Microsoft to query graph tables in interesting ways.
 Chapter 4: Whereas in Chapter 3 I showed basic query techniques, in
this chapter I show methods that can help you load and protect the
integrity of the data in your SQL Graph tables.
Chapter 5: A tree structure built using SQL Graph objects, including
code to load and manipulate those nodes in ways that you will need
when building production systems. In this chapter, you explore the
code to create and manage a tree in SQL Server, along with an
example of how it all works.
Chapter 6: In this chapter, I dig into performance. You’ll examine a
new method of implementing a tree for comparison to the SQL Graph
objects and build some objects you can use to write queries to report
on data in your trees that operate faster. You will then build some
large, random data sets and compare how these methods perform
with certain larger sized data sets.
Chapter 7: The goal of this chapter is to build a data structure that
can show some of the concerns with working with directed graphs
that are not trees. You will build a fairly simple bill of materials data
structure to demonstrate the techniques you will need when you are
working with these structures, which are similar to trees but still
quite different.
Chapter 8: In this chapter, you will do some querying of larger data
sets in SQL Server’s graph objects. To do this, you will implement a
graph structure and data generation tools to try on large sets of data
to match your expected needs. Finally, you will explore a set of
performance tips for handling graph objects.
SQL Server’s relational engine may never be acceptable as a
complete replacement for a specific graph database system like
CosmosDB, but even in its relative infancy with just a few iterations
complete in the SQL Server lifecycle, it has become a nice way to extend
your data structures inside existing relational data structures quickly
and easily.
You can find the downloads in the book in two locations. First, on
Apress’s website you will find the original code for this book and any
errata that is reported:
https://github.com/Apress/practical-graph-
structures. Second, at
https://github.com/drsqlgithub/GraphBook1 you will find
that code plus any new code and projects I create that pertain to
learning graphs until I start working on a second edition of this book
someday.
If you have any direct questions about the content, send email to
[email protected] and I will do what I can.
Any source code or other supplementary material referenced by the
author in this book is available to readers on GitHub
(https://github.com/Apress). For more detailed information, please
visit www.apress.com/source-code.
Acknowledgments
My wife, for suffering through yet another long and painful book
writing process.
The Microsoft MVP Program for all the connections it has provided
me to meet wonderful, bizarrely smart people for 18 years. And my
lead, Rie Merritt, for all she has done for me through the years; amazing
how we met so many years ago. Just meeting Bob Ward and Conor
Cunningham is thrill enough, and there have been hundreds besides
them.
Shreya Verma and Arvind Shyamsundar for their help over the past
few years as I attempted to do crazy things with the graph objects on
my local personal computer.
Dr. David Rosenstein, who first got me interested in graphs in
relational structures so many years ago. Paul Nielsen for the talks we
had on graph structures.
Kathi Kellenberger for tech editing this book. I appreciate the hard
work!
All the doctors/medical professionals who kept me alive and kicking
these past few years. (If you want to know more, just ask, if you have a
while to talk. There is a reason this book took me over two years to
write.)
My coworkers at CBN whom I left during the writing of this book. I
hope the graph objects I left you with are serving you nicely.
My new coworkers at Redgate. I have been a friend of Redgate (as
well as a member of Friends of Redgate) for many years, writing for
them. My new manager and teammates have been nothing but
awesome.
Amber Davis, for giving me the chance to be a Dollywood Insider.
Obviously being a Dollywood insider has little to do with this book, but
I just wanted to say it again (which she may never see!) as I am writing
the acknowledgements in the Dollywood Dreammore lobby. I learned a
lot from her that has been useful writing some of this book and in my
new job at Redgate as Simple-Talk editor.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1:​Introduction to Graphs
Graph Fundamentals
Definition
Summary
Chapter 2:​Data Structures and Algorithms
Basic Implementation
Acyclic Graphs
Trees
Other Acyclic Graphs
Cyclic Graphs
Non-Directed Graphs
Summary
Chapter 3:​SQL Graph Table Basics
Object Creation
Creating Data
Querying Data
Node-to-Node Querying
Traversing Variable Level Paths
Summary
Chapter 4:​SQL Graph Tables:​Extended Topics
Advanced Data Creation Techniques
Building an Interface Layer
Loading Data Using Composable JSON Tags
Heterogenous Queries
Integrity Constraints and Indexes
 Edge Constraint
Uniqueness Constraints (and Indexes)
Additional Constraints
Metadata Roundup
List Graph Objects in the Database
Types of Graph Columns
Tools for Fetching Graph Information
Summary
Chapter 5:​Tree Data Structures
Creating the Data Structures
Base Table Structures
Demo Sales Structure
Essential Tree Maintenance Code
Code To Create New Nodes
Reparenting Nodes
Deleting a Node
Tree Output Code
Returning Part of the Tree
Determining If a Child Node Exists
Aggregating Child Activity at Every Level
Summary
Chapter 6:​Tree Structures, Algorithms, and Performance
Alternative Tree Implementation
Path Technique
Helper Table
Performance Comparison
 Summary
Chapter 7:​Other Directed Acyclic Graphs
The Problem Set
The Example
Determining If a Part Is Used in a Build
Picking Items for a Build
Printing Out the Parts List for a Build
Summary
Chapter 8:​A Graph For Testing
The Example
Creating the Tables
Loading the Data
The Queries
Performance Tuning Results
Performance Tuning Roundup
Test
Index the Internal Columns
Employ a Maximum Degree of Parallelism of One
Consider Breaking Up Some Queries
The End (or Is It the Beginning?​)
Index
About the Author
Louis Davidson
has been working with databases for
more than 25 years as a corporate
database developer and architect. He is
now the editor for the Redgate Simple
Talk website. He has been a Microsoft
MVP for 18 years. In addition to this
book on graphs in SQL Server, he has
written six editions of his general-
purpose SQL Server database design
book (Apress) and has worked on
multiple other book projects over the
years.
Louis has been active in speaking about database design and
implementation at many conferences over the past 25 years, including
SQL PASS, SQL Rally, SQL Saturday events, CA World, Music City Data,
and the devLink Technical Conference. He has a bachelor’s degree in
computer science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. For
more information, please visit his website at drsql.org.
About the Technical Reviewer
Kathi Kellenberger
is a Customer Success Engineer at
Redgate and a Data Platform MVP. She
has worked with SQL Server since 1998
and has authored, co-authored, or tech
reviewed over 20 technical books. Kathi
is a longtime volunteer at LaunchCode in
St. Louis where she has taught T-SQL in
the LaunchCode Women + program.
When Kathi isn’t working, she enjoys
spending time with family and friends,
cycling, singing, and climbing the stairs
of tall buildings.
Random documents with unrelated
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 99.
Self-love may be mortified in us, but it never dies; from time to
time it sends forth shoots which prove that, though cut down to the
root, it is never completely destroyed.

100.
Self-love never leaves us. It sleeps sometimes like a fox, then
suddenly springs upon the chickens. We must therefore be
constantly watchful of it, and patiently defend ourselves against it.

101.
Let us keep firm hold of the merciful hand of our good God, for He
wishes to draw us after Him.

102.
Live wholly according to the Spirit, live quietly in peace, have
perfect confidence that God will help you.

103.
Be careful to purify your heart more and more each day. Now, this
purity consists in weighing everything in the scales of the sanctuary,
which are only the will of God.
 104.
Let us be what we are, and be that well, in order that we may
honour the Master Workman who has made us. Though we were the
most excellent creatures under heaven, what would it avail us if we
were not pleasing to the will of God?

105.
We must always and in all things live peaceably.

106.
I approve of your making an act of humility every day, humbling
yourself to an inferior, performing some menial office in the house.

107.
It is not possible that you should so soon be mistress of your soul,
or that you should control it so absolutely at first.

108.
Dispose your soul to tranquillity in the morning, and be careful
during the day to recall it frequently to that state, and to keep your
soul within your control.

109.
 Do not be terrified if you are guilty of some little impatience; do
not let it trouble you, but when you recognise it quietly humble
yourself before God.

110.
Try to preserve a sweet tranquillity of mind; say to your soul:
“Courage! we have made a false step, but let us keep steadily on
and keep watch over ourselves.”

111.
Make no account of the judgments of men.

112.
Be silent concerning all things, and you will have interior peace,
because for you and me the only secret of acquiring this peace is to
endure to the utmost the judgments of men.

113.
Consider for whom you labour, and those who strive to trouble you
shall labour in vain.

114.
 Among beggars, those whose sores are the most terrible consider
themselves the most fortunate, for they excite more compassion and
receive more abundant alms. We are only beggars, and the most
miserable among us are the most fortunate, for these God looks
upon with greater compassion.

115.
Be glad that men make no account of you.

116.
Consider how all the vexations of the past have vanished; those of
the future shall vanish in the same way.

117.
The great point of humility is to see, to honour, to serve, and
converse fittingly with those whom we dislike, keeping ourselves
humble, gentle, and submissive to them, for remember that the
humiliations which are the least visible are the keenest.

118.
Let our Lord turn us to the left or to the right, and send us in a
hundred directions. He never abandons us but to get closer
possession of us; He never leaves us but to guard us better; He
never struggles with us but to enter our souls and bless us.
 119.
Courage! Let us keep on in the low valleys of the small and
humble virtues. I love these three little virtues: gentleness of heart,
firmness of mind, and simplicity of life.

120.
I recommend to you more than anything else the exercise of holy
gentleness and sweetness in all the events of this life.

121.
Accustom yourself in all that you do to act and speak gently and
quietly, and you will see that in three or four years you will
completely control that abrupt impulsiveness.

122.
He who can preserve peace in the midst of the confusion and
complexity of business, and sweetness in the midst of suffering, is
almost perfect.

123.
I recommend to you great evenness of temper, sweetness and
gentleness of heart; for these virtues, like the oil of a lamp, maintain
the flame of good example; for there is nothing more edifying to our
neighbour than charitable kindliness.
 124.
When shall we be wholly imbued with sweetness and gentleness
towards our neighbour? You needed only that; your zeal was good,
but it had this fault; it was a little bitter, over-urgent, and captious.

125.
Raise your eyes to heaven, and among the mortals now immortal
there you will not find one who attained eternal happiness but
through continual afflictions and trouble.

126.
Let us humble ourselves profoundly, and acknowledge that if God
be not our shield and armour, we shall be pierced through and
through with every kind of sin.

127.
I desire that you should be extremely lowly and humble in your
own eyes, condescending and gentle as a dove.

128.
Do not be quick to speak; say much by a modest and judicious
silence.
 129.
Behold God in all things without exception, acquiescing in all his
commands with great simplicity.

130.
Say frequently, in the midst of your contradictions and sufferings:
This is the path to heaven; I behold the gate, and I am sure that the
storms will not prevent my reaching it.

131.
Take no trouble on account of what the world thinks of you;
despise its good opinion and its contempt, and let it say what it will
of good or evil.

132.
Do not think that our Lord is further from you in the midst of
turmoil.... It is not tranquillity which brings Him to our hearts, but
the fidelity of our love.

133.
From day to day withdraw your heart from all kinds of amusement
and vanity, ... from all that turns you from a blessed eternity.
 134.
I desire to love God or die; death or love, for life without love is
worse than death.

135.
O God! it is towards Thee that I am sailing.... We reach the port
through all storms, provided we have an upright heart, a good
intention, firm courage, our eyes fixed upon God, and all our
confidence in Him.

136.
Do not be vexed at the annoyances which come from the
complexity of business; believe me, true virtue is not nourished in
exterior repose any more than good fish in stagnant water.

137.
Keep your hearts well under control, beware of over-anxiety. Place
your confidence in the providence of our Lord. Be fully convinced
that heaven and earth shall pass away rather than that our Lord
shall fail to protect you while you are his obedient daughter, or, at
least, desirous to obey Him.

138.
 Live wholly in our Lord, let Him be the atmosphere in which your
heart breathes at ease.

139.
Give particular attention to the practice of gentleness, study every
pulsation of your heart, and if it be not gentle, make it so before all
things.

140.
I desire that upon all occasions during the day you should
interiorly recollect yourself in God, addressing Him a few words of
fidelity and love.

141.
Believe me, God loves souls shaken by storms, provided they
receive all from his hands and valiantly strive to remain faithful in
the midst of combats.

142.
One of the best penances and satisfactions which a heart guilty of
some fault can offer is to endure a continual cross and abnegation of
its self-love.

143.
 It gives me an incomparable pleasure to think of the great honour
it is for a soul to speak heart to heart with its God—that great,
sovereign infinite Being—yes, for what the heart says to God is
known only to God Himself. Is not this a marvellous secret!

144.
When we pray it is well to think that there is no one in the world
but God.

145.
The great secret in prayer is simply to follow the attractions of the
heart. We must go on in good faith and with pure intention to reach
God, to love Him, and unite ourselves to Him. True love has little
method.

146.
You should be so in love with God that even though you can do
nothing in his presence, you should nevertheless be glad to be near
Him, were it only to see Him and look at Him from time to time.

147.
When your heart is distracted in prayer, bring it gently back to the
point from which it has wandered, and lay it tenderly at the feet of
its Master. If you do but this your hour will be well employed.
 148.
If we can speak to our Lord in prayer let us speak to Him, praise
Him, listen to Him. If we cannot speak because we are spiritually
hoarse, let us stay nevertheless and make Him a reverence.

149.
What a happiness it is to be with God, no one knowing what
passes between God and the heart but God Himself and the adoring
heart.

150.
I should like to have a good hammer with which to blunt the
sharpness of your mind, which is too subtle in its ideas of your
advancement. I have often told you that in devotion we must go on
in good faith, acting frankly and promptly. If you do well, praise God;
if ill, humble yourself.

151.
Humble yourself profoundly, and urge on your soul with the love
of Christ crucified, that you may be able to spiritually digest this
heavenly food.

152.
 He who communicates according to the spirit of the Spouse
annihilates himself before God, saying to our Lord: Destroy me,
annihilate me, and convert me into Thee; then it is no longer we
who live, but Jesus Christ, who liveth in us.

153.
When the mother pearl has received the drops of the fresh
morning dew it draws within itself and closes its shell to preserve
them fresh; in like manner, when you have received the Blessed
Sacrament, withdraw into yourself and collect all the faculties of your
soul to adore this sovereign King, and relish by a lively faith the
spiritual refreshment which this Divine Germ produces in your
breast.

154.
Take your rest as much as possible near the heavenly Infant. See
how He receives the breath of that great ox and that ass, which
neither feel his presence nor show it by any movement. Will He not
then receive the inspirations of our poor hearts?

155.
How happy we should be had we only Jesus in our understanding,
only Jesus in our imagination! Jesus would be in us everywhere, and
we everywhere in Jesus.

156.
 We should manage our years, our months, our weeks, our days,
our hours, our moments so well that, being employed for the love of
God, they all may be profitable to us for eternal life.

157.
Shall we not, in future, cease to be the old selves, which shall all,
without exception, be for ever sacrificed unreservedly and
unconditionally to God and his love?

158.
When you encounter things which give you trouble, remember
that the saints cheerfully did greater and more troublesome tasks,
and encourage yourself by their example.

159.
A person who is free from the fever of her own will is satisfied
with everything, provided God be served. She is indifferent to the
nature of the service which God chooses to give her.

160.
Frequently say to our Lord: What wilt Thou that I do? Is it Thy will
that I should serve Thee in the most lowly duties of the house?
Provided I serve Thee, I care not what the service may be.
 161.
Love this good God in your retreats, in Holy Communion, and
when He consoles you; love Him particularly in the midst of trouble
and confusion, in aridity, contradictions, and tribulations; for it was
thus He loved you in the midst of the scourging, the nails, the
thorns, the darkness of Calvary.

162.
The monastery is a hospital of spiritual sick who desire to be
cured, and to this end submit themselves to the knife, to the lancet,
to be burned, to be bled, and to all kinds of bitter remedies. O my
very dear daughter, firmly resolve that you will submit to all this, and
pay no attention to what self-love may urge to the contrary, but
sweetly, amiably, and lovingly take the blessed resolution: to die or
to be cured.

163.
Must you be disquieted and troubled because of difficulties? Oh,
by no means. It is the devil who is ferreting and spying about your
mind, to see if he cannot find some door open to him.

164.
You are right not to care what is said of you; you who belong to
God should not think of reputation. Let God dispose of our life, our
reputation, and our honour as He pleases, since they are all his. If
our humiliations be his glory, are we not glorified?
 165.
When you meet with contradictions or afflictions through anyone,
beware of yielding to complaints, but compel your heart to suffer
tranquilly; if some sudden outburst of impatience escape you, bring
your heart back to sweetness and peace.

166.
See, my daughter, we are too fastidious in calling poor a state in
which we endure neither hunger, nor cold, nor ignominy, but merely
some inconvenience in our plans.

167.
Gradually temper the vivacity of your mind to patience, sweetness,
humility, and affability, in the midst of the silliness and imperfections
of your sisters.

168.
Nothing gives us profound tranquillity in this world but to
frequently look upon our Lord in all his sufferings. In comparison
with all that He endured, we shall see that we are wrong to call the
little accidents which we encounter afflictions, and that we do not
need patience for things so trifling, since a little modesty would
suffice to make us bear well all that happens to us.

169.
 We must never answer temptations, nor appear to hear the
enemy. If he is noisy, patience! we must prostrate ourselves before
God and remain at his feet. He will understand that we want his
assistance, though we may not be able to speak.

170.
Believe me, my dear daughter, sweets engender worms in little
children; that is why our Lord mixes bitter with the sweet for us. We
must have a great courage, which on all occasions will resolutely cry,
God be praised! caring little for sweet or bitter, light or darkness. Let
us keep on in this essential love.

171.
God desires that you serve Him without relish or feeling, in the
midst of aversions and afflictions of mind. This service will not give
you satisfaction, but it will content Him; it will not be to your taste
but it will be to his.

172.
God is so good that He will visit your soul interiorly, and
strengthen and establish it in solid humility, simplicity, and
mortification.

173.
 Let us always keep on; however slow our progress we are getting
over a great deal of the road. God wishes that our misery should be
the throne of his mercy.

174.
Keep your heart brave and ready for any service that shall be
imposed upon it; according as you undertake many things for God,
He will second you and work with you.

175.
Have the heart of a child; a will of wax, and a mind free from the
slavery of all affection.

176.
Oh, what a great blessing it is, my daughter, to be pliable and
easily turned to any service. Our Lord has taught us this submission
by his example, as much as by his words.

177.
He who is very attentive to please the heavenly lover has no
leisure for introspection; his mind continually tends whither love
leads him.

178.
 This exercise of the continual abandonment of one’s self to the
hands of God includes in the most excellent manner all other
exercises in their greatest simplicity, purity, and perfection, and while
God leaves us the desire for it we should not change it.

179.
Simplicity is an act of charity pure and simple, which considers
only God. It looks straight at God, and can suffer no mixture of self-
interest nor intermingling of creatures; God alone is its object.

180.
We should bear tenderly with those whom our Lord bears with, we
must bow our heads, and bear ourselves contrary to our habits and
inclinations.

181.
Complain as little as possible of injuries, for it rarely happens that
one complains without sin, since our self-love exaggerates in our
eyes and hearts the wrongs we have received.

182.
Hold the cross of our Lord upon your breast, and as long as you
firmly clasp it in your arms, the enemy will be at your feet.
 183.
Great evenness of temper, continual gentleness and suavity of
heart, are more rare than perfect chastity, yet very desirable.

184.
As regards our perfection, which consists in the union of our soul
with the Divine Goodness, it is only a question of knowing little and
doing much.

185.
We must make up our minds to two things: one is, that we shall
find bad weeds growing in our garden, and the other, that we will
have the courage to uproot them, for our self-love will live as long as
we do, and from it arises all this noxious growth.

186.
We must endeavour to double, not our desires and our exercises,
but the perfection with which we fulfil them, seeking by this means
to gain more by one action than we would by a hundred others done
according to our inclination and affection.

187.
One act performed in dryness of spirit is worth more than several
done in great sensible fervour.
 188.
I say, then, that we must die in order that God may live in us, for
it is impossible to acquire union with God by any other means than
mortification. These words, “We must die,” are hard, but they are
followed by a great sweetness, and this sweetness is union with
God.

189.
Your miseries and infirmities should not astonish you; God has
seen many others, and his mercy does not reject the miserable, but
is exercised in doing them good.

190.
We must do everything through a motive of love, and nothing
through compulsion. Our love for obedience must be greater than
our fear of disobedience.

191.
I leave you liberty of spirit, not that which excludes obedience, but
that which excludes constraint, scruple, or over-eagerness.

192.
Here are the marks of true liberty: 1st. The heart which possesses
this liberty is not attached to consolations, but receives afflictions
with all the sweetness that the flesh admits of. I do not say that it
does not love and desire consolations, but that the heart is not
bound to them.

193.
2nd. Such a heart is in no way attached to spiritual exercises, so
that if sickness or any other accident interferes with them it feels no
regret. I also do not say that it does not love them, but that it is not
attached to them.

194.
3rd. Such a heart rarely loses its joy, for no privation saddens one
whose heart is not bound to anything. I do not say that it never
loses its joy, but that it is only for a short time.

195.
A soul which possesses true liberty will leave his prayer, and with
an amiable countenance and gracious manner greet the importunate
person who disturbs him. For it is the same to him whether he serve
God in meditation or by bearing with his neighbour; they are both
the will of God.

196.
Liberty of spirit has two vices: a spirit of inconstancy and a spirit
of constraint. For example: I resolve to make a meditation every
morning. If I have a spirit of inconstancy I will defer it till evening at
the slightest excuse—for the barking of a dog which has disturbed
my sleep, for a letter to be written, though it is not at all urgent. On
the contrary, if I have a spirit of constraint I will not omit my
meditation, even though a sick person is very much in need of my
services.

197.
Everything tends to the good of those who love God. And, in truth,
since God can draw good from evil, for whom will He do it, if not for
those who have given themselves without reserve to Him? Yes,
everything tends to their profit, even sin. David would never have
been so humble if he had not sinned; nor would Magdalene’s love
for her Saviour have been what it was. Tell me, then, what will He
not do with our afflictions and labours?

198.
If, then, it ever happen that some grief come upon you, assure
your soul that if she love God all things will turn to her good. And
though you may not see the means by which this good shall be
effected, be all the more convinced of it.

199.
It is a very good sign that the enemy rages and beats at your
door: it shows that he has not what he wants. If he had he would
cease to cry out, but would quietly enter and stay with you.
 200.
Courage! As long as we can say, even coldly, God be praised,
there is no reason to fear. And do not tell me that it seems to you
that you say it in a spiritless way, with no strength or courage, but
as if you had to do violence to yourself to utter it. Oh, this is the
blessed violence which taketh heaven!

201.
As long as a temptation is displeasing to you there is nothing to
fear, for why does it displease you if not because you do not wish it?

202.
Moreover, these very importunate temptations come from the
malice of the devil, but the trouble and suffering they cause us come
from the mercy of God. He draws from the malice of his enemy the
holy tribulation by which He refines the gold He desires to place in
his treasury. Despise the temptations and embrace the tribulations.

203.
We must endure our own want of perfection, if we would attain
perfection. I say that we must endure it patiently, but we must not
love or caress it. It is by the endurance of this suffering that humility
is nourished.

204.
 Those who aspire to pure love of God have not so much need of
patience with others as with themselves.

205.
We must confess the truth: we are poor creatures, capable of very
little that is good; but God, who is infinitely good, is content with our
poor labours, and finds acceptable the preparation of our heart.

206.
But what means this preparation of our heart according to the
expression of Holy Writ: “God is greater than our heart, and our
heart is greater than the world?” When our heart, in the solitude of
meditation, prepares the service which it must render God, it effects
marvels. All this preparation, nevertheless, is in no way proportioned
to the grandeur of God, and ordinarily it exceeds our strength, and
becomes too great to be carried out in our exterior actions.

207.
Our minds prepare for God a mortified flesh free from the
rebellion of the senses, prayer free from distraction, a loving heart
free from all bitterness, a humility free from all taint of vanity. All this
is very good, an excellent preparation; but who carries it out? Alas!
when we come to the practise of it, we fall short. Must we on this
account be disquieted, troubled, or afflicted? No, certainly not. Must
we apply ourselves to exciting a multitude of desires to stimulate
ourselves to attain this perfection? By no means.
 208.
I do not say that we must not tend to perfection; but we must not
desire to attain it in a day, that is in a day of this mortal life, for such
a desire would only uselessly disquiet us.

209.
It is not possible, I assure you, to be completely rid of self while
we are on earth. We must always carry self with us, until God carries
us to heaven; and while we carry self, we carry a burden of very
little value.

210.
Solomon tells us that a servant who suddenly becomes mistress is
a very insolent creature. Were a soul to become all at once perfect
mistress of passions which it had long served, I fear it could not but
be vain and proud.

211.
If in our heart there be a single thread of affection which is not for
God, we should instantly tear it out.

212.
I cannot understand how you, a daughter of God, long since
abandoned to the bosom of his mercy and consecrated to his love,
can yield to such immoderate sadness. You should console yourself,
despising all the mournful and melancholy suggestions with which
the devil tries to weary you.

213.
Do not examine yourself so carefully to discover whether you are
in perfection or not; for, should we attain the greatest perfection we
should neither know nor recognise it, but always consider ourselves
imperfect. The end of our examen should never be to discover
whether we are imperfect, for that we should never doubt.

214.
Therefore we should never be astonished at imperfection or let it
sadden us; for we cannot fail to find ourselves imperfect in this life,
and there is no remedy for it save humility, since by this virtue we
shall repair our faults and gradually improve.

215.
It is for the exercise of this virtue that our imperfections are left to
us, since it is inexcusable not to seek to correct them, and excusable
not to succeed perfectly; for it is not with imperfections as it is with
sins.

216.
 If you wish to do well, regard as a temptation every suggestion
concerning change of place; for while your mind is looking beyond
where it should be, it will never apply itself to doing well the duty
which lies before it.

217.
We must not desire all to begin by perfection. It matters little how
one begins, provided he be resolved to go on well, and end well.

218.
I tell you that you will be faithful if you are humble. But will you
be humble? Yes, if you wish it. But I do wish it. Then you are
humble. But I feel that I am not. So much the better; that helps to
make you more so.

219.
You desire that it should always be spring in your soul, but that
cannot be. We must endure vicissitudes of weather interiorly as well
as exteriorly. It is only in heaven that we shall find the perpetual
beauty of spring, the perpetual ripening of summer, the perpetual
fruition of autumn. There we shall have no winter; but here winter is
required for the exercise of abnegation, and a thousand little virtues
which are practised in times of sterility.

220.
 My God! We shall soon be in eternity, and then we shall see how
unimportant are all the things of this world, and how little it
mattered whether they were accomplished or not. Yet we are as
anxious about them now as if they were affairs of great importance.

221.
Verily, we do not like crosses if they are not of gold enamelled,
and adorned with precious stones.

222.
I am sad and will not speak; this is what parrots do. I am sad, but
I speak because charity requires it; thus do spiritual persons. I am
despised and I get angry; peacocks and monkeys act thus. I am
despised and I rejoice; thus did the Apostles.

223.
Examine whether your heart pleases God?—you must not do it;—
but whether his pleases you? yes, truly, for if you look at his Heart, it
cannot but please you, it is so sweet, so condescending, so loving
towards frail creatures when they recognise their misery, so merciful
to the miserable, so kind to the penitent....

224.
Be just; neither excuse nor accuse your poor soul without due
reflection, lest by excusing it without reason you render it insolent,
or by lightly accusing it you weaken its courage and make it
pusillanimous.

225.
How many courtiers there are who go into the presence of the
king a hundred times, not to speak to him or listen to him, but
merely to be seen by him, and to show by this assiduity that they
are his servants. When, then, you come into the presence of our
Lord, speak to Him if you can; if you cannot, remain and show
yourself to Him, and do not be anxious to do any more.

226.
You do nothing in meditation, you tell me. But what should you do
if not just what you are doing, that is, presenting and representing
your misery and nothingness to God? The most efficacious appeal a
beggar can make is to expose to our eyes his ulcers and necessities.

227.
But sometimes you do not even do this, and you remain before
Him like a phantom or statue. Well, that is something. In the palaces
of princes and kings there are statues which are only meant to
gratify the eyes of the king; content yourself with a similar service in
the presence of God. He will animate the statue when it pleases
Him. Were we to ask the statue if it desired anything it would
answer, “No; I am where my master placed me, and his pleasure is
the sole happiness of my being.”
 228.
Ah! but it is a good prayer, and a good method of keeping one’s
self in the presence of God, to wait upon his will and good pleasure.

229.
As for me, I think that we keep ourselves in the presence of God
even while we sleep, for we go to sleep in his presence and by his
will. And when we wake we find that He is beside us, that He has
not stirred from us, nor we from Him; therefore we have kept
ourselves in his presence, though with closed eyes.

230.
When a certain cross is given to you alone it is of more value, and
it should be dearer to you because of its rarity.

231.
God be praised! God or nothing; for all that is not God is nothing,
or worse than nothing.

232.
Do not turn your eyes on your infirmities and incapacity, except to
humble yourself; never let them discourage you.