List of points

Some people make mistakes through weakness — on account of the fragile clay we are all made of — but retain the Church’s doctrine in its integrity.

They are the ones who, with the grace of God, display heroic courage and humility in acknowledging their mistakes and firmly defending the truth.

Once again you had gone back to your old follies!… And afterwards, when you returned, you didn’t feel very cheerful, because you lacked humility.

It seems as if you obstinately refuse to learn from the second part of the parable of the prodigal son, and you still feel attached to the wretched happiness of the pig-swill. With your pride wounded by your weakness, you have not made up your mind to ask for pardon, and you have not realised that, if you humble yourself, the joyful welcome of your Father God awaits you, with a feast to mark your return and your new beginning.

“Father, following your advice, I laugh at my weaknesses — without forgetting that I can’t give in — and then I feel much happier.

But when I am silly enough to become sad, it seems to me that I am losing the way.”

Sometimes you feel that you are beginning to lose heart and that everything is getting on top of you. This kills your good desires, and you can hardly manage to overcome this feeling even by making acts of hope… —Never mind: this is a good time to ask God for more grace. Then, go on! Renew your joy for the struggle, even though you might lose the odd skirmish.

You don’t feel like doing anything and there is nothing you look forward to. It is like a dark cloud. Showers of sadness fell, and you experienced a strong sensation of being hemmed in. And, to crown it all, a despondency set in, which grew out of a more or less objective fact: you have been struggling for so many years…, and you are still so far behind, so far.

All this is necessary, and God has things in hand. To attain gaudium cum pace — true peace and joy — we have to add to the conviction of our divine filiation, which fills us with optimism, the acknowledgement of our own personal weakness.

As, sooner or later, you are surely bound to stumble upon the evidence of your own personal wretchedness, I wish to forewarn you about some of the temptations which the devil will suggest to you and which you should reject straight away. These include the thought that God has forgotten about you, that your call to the apostolate is in vain, and that the weight of sorrow and of the sins of the world are greater than your strength as an apostle…

—None of this is true!

You are ashamed, before God, and before the others. You have discovered filth within yourself both old and renewed: there is no evil instinct or tendency that you do not feel under your skin. And you also carry a cloud of uncertainty in your heart. Furthermore, temptation arises when you least want it or expect it, when your will is weakened by tiredness.

You no longer know whether it humiliates you, although it hurts you to see yourself like this. But let it hurt you because of Him, and for Love of Him. This contrition of love will help you to remain vigilant, for the fight will last as long as we live.

Those periods of depression, because you see your defects or because others discover them, have no foundation…

—Ask for true humility.

The higher a statue is raised, the harder and more dangerous the impact when it falls.

“I am still a poor creature”, you tell me.

But once, when you realised it, you felt very bad about it! Now, without getting used to it or giving in to it, you are starting to make a habit of smiling, and of beginning your fight again with growing joy.

Only the stupid are obstinate: the very stupid are very obstinate.

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.

Do you think that no one else has ever been twenty years old? Do you think they were never restricted by their parents when they were under age? Do you think they avoided the problems, however great or small, that you come up against? No. They went through the same things that you are going through now, and they matured, with the help of grace. They trod down their selfishness with generous perseverance, gave in when they should, and remained loyal — with calm humility — without being arrogant or hurting anyone when they should not have done.

Ideologically you are very Catholic. You like the atmosphere of the hall of residence. A pity the Mass is not at twelve, and the classes are not in the afternoon, so you can study late in the evening after one or two drinks. That “Catholicism” of yours does not come up to the real thing: it remains simply bourgeois.

—Don’t you see that you can’t think like that at your age? Leave behind your laziness and your self-worship… and adapt to the needs of others, to the reality around you, then you will be taking your Catholicism seriously.

A person who had donated a statue of a saint to a church said: “This saint owes everything that he is to me.”

This is not just a caricature. You also think — at least that is how it looks from your behaviour — that you fulfil your duties towards God just by wearing some medals or practising certain pious customs, more or less as a routine.

If only they could see the good things I do!… —But don’t you realise that you are carrying them around like trinkets in a basket for people to see how fine they are?

Furthermore, you must not forget the second part of Jesus’ command: “that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

“To me, with the admiration I owe myself”, he wrote on the first page of a book. And many other miserable souls might easily print the same thing on the last page of their life.

How sad it would be if you and I were to live or end up like this.

—Let us make a serious examination of conscience.

Never adopt a superior air towards Church matters, or towards your fellow human beings, your brothers… On the other hand that attitude might be necessary in your social behaviour, when it is a matter of defending the interests of God and those of souls, for then you would not be acting out of superiority, but out of faith and fortitude, which we will practise with a calm and humble confidence.

Make sure that your good intentions are always accompanied by humility. Because good intentions often go together with harsh judgements, almost amounting to an incapacity to yield, and a certain personal, national or party pride.

Do not be disheartened when you become aware of your mistakes. React against them.

—Sterility is not so much a consequence of one’s faults, especially if one repents, as a consequence of pride.

If you fall, get up with greater hope… Self-love alone is incapable of understanding that an error, when put right, helps us to know and to humble ourselves.

“We are no use.” —A pessimistic and false statement. —If we want to, with the help of God, which is the first and fundamental requirement, we can become useful, as a good instrument, for many enterprises.

It made me think when I heard that hard but true saying from a man of God, when he observed the haughtiness of a miserable creature: “He wears the same skin as the devil — pride.”

And there came to my mind, in contrast, a sincere desire to wrap myself in the virtue taught by Jesus Christ when he said, Quia mitis sum et humilis corde — I am meek and humble of heart. It was the virtue which attracted the gaze of the Most Holy Trinity to his Mother and our Mother: the humility of knowing and having the feeling that we are nothing.

The Lord converted Peter, who had denied him three times, without even a reproach, with a look full of Love.

—Jesus looks at us with those same eyes, after we have fallen. May we also be able to say to him, as Peter did: “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you”, and amend our lives.