List of points

He hasn’t got the time? — So much the better. Christ is interested precisely in those who do not have the time.

Don’t be surprised and don’t be cowed because he has reproached you with having placed him face to face with Christ, nor because he may have added, indignantly: “Now I can’t live in peace unless I make up my mind…”

Pray for him… It would be useless to try to calm him down. What may have happened is that some previous worry, the voice of his own conscience, has now come to the fore.

Do you hesitate to launch yourself into speaking about God, about a Christian life, about vocation… because you do not want to cause suffering? You forget that it is not you who are doing the calling, it is He: Ego scio quos elegerim — I know well those I have chosen.

Moreover, I should not like to think that behind this false respect lurked a spirit of comfort or lukewarmness. At this stage, do you still prefer poor human friendship to the friendship of God?

You have spoken to one person and another, and yet another, because you are consumed by zeal for souls.

One took fright; another consulted a “prudent” man, who guided him badly… —Persevere: and no one afterwards will be able to excuse himself by saying Quia nemo nos conduxit — nobody has called us.

Do not be afraid, or surprised, to see the resistance of some people’s minds. There will always be foolish people who, displaying their culture, brandish the weapon of their ignorance.

How sad it is to realise that those who hate the Lord march arm-in-arm with some who claim they are in his service. They follow different passions, but are united against Christians, the children of God.

In certain surroundings, especially in the intellectual sphere, one sees and feels a sort of conspiracy of “cliques”, not infrequently assisted even by Catholics. With cynical perseverance they maintain and spread slanders to cast a shadow over the Church, or over certain individuals and organisations within it. All this is done against all truth or reason.

Pray each day with faith: “Ut inimicos Sanctae Ecclesiae” — enemies, because that is what they proclaim themselves to be — “humiliare digneris, te rogamus audi nos.” Confound, Lord, those who persecute you, with the clarity of your light, which we are ready to spread.

Is the idea of Catholicism old and therefore unacceptable? —The sun is older and has not lost its light; water is more ancient, and it still quenches the thirst and refreshes us.