List of points

You are right. 'The peak' — you told me — 'dominates the country for miles around, and yet there is not a single plain to be seen: just one mountain after another. At times the landscape seems to level out, but then the mist rises and reveals another range that had been hidden.'

So it is, so it must be with the horizon of your apostolate: the world has to be crossed. But there are no ways made for you. You yourselves will make them through the mountains with the impact of your feet.

'The truth is that there is no need to be a hero', you confess, 'to know how to isolate oneself as far as circumstances demand — without going to ridiculous extremes — and to persevere.' And you add: 'So long as I carry out the norms you gave me, the snares and pitfalls of my surroundings don't worry me: to fear such trifles — that is what I would be afraid of.'

Wonderful!

Discouragement is an enemy of your perseverance. If you don't fight against discouragement you will become pessimistic first, and lukewarm afterwards. Be an optimist.

You cannot 'rise'. It's not surprising: that fall!

Persevere and you will 'rise'. Remember what a spiritual writer has said: your poor soul is like a bird whose wings are caked with mud.

Suns of heaven are needed and personal efforts, small and constant, to shake off those inclinations, those vain fancies, that depression: that mud clinging to your wings.

And you will see yourself free. If you persevere, you will 'rise'.