List of points

The summit? For a soul which has surrendered itself, everything becomes a summit to conquer. Every day it discovers new goals, because it does not know how, or want, to limit the love of God.

A sincere resolution: to make the way lovable for others and easy, since life brings enough bitterness with it already.

All the things that are now worrying you can be solved by making an effort to smile for love of God.

That friend of mine came up to me: “They tell me you are in love.” —I was very surprised and the only thing I could think to ask was where he got that news.

He said that he could read it in my eyes, which shone with joy.

You have not ill-treated him physically… But you have ignored him so often; you have looked at him with indifference, as if he were a stranger.

—Isn’t that harm enough!

Do not pass by a neighbour’s affliction with indifference. That person — a relative, a friend, a colleague… someone you don’t know — is your brother.

—Remember the Gospel story you have heard so often with sadness: not even the relatives of Jesus trusted Him. —Make sure the scene is not repeated.

You say that you are discovering new things in yourself every day… I answer: you are now beginning to know yourself.

When you really love… you find new ways of loving even more.

When some misfortune or mistake occurs, it is poor satisfaction to be able to say: “I knew it would happen.”

It would mean that you are unconcerned with the troubles of your neighbour, for you should have sought a remedy if it was in your power to do so.

It is through Love rather than study that one comes to understand the things of God.

That is why you have to work, you have to study, you have to accept illness, you have to be sober — lovingly!

Those in love don’t know how to say good-bye: they are with one another all the time.

—Do you and I know how to love the Lord like this?

Haven’t you noticed how people in love dress to please one another by their appearance? —Well that is how you should tidy up and deck out your soul.

Have you noticed how many of your companions know how to be very kind and considerate when dealing with the people they love, whether it is their girl-friend, their wife, their children or their family?

—Tell them — and ask it of yourself too — that the Lord does not deserve less. They must treat him that way! Advise them, besides, to continue practising that kindness and consideration, but do it with Him and for Him, and they will achieve, even here on earth, a happiness they had never dreamed of.

Pull self-love out by the roots and plant in its place love for Jesus Christ. That is the secret of effectiveness and happiness.

For as long as you are convinced that others should always be paying you all their attention, and for as long as you delay the decision to serve (to hide yourself and disappear from view), your dealings with your brothers, colleagues and friends will be a constant source of disappointment, ill-humour…: of pride.

When you find it difficult to do a favour or a service for someone, remember that he or she is a child of God, and that the Lord has asked us to love one another.

—And I’d say more: go deeper into that evangelical precept every day; do not remain on the surface. Draw the right conclusions from it — it is quite easy to do so. Then adapt your behaviour, on every occasion, to those requirements.

“There is so much hurry in the way we live that Christian charity has become a rare phenomenon in this world of ours, even though, at least nominally, Christ is being preached.”

—I grant you that. But what are you doing about it as a Catholic, you who have to become united to him, and follow in his footsteps? Because he has told us that we must go and teach his doctrine to all peoples — all peoples — throughout the ages.

Meditate on this carefully and act accordingly: people who think you are unpleasant will stop thinking that when they realise that you really love them. It is up to you.

For a start, you treat people badly. Then, before anybody has time to react, you say: “Now, we must all be charitable!”

—If you began with the second point you would never come to the first.

Don’t be someone who sows discord, like the person whose own mother would say of him: “Introduce him to your friends, and he will make sure those friends quarrel with you.”

When he saw the happiness with which that hard work was being done, that friend asked: “Is it through enthusiasm that you get all these tasks done?” —And they answered him happily and calmly: “Through enthusiasm…? That would be the day! Per Dominum Nostrum Iesum Christum! — through Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is constantly awaiting us.”

This is how a right-minded man summarised jealousy or envy: “They must be very ill-intentioned to want to stir up such clean waters.”

Cry aloud — for that cry is the folly of one in love: “Lord, even though I love you… don’t trust me! Bind me to yourself, more closely every day!”

Carefully avoid anything that can hurt other people’s hearts.

Out of ten ways of saying No, why must you always choose the most disagreeable? —Virtue has no wish to hurt.

The frequency of our visits to the Lord is in proportion to two factors: faith and the involvement of the heart; seeing the truth and loving it.

Love is also strengthened by self-denial and mortification.

If you had a big heart and were a bit more sincere you would not be troubled by feelings of mortification over little things — nor would you use them to mortify other people.

A friend of ours used to say: “The poor are my best spiritual book and the main motive of my prayers. It pains me to see them, and in each one of them, Christ. And because it hurts, I realise I love him and love them.”

The thought of what has happened to you burns within you. Christ came to you when you were only a miserable leper! Until then, you had developed only one good quality, a generous concern for others. After that encounter you were given the grace to see Jesus in them, you fell in love with him, and now you love him in them… Now the altruism that used to impel you to help your neighbour in certain ways seems very small. You are right to think so!

The tactics of a tyrant towards those who could overthrow him if they were united are to make them quarrel among themselves. —It is an old ploy of the enemy, the devil and his followers, to destroy many apostolic plans.

The thought of death will help you to grow in the virtue of charity, for it might be that this particular instant in which you are together with one person or another is the last one… They, or you, or I, could be gone at any moment.

Learn how to say No, without hurting people unnecessarily or having recourse to the kind of abrupt rejection which destroys charity.

—Remember that you are always in the presence of God!

They spread slander and then make sure themselves that someone comes along immediately to tell you: “It is said that…” No doubt that is villainous, but don’t lose your peace; the tongue can do you no harm, if you work honestly. Consider how silly they are, how tactless, humanly speaking, and what a lack of loyalty they show towards their brothers — and especially towards God!

And don’t go and fall into slander yourself, through an ill-conceived idea of the right to reply. If you have to say anything, make use of fraternal correction as the Gospel advises us.

Don’t be worried by those contradictions and all that talk. It is true that we are working in a divine undertaking, but we are men… And it is natural that as we walk we raise dust along the road.

If anything bothers you or hurts you… make use of it for your purification and, if necessary, to straighten out your own behaviour.

You present yourself as a wonderful theoretician. But you don’t give way to others even in the most insignificant trifles. I do not believe in that spirit of mortification of yours!

Care in little things requires constant mortification. It is a way to make life more agreeable for others.