List of points

When the defence of truth is at stake, how can we desire neither to displease God nor to clash with our surroundings? These two things are opposed: it is either the one or the other! The sacrifice has to be a holocaust where everything is burned up, even the thought: “what will they say?”, even what we call our reputation.

How clearly I see now that “holy shamelessness” is rooted, very deeply, in the Gospel! Fulfil the Will of God…, remembering Jesus falsely accused, Jesus spat upon and buffeted, Jesus brought before the shabby courts of men… And Jesus silent!!

—A resolution: I shall bow my head when insulted, and — knowing that humiliations will certainly follow — I shall persevere in the divine undertaking with which the merciful Love of Our Lord has wished to entrust us.

You are not happy because you make everything revolve around yourself as if you were always the centre: you have a stomach-ache, or you are tired, or they have said this or that…

—Have you ever tried thinking about Him, and through Him, about others?

After the initial enthusiasm, there began the doubts, hesitations and fears. You are worried about your studies, your family, your financial situation, and, above all, the thought that you are not up to it, that perhaps you are of no use, that you lack experience in life.

I will give you a sure means of overcoming such fears — temptations coming from the devil or from your lack of generosity! Despise them: remove those recollections from your memory. The Master already preached this unequivocally twenty centuries ago: “Don’t look back…”

If your imagination bubbles over with thoughts about yourself and creates fanciful situations and circumstances which would not normally find a place in your way, then these will foolishly distract you. They will dampen your ardour and separate you from the presence of God. This is vanity.

If your imagination revolves around others, you will easily fall into the defect of passing judgement when this is not your responsibility. You will interpret their behaviour not at all objectively but in a mean way. This is rash judgement.

If your imagination hovers around your own talents and ways of speaking, or with the general admiration that you inspire in others, then you will be in danger of losing your rectitude of intention, and of providing fodder for your pride.

Generally, letting your imagination loose is a waste of time, and, if it is not controlled, it opens the door to a whole string of voluntary temptations.

—Do not leave off the practice of interior mortification for even a single day!

I could behave better, show more decision and spread around more enthusiasm… Why don’t I?

Because — forgive my frankness — you are a buffoon. The devil knows full well that one of the worst-guarded doors of the soul is that of human foolishness: vanity. That is where he attacks with all his might: pseudo-sentimental memories, the hysterical form of a black-sheep complex, the unfounded impression of a lack of freedom…

What are you waiting for in order to follow the Master’s injunction: Watch and pray, for you know not the day nor the hour?

There are souls who seem bent on inventing sufferings, on torturing themselves with their imagination.

Afterwards, when objective sorrows and contradictions come their way, they do not know how to be like the Most Holy Virgin at the foot of the Cross with her eyes fixed on her Son.

Acquire the habit of speaking about everyone and about everything they do in a friendly manner, especially when you are speaking of those who labour in God’s service.

Whenever that is not possible, keep quiet. Sharp or irritated comment as well may border on gossip or slander.

A young man who had just given himself more fully to God said: “What I need to do now is speak less, visit the sick and sleep on the floor.”

—Apply that to yourself.

One should speak about Christ’s priests only in order to praise them.

—I hope with all my heart that my brothers and I bear this in mind in our daily behaviour.