List of points

Faced by all those men without faith, without hope; by minds desperately near the borders of anguish, seeking for a meaning in their life, you found your purpose: Him!

This discovery will permanently inject a new happiness into your existence, it will transform you, and present you with an immense daily hoard of beautiful things of which you were unaware, and which show you the joyful expanse of that broad path that leads you to God.

Hope does not mean beginning to see the light, but trusting with one’s eyes closed that the Lord possesses the light fully, and lives in its clarity. He is the Light.

Prayer is the humility of the man who acknowledges his profound wretchedness and the greatness of God. He addresses and adores God as one who expects everything from Him and nothing from himself.

Faith is the humility of the mind which renounces its own judgement and surrenders to the verdict and authority of the Church.

Obedience is the humility of the will which subjects itself to the will of another, for God’s sake.

Chastity is the humility of the flesh, which subjects itself to the spirit.

Exterior mortification is the humility of the senses.

Penance is the humility of all the passions, immolated to the Lord.

—Humility is truth on the road of the ascetical struggle.

Do not forget that in human affairs other people may also be right: they see the same question as you, but from a different point of view, under another light, with other shades, with other contours.

—Only in faith and morals is there an indisputable standard: that of our Mother the Church.

I cannot understand you when you talk about matters of morals and of faith and you tell me that you are an independent Catholic…

—From whom are you independent? That false independence is equivalent to leaving the way of Christ.

You must never give in with regard to the doctrine of the Church.

—When an alloy is made, the better metal loses its value.

Furthermore, that treasure is not yours, and — as the Gospel says — the Owner may ask you to render an account when you least expect it.

I have to agree with you that there are practising Catholics who even seem devout in the eyes of others and are perhaps sincerely convinced, yet are naively serving the enemies of the Church.

—Into their very homes, under various names, invariably wrongly used — ecumenism, pluralism, democracy — has insinuated itself the worst adversary — ignorance.

It is as easy now as it was at the time of Jesus Christ to say No, to deny or to put to one side the truth of faith. You who call yourself a Catholic have to start from Yes.

Later, after some study, you will be able to explain the reasons for your certainty, and that there is no contradiction — there can be none — between Truth and science, between Truth and life.

“This is my Body…”, and the immolation of Jesus took place, hidden under the appearances of the bread. He is now there, with his Flesh and with his Blood, with his Soul and with his Divinity. He is the same as on the day that Thomas placed his fingers in His glorious Wounds.

And yet, on so many occasions, you saunter by, giving not even a hint of a greeting out of simple good manners that you would give to any person you knew when you met him.

—You have much less faith than Thomas!

He followed the way of impurity with all his body… and with all his soul. —His faith became obscured… even though he knew it is not a problem of faith.

Christianity is “unusual”; it does not sit easily with the things of this world. And that is perhaps its greatest “nuisance value” when it is used as a banner by the worldly.

You say you cannot be happy to live like everyone else, with the faith of the crowd. —Indeed, you have to have a personal faith joined to a sense of personal responsibility.