List of points

But, surely — at this stage — you don't mean to tell me that you need the approval, the favour the encouragement of the powerful, to go on doing what God wants?

The powerful often change, and you have to be constant. Be grateful if they help you. But go ahead, unperturbed, if they treat you with contempt.

Take no notice. Madness has always been the term that 'prudent' people apply to God's works.

Forward! Without fear!

'This is the carpenter's son, surely? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary?'

This, which was said of Jesus, may very well be said of you, in a tone half of astonishment, half of mockery, when you really decide to carry out God's will, to be an instrument: 'But, isn't this "So-and-so"…?'

Say nothing. And let your works confirm your mission.

Discretion is… refinement of spirit. Do you not feel annoyed, uncomfortable deep down inside, when intimate and everyday details of your family life emerge from the warmth of the home to the indifference or curiosity of the public gaze?

Don't seek to be 'understood'. That lack of understanding is providential: so that your sacrifice may pass unnoticed.

There are many people, holy people, who don't understand your way. Don't insist on making them understand: you would be wasting your time and you would give rise to indiscretions.

Once again they have spoken, they have written: in favour, against; with good and with not so good will; faint praise and slander; panegyrics and plaudits; hits and misses…

Don't be a fool! As long as you are making straight for your goal, head and heart intoxicated with God, why worry about the voice of the wind, or the chirp of the cricket, or the mooing or the grunting or the braying?

Besides, it's inevitable; don't waste time answering back.

When you meet with suffering, contempt, the Cross, your thought should be: what is this compared with what I deserve?