List of points

Lord, make me so much yours that not even the holiest affections may enter my heart except through your wounded Heart.

We have to love God because our heart is made for love. That is why, if we don’t give our heart to God, to Our Lady and Mother, to souls… with a pure affection, it will seek revenge… and will breed worms instead.

It is impossible to live a clean life without God’s help. God wants us to be humble, and to ask him for his help through our Mother who is his Mother.

You should say to Our Lady, right now, speaking without the sound of words, from the accompanied solitude of your heart: “O, my Mother, sometimes this poor heart of mine rebels… But if you help me…” — She will indeed help you to keep it clean and to follow the way God has called you to pursue. The Virgin Mary will always make it easier for you to fulfil the Will of God.

To preserve holy purity and live a clean life you have to love and practise daily mortification.

Custody of the heart. That priest used to pray: “Jesus, may my poor heart be an enclosed garden; may my poor heart be a paradise where you live; may my Guardian Angel watch over it with a sword of fire and use it to purify every affection before it comes into me. Jesus, with the divine seal of your Cross, seal my poor heart.”

There is a Spanish saying which speaks clearly enough: Entre santa y santo, pared de cal y canto (“Twixt holy man and holy maid, a wall of solid stone be laid”).

—We have to watch over our hearts and our senses, and pull ourselves away from all occasions of sin. No matter how holy it may appear, passion must not have its way!

Don’t look for consolations apart from God. — See what that priest wrote: There should be no unburdening of your heart to any other friend when there is no need to do so.

Earthly affections, even when they aren’t just squalid concupiscence, usually involve some element of selfishness.

So, though you must not despise those affections — they can be very holy — always make sure you purify your intention.

A heart which loves the things of the earth beyond measure is like one fastened by a chain — or by a “ fine thread” — which stops it flying to God.

Certainly you can go to Hell. You are convinced it could happen, for in your heart you find the seeds of all kinds of evil.

But if you become a child in front of God, that fact will bring you close to your Father God, and to your Mother, Holy Mary. And Saint Joseph and your Angel will not leave you unprotected when they see you are a child.

—Have faith. Do as much as you can. Be penitent, and be Loving! They will supply whatever else you need.

Per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum: through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. That is the way you should do things: through and for Jesus Christ!

—It’s good that you have a human heart. But if you act merely because it’s a particular person, that’s bad. You should certainly also do it for that brother of yours, for that friend of yours: but above all do it for Jesus Christ!