List of points

You often ask yourself why souls who have had the great fortune of knowing the true Jesus ever since their childhood, hesitate so much in responding with the best they have: their life, their family, their ideals.

Look: you are bound to show yourself very grateful to the Lord, precisely because you have received ‘everything’ in one go. Just as it would strike a blind man if he suddenly recovered his sight, while it does not even occur to others to give thanks because they see.

But that is not enough. You have to help those around you, daily, to behave with gratitude for their being sons of God. If you don’t, don’t tell me you are grateful.

Some call imprudence and rashness what is in fact faith and trust in God.

It is madness to trust in God…!, they say. —And is it not greater madness to trust in oneself, or in other men?

May we have the courage always to act in public in accordance with our holy faith.

Another man of faith wrote to me: “When you have to be on your own, you can notice clearly the help of your brothers. Now, when it comes to my mind that I have to put up with everything ‘all alone’, I often think that, if it weren’t for that ‘company we keep from afar’ — the holy Communion of Saints! — I would not be able to preserve this optimism which fills my heart.”

Your faith is not operative enough; it seems that you are over-pious, rather than a man who is struggling to be a saint.

An indispensable requirement in the apostolate is faith, which is often shown by constancy in speaking about God, even though the fruits are slow to appear.

If we persevere and carry on in the firm conviction that the Lord wills it, signs of a Christian revolution will appear around you, everywhere. Some will follow the call, others will take their interior life seriously, and others — the weakest — will at least be forewarned.

The ploughshare that breaks up the earth and opens up the furrow sees neither the seed nor the harvest.

Sooner or later, those who do not wish to understand that the faith demands service to the Church and to souls, invert the terms, and end up by having the Church and souls serving their own personal ends.

“Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

And at the end of his time upon earth, Christ commanded: Euntes docete — go out and teach. He wants his light to shine in the behaviour and words of his disciples, and in yours too.

If we Christians really lived in accordance with our faith, the greatest revolution of all times would take place. The effectiveness of our co-redemption depends on each one of us! —You should meditate on this.

Don’t come to me with “theories”. It is our lives that have to convert those high ideals each day into ordinary, heroic, fruitful reality.