List of points

It is not possible to do good, even among good people, without running into the holy Cross of gossip.

Listen to me, my child: you must be happy when people treat you badly and dishonour you, when many come out against you excitedly and it becomes the done thing to spit on you, because you are omnium peripsema, like the refuse of the world.

—It’s hard, it’s very hard. It is hard, until at last a man goes to the Tabernacle, seeing himself thought of as the scum of the earth, like a wretched worm, and says with all his heart “Lord, if you don’t need my good name, what do I want it for?”

Up to then even that son of God does not know what happiness is — up to that point of nakedness and self-giving, which is a self-giving of love, but founded on mortification, on sorrow.

In moments of disappointment, that soul said to Our Lord: “My Jesus, what else could I give you apart from my honour, if I had nothing else? If I had had a fortune I would have given it to you. If I had had virtues, I would have built up each one to serve you better. The only thing I had was my honour and I have given it to you. May you be blessed! It’s clear that it was safe in your hands!”