List of points

Engrave in your memory those words which struck you while praying, and repeat them slowly many times throughout the day.

You have told me sometimes that you are like a clock out of order, which strikes at the wrong moment: you feel cold, dry and arid at the time of your prayer, and on the other hand, when it is least to be expected, in the street, in the midst of your daily activities, in the bustle and hubbub of the city, or in the concentrated calm of your professional work, you find yourself praying… At the wrong moment? Possibly; but don't waste those chimes of your clock. The Spirit breathes where he will.

Get used to lifting your heart to God, in acts of thanksgiving, many times a day. Because he gives you this and that. Because you have been despised. Because you haven't what you need or because you have.

Because he made his Mother so beautiful, his Mother who is also your Mother. Because he created the sun and the moon and this animal and that plant. Because he made that man eloquent and you he left tongue-tied…

Thank him for everything, because everything is good.

A saying of a soul of prayer: in intentions, may Jesus be our aim; in affections, our Love; in conversation, our theme; in actions, our model.

Most people have a plane-like vision, stuck to the earth, of two dimensions. When you live a supernatural life, God will give you the third dimension: height, and with it, perspective, weight and volume.

A change! You say you need a change!… opening your eyes wide so as to take in better the images of things, or almost closing them because you are short-sighted.

Close them altogether! Have interior life, and you will see, in undreamt-of colour and relief, the wonders of a better world, of a new world: and you will draw close to God…, and know your weakness…, and be deified… with a deification which, by bringing you nearer to your Father, will make you more a brother of your fellow-men.

Have you seen the gratitude of little children? Imitate them, saying to Jesus, when things are favourable and when they are adverse: 'How good you are! How good!…'

These words, if you mean them, are the way of childhood, and will bring you peace, with due measure of tears and laughter, and without measure of Love.