List of points

You neither want to be an evil man nor a good one. And so, limping on both legs, you will have mistaken your way and filled your life with emptiness.

In medio virtus — Virtue is to be found in the mean, the wise saying goes, warning us against extremism. But do not make the mistake of turning that advice into a euphemism for your own comfort, calculation, tepidity, easy-goingness, lack of idealism and mediocrity.

Meditate on these words of Sacred Scripture: “Would that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.”

There are two ways of reaching the top: one — the Christian way — by the noble and gallant effort of serving others; the other — the pagan way — by the mean and ignoble effort of dragging down your neighbour.

Those who are “ambitious”, with small, personal, miserable ambitions, cannot understand that the friends of God should seek to achieve something through a spirit of service and without such “ambition”.