List of points

What a taste of gall and vinegar, of ash and aloes! What a dry and coated palate! And this physical feeling seems as nothing compared with that other bad taste, the one in your soul.

The fact is that 'more is being asked of you', and you can't bring yourself to give it. Humble yourself Would that bitter taste still remain in your flesh and your spirit if you did all that you could?

Let us bless pain. Love pain. Sanctify pain… Glorify pain!

If you realize that those sufferings — of body or soul — mean purification and merit, bless them.

You are suffering! Listen: 'His' Heart is not smaller than ours. — You are suffering? There is good in suffering.

You write: 'My joy and my peace. I will never have real happiness if I have not peace. And what is peace? Peace is something closely

related to war. Peace is a consequence of victory. Peace demands of me a continual struggle. Without a struggle I will never have peace.'

If you accept difficulties with a faint heart you lose your joy and your peace, and you run the risk of not deriving spiritual profit from the trial.

Have you not heard the Master himself tell the parable of the vine and the branches? Here you can find consolation. He demands much of you, for you are the branch that bears fruit. And he must prune you 'to make you bear more fruit'.

Of course: that cutting, that pruning hurts. But, afterwards, what richness in your fruits, what maturity in your actions.

After losing those human consolations you have been left with a feeling of loneliness, as if you were suspended by a mere thread over the black emptiness of the abyss. And your cries, your shouts for help seem to be heard by nobody.

You really deserve to be forlorn. Be humble, don't seek yourself don't seek consolation. Love the Cross — to bear it is little — and our Lord will hear your prayer. And calm will be restored to your senses. And your wounded heart will heal. And you will have peace.

Everything seems to touch you on the raw…, to make you suffer in your mind and in your senses. And everything is temptation to you…

Be humble — I insist. You will see how quickly all this passes; and the pain will be turned into joy: and the temptation, into firm purpose.

But meanwhile, strengthen your faith; fill yourself with hope; and make constant acts of Love, even though you can feel them only on your lips.