List of points

Ambition: to be good myself, and to see everyone else better than I.

You long to shine like a star, to shed your light from high in the heavens?

Better to burn like a hidden torch, setting your fire to all that you touch. That's your apostolate: that's why you are on earth.

Hurrying, hurrying! Working, working! Feverish activity, anxiety to be up and doing. Marvellous material structures…

Where spiritual things are concerned: broken up boxes, cheap cotton, painted cardboard, hurrying, working! And many people running here and there.

It is because in their work they think only of 'today'; their vision is limited to what is 'present'. You must see things with the eyes of eternity, 'keeping present' what has passed and what has yet to come…

Calmness. Peace. Intense life within you. Without that wild hurry, without that frenzy for change, you can work from your proper place in life. And, like a powerful generator of spiritual electricity, you will give light and energy to very many, without losing your own vigour and light.

Apostolic soul: first of all, yourself. Our Lord has said, through Saint Matthew: 'When the day of Judgment comes, many will say to me: "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, work many miracles in your name?" Then I shall tell them to their faces: "I have never known you; away from me, you evil men"'.

God forbid — says Saint Paul — that I, who have preached to others should myself be rejected.

You must inspire others with love of God and zeal for souls, so that they in turn will set on fire many more who are on a third plane and each of these latter spread the flame to their professional companions.

What a lot of spiritual calories you need! And what a tremendous responsibility if you let yourself grow cold! And — I don't even want to think of it — what a terrible crime if you were to give bad example!

Just as the clamour of the ocean is made up of the noise of each one of its waves, so the sanctity of your apostolate is made up of the personal virtues of each one of you.

You have got to be a 'man of God', a man of interior life, a man of prayer and sacrifice. Your apostolate must be the overflow of your life 'within'.