List of points

'They have the stuff of saints in them.' At times you hear this said of some people. Apart from the fact that the saints were not made of 'stuff, to have stuff is not sufficient.

A great spirit of obedience to your Director and great readiness to respond to grace are essential. For, if you don't allow God's grace and your Director to do their work, there will never appear the finished sculpture, Christ's image, into which the saintly man is fashioned.

And the 'stuff' of which we were speaking will be no more than a heap of shapeless matter, fit only for the fire…, for a good fire if it was good stuff!

Those scruples still! Speak simply and clearly to your Director.

Obey… and don't underestimate the most loving Heart of our Lord.

Study. Obedience: non multa, sed multum — not many things, but well.

If they see you weaken… and you are the leader, it is no wonder their obedience falters.

Who are you to pass judgment on the decision of a superior? Don't you see that he is better fitted to judge than you? He has more experience; he has more capable, impartial and trustworthy advisers; and, above all, he has more grace, a special grace, the grace of state — God's light and his powerful aid.

How well you understand obedience, when you write: 'To obey always is to be a martyr without dying'!

Priority, order. Everything in its place. — What would be left of a Velasquez painting if each colour were to mingle with the next, if each thread of the canvas were to break apart, if each piece of the wooden frame were to separate itself from the others?