List of points

Desire nothing for yourself, either good or bad. For yourself, want only what God wants.

Whatever it may be, if it comes from his hand, from God, however bad it may appear in the eyes of men, with God’s help it will appear good, yes very good!, to you. And with an ever-increasing conviction you will say: Et in tribulatione mea dilatasti me… et calix tuus inebrians, quam praeclarus est! — I have rejoiced in tribulation…, how marvellous is your chalice. It inebriates my whole being!

Grant me, Jesus, the Cross with no Simon of Cyrene to help me. No, that’s not right; I need your grace, I need your help here as in everything. You must be my Simon of Cyrene. With you, my God, no trial can daunt me…

—But what if my Cross should consist in boredom or sadness? — In that case I say to you, Lord, with You I would gladly be sad.

As long as I don’t lose You, no sorrow will be a sorrow at all.

A foolish child wails and stamps his feet when his loving mother puts a needle to his finger to get a splinter out… A sensible child, perhaps with his eyes full of tears — for the flesh is weak — looks gratefully at his good mother who is making him suffer a little in order to avoid much greater harm.

—Jesus, may I be a sensible child.

We need to smooth off the rough edges a little more each day — just as if we were working in stone or wood — and get rid of the defects in our own lives with a spirit of penance. And with small mortifications, which are of two types: active mortifications — the ones we ourselves look for, like little flowers we gather up during the course of the day — and passive mortifications, which come from outside and we find difficult to accept. Jesus Christ will later make up for whatever is still lacking.

—What a wonderful figure of the crucified Christ you will become if generously and cheerfully you give your all!

Contemplate and live the Passion of Christ, with Him. Proffer your own shoulders frequently, daily, when he is scourged; offer your own head to be crowned with thorns.

—Where I come from they say: “Love is repaid with love.”

There are moments in which you are deprived of that union with Our Lord which enabled you to pray continually, even when you were asleep. You seem almost to be wrestling with God’s Will.

—It is weakness, as you well know. Love the Cross, love the lack of so many things which everyone thinks necessary, the obstacles as you start or… as you go along on your way, your very littleness and spiritual wretchedness.

—Offer — with a desire that is effective — all you have, and all that belongs to those who are yours. Humanly speaking, it’s quite a lot, but from a supernatural point of view, it’s nothing.

To love the Cross means being able to put oneself out, gladly, for the love of Christ, though it’s hard — and because it’s hard. You have enough experience to know that this is not a contradiction.

Don’t be afraid to be demanding on yourself. Many souls do so in their hidden life, so that only Jesus may shine out.

I wish you and I would react as that person did who wanted to be very close to God, on the feast of the Holy Family. In those days it was celebrated within the octave of the Epiphany.

—“I have had a number of little crosses. There was one yesterday that hurt so much it made me weep. Today it made me think that my Father and Lord Saint Joseph, and my Mother, Holy Mary, won’t have left this child of theirs without its Christmas present. The present was the light that made me see my thanklessness to Jesus in my failing to correspond to his grace; and to see how mistaken I was to resist, by my boorish behaviour, the most Holy Will of God, who wants me as his instrument.”

We cannot, must not, be sugar-candy Christians: on earth there must be suffering and the Cross.

In this life of ours we must expect the Cross. Those who do not expect the Cross are not Christians, and they will be unable to avoid their own “cross”, which will drive them to despair.

Now, when the Cross has become a serious and weighty matter, Jesus will see to it that we are filled with peace. He will become our Simon of Cyrene, to lighten the load for us.

Then say to him, trustingly: “Lord, what kind of a Cross is this? A Cross which is no cross. Now I know the trick. It is to abandon myself in you; and from now on, with your help, all my crosses will always be like this.”

Renew in your own soul the resolution that friend of ours made long ago: “Lord, what I want is suffering, not exhibitionism.”

To have the Cross is to have found happiness: it is to have you, Lord!

The Cross, the Holy Cross, is heavy.

—First there are my sins. Then the sad truth of our Mother the Church’s suffering; the apathy of so many Catholics who want without really wanting; the separation — for all kinds of reasons — from those we love; the sufferings and trials of ourselves and of others…

—The Cross, the Holy Cross, is heavy. Fiat, adimpleatur…! “May the most just, the most lovable Will of God be done, be fulfilled, be praised and exalted above all things for ever! Amen. Amen.”

When you walk where Christ walked; when you are no longer just resigned to the Cross, but your whole soul takes on its form — takes on its very shape; when you love the Will of God; when you actually love the Cross… then, only then, is it He who carries it.

Join your suffering, your Cross that comes from within or without, to the Will of God, by saying a generous Fiat! And you will be filled with joy and peace.

There was a priest who prayed in a moment of affliction: “Jesus, let whatever Cross You want come to me. I resolve here and now to receive it joyfully, and I bless it with all the richness of my blessing as a priest.”

When you receive a hard knock, a Cross, you should not be disturbed. Rather the reverse: with a happy face you should give thanks to God.

Lord, I have no qualms in repeating this thousands of times: I want to keep you company, suffering with you, in the humiliations and cruelties of your Passion and Cross.

O Jesus, I want to be a blazing fire of Love-madness. I want it to be sufficient for me just to be present in order to set the world on fire for miles around, with an unquenchable flame. I want to know that I am yours. Then, let the Cross come…

—This is a marvellous way: to suffer, to love, and to believe.

Love for God invites us to shoulder the Cross squarely: to feel on our back the weight of the whole human race, and to fulfil, in the circumstances of our own situation in life and the job we have, the clear and at the same time loving designs of the Will of the Father.