List of points

There are many people around you, and you have no right to be an obstacle to their spiritual good, to their eternal happiness.

—You are under an obligation to be a saint. You must not let God down for having chosen you. Neither must you let those around you down: they expect so much from your Christian life.

The person who stops struggling causes harm to the Church, to his own supernatural undertaking, to his brothers and to all souls.

—Examine yourself. Could you not put a more lively love for God into your spiritual combat? — I am praying for you… and for everyone. You should do the same.

A saint! A son of God should exaggerate in practising virtue — if exaggeration is possible here… Because other people will see themselves reflected in him, as in a mirror, and it is only by our aiming very high that others will reach a middling level.

Don’t neglect the practice of fraternal correction, which is a clear sign of the supernatural virtue of charity. It’s hard; because it’s easier to be inhibited. Easier!, but not supernatural.

—And for such omissions you will have to render an account to God.

If you know how to love other people and you spread that affection — Christ’s kindly, gentle charity — all around you, you will be able to support one another, and if someone is about to stumble he will feel that he is being supported, and also encouraged, to be faithful to God through this fraternal strength.

If God’s Love has chosen you out and called you to follow him, you have a duty to respond to him… and it is also your duty, an equally serious duty, to lead and to contribute to the holiness and good progress of other men, your brothers.

—When are you going to make up your mind!

Many people around you live a life of sacrifice simply for human reasons. These poor people forget they are children of God and act the way they do perhaps only out of pride, or to excel, or to be more comfortably off later on in life. They give up all kinds of things!

And you, who carry the sweet burden of the Church, of your family, your colleagues and friends, motives for which it is worthwhile sacrificing yourself, what are you doing about it? With what sense of responsibility are you reacting?

Looking on the immense panorama of souls who are awaiting us, and being struck by the wonderful and awesome responsibility before us, you may at times have asked yourself, as I have: “Can I contribute anything, when the task is so vast? I, who am so puny?”

—It is then we have to open the Gospel and contemplate how Jesus cures the man born blind. He uses mud made from the dust of the earth and saliva. Yet this is the salve which brings light to those blind eyes!

That is what you and I are. Fully aware of our weaknesses and our worthlessness, but with the grace of God and our good will, we can be salve to give light and provide strength for others as well as for ourselves.

Our striving for our own sanctification has repercussions on the sanctity of so many souls and also on the sanctity of God’s Church.

The Lord’s field is fertile and the seed he sows of good quality. Therefore when weeds appear in this world of ours, never doubt that they spring up because of a lack of correspondence on the part of men, Christians especially, who have fallen asleep and have left the field open to the enemy.

—Don’t complain, for there’s no point; examine your behaviour, instead.

It is you — in spite of your passions — who have the responsibility for the sanctity of the others, for their Christian behaviour and for their effectiveness.

You are not on your own. If you stop you could be holding up or harming so many people!

Think about your Mother the Holy Church and consider how, if one member suffers, the whole body suffers.

—Your body needs each one of its members, but each member needs the whole body. What would happen if my hands were to stop doing their duty… or if my heart were to stop beating!