List of points

You don't conquer yourself, you don't practise self— denial, because you are proud. You lead a life of penance? Don't forget that pride is compatible with penance… Furthermore: your sorrow, after your falls, after your failures in generosity — is it true sorrow or is it the petty disappointment of seeing yourself so small and helpless? How far you are from Jesus if you are not humble…, even though your disciplines each day bring forth fresh roses!

In the deep pit opened by your humility, let penance bury your negligences, offences and sins. Just as the gardener buries rotten fruit, dried twigs and fallen leaves at the foot of the very trees which produced them. And so what was useless, what was even harmful, can make a real contribution to a new fruitfulness.

From the falls learn to draw strength: from death, life.

That Christ you see is not Jesus. It is only the pitiful image that your blurred eyes are able to form… — Purify yourself. Clarify your sight with humility and penance. Then… the pure light of Love will not be denied you. And you will have perfect vision. The image you see will be really his: his!

Jesus suffers to carry out the will of the Father. And you, who also want to carry out the most holy Will of God, following the steps of the Master, can you complain if you meet suffering on your way?

Motives for penance? — Atonement, reparation, petition, thanksgiving: means to progress: for you, for me, for others, for your family, for your country, for the Church… And a thousand motives more.

Don't try to be grown-up. A child, always a child, even when you are dying of old age. When a child stumbles and falls, nobody is surprised; his father promptly lifts him up.

When the person who stumbles and falls is older, the immediate reaction is one of laughter. Sometimes this first impulse passes and the laughter gives way to pity. But older people have to get up by themselves.

Your sad experience of each day is full of stumbles and falls. — What would become of you if you were not continually more of a child?

Don't want to be grown-up. Be a child; and when you stumble, may you be lifted by the hand of your Father-God.

You are full of weaknesses. Each day you see them more clearly. But don't let them frighten you. He well knows you can't yield more fruit.

Your involuntary falls — a child's falls — show your Father-God that he must take more care and your Mother Mary that she must never let you go from her loving hand. Each day as our Lord picks you up from the ground, take advantage of it, embrace him with all your strength and lay your wearied head on his open breast so that you will be carried away by the beating of his most lovable Heart.

When a child-like soul tells our Lord of its desires to be forgiven, it can be sure that it will soon see those desires fulfilled: Jesus will free the soul from the filthy tail that it drags in punishment for its past miseries. He will remove the dead-weight which still remains from all its impurities and drags it down to the ground. He will free the child from all the earthly ballast in its heart so that it can rise up towards God's Majesty, and be enveloped in the living flame of his Love.