Reading today of how Luisa de Carvajal made herself the slave of her two maids, the old desire for this kind of life sprang up again. What would I not give for someone to treat me in this way? I have asked Jesus to do it, to accept me as His slave. He seemed to say to me that I must carry out what He puts into my mind.

I am to kiss the floor every time I enter, leave or pass before the Tabernacle

I am not to ask remedies for small ailments, toothaches etc

Not to shrink from or relieve small pains

Absolute abandonment to God’s will in all things; to have no will or wish of my own

To ask Fr. B. to treat me like Luisa Carvajal

Every night to tell my Master how many aspirations I have gathered up.

COMMENT: Luisa de Carvajal was a Spanish noblewoman who moved to London during the Elizabethan persecutions, and who provided much help to the persecuted priests, especially Jesuits. She insisted that her own servants treat HER as s servant in order to acquire greater humility and to conquer her own self-will. 

Fr Doyle has a very strong temperament; he had temptations towards impatience and bad temper. Yet, it would appear that he very substantially conquered this temptation – so many testimonies about him speak of his gentleness and serenity. And here we find him, a year and half before his death, seeking to go to extraordinary lengths to devise methods that would help him conquer his self-will. He seems to have been ever-vigilant to conquer his faults, and was an extraordinary spiritual tactician.