List of points

My son, you can do nothing on the supernatural level through your own strength; whereas when you become God’s instrument you can do everything. Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat! — I can do all things in him who strengthens me. For in his goodness he wishes to use inadequate instruments, like you and like me.

Faced by apparent sterility in your apostolate you begin to detect the first waves of discouragement, which your faith rejects quite firmly. — But you realise that you need a more humble, lively and operative faith.

As someone who longs to bring health to souls, you should cry out like the father of that sick boy possessed by the devil: Domine, adiuva incredulitatem meam! — Lord, help my unbelief!

Have no doubt: the miracle will be performed again.

If you persevere in your prayer, with “personal perseverance”, God Our Lord will give you all the means you need to be more effective and to spread his kingdom in the world.

—But you have to keep faithful: asking, asking, asking… Are you really behaving this way?

Don’t worry if your work seems barren just now. When it is holiness that is being sown, it is not lost: others will gather in the harvest.

The spirit of poverty, of detachment from the goods of the earth, results in effectiveness in the apostolate.

The charity that harms the supernatural effectiveness of the apostolate is a false charity.

If you follow faithfully the promptings of grace, you will yield good fruit, lasting fruit for the glory of God.

—To be a saint necessarily entails being effective, even though the saint may not see or be aware of the results.

Qui sunt isti, qui ut nubes volant, et quasi columbae ad fenestras suas? — “Who are these that fly like clouds, and like doves to their nesting places?”, asks the Prophet. And a certain author comments: “Clouds come up from the sea and from rivers, and after circling about or following their course for a certain length of time, return once more to their source.”

And I say to you that this is what you have to be: a cloud which makes the world fertile, making it live the life of Christ. Those divine waters will bathe and drench the very depths of the earth, and filter out the many impurities without themselves being dirtied. Sparkling springs will flow from them that will later become streams and mighty rivers able to slake the thirst of mankind. Afterwards you shall return to your Shelter, to your boundless Sea, to your God, knowing that the fruits will continue to ripen thanks to the supernatural watering done by your apostolate, and to the fruitfulness of the waters of God which will last until the end of time.

At times, fifty per cent of the work is lost because of in-fighting stemming from a lack of charity, and from tales and back-biting among brothers. Furthermore, yet another twenty-five per cent of the work is lost by constructing buildings which are unnecessary for the apostolate. Gossip should never be allowed and we shouldn’t waste our time building so many houses. People will then be apostles, one hundred per cent.

Dominus dabit benignitatem suam et terra nostra dabit fructum suum — the Lord will grant his blessing and the earth will bring forth its fruit.

That blessing is indeed the source of all good fruit, the necessary climate for producing saints, men and women of God, in this world of ours.

Dominus dabit benignitatem — the Lord will grant his blessing. Notice, however, that he goes on to point out that he awaits our fruit — yours and mine. Nor is this crop to be meagre or blighted because we have not really given ourselves completely. He expects abundant fruit since he fills us with his blessings.

You saw your vocation like one of those pods that contain the seeds. The moment to expand will come and then the seeds will spread out and take root all at once.

In times of general confusion it may seem as though God is not listening to your pleading with him on behalf of his souls, and is turning a deaf ear to your calls. You even reach the point of thinking that all your apostolic labours have been in vain.

—Don’t worry! Carry on working with the same cheerfulness, the same energy, the same zeal. Allow me to insist: when you work for God, nothing is unfruitful.