List of points

Imagine that on earth there was only God and you.

—Thus it will be easier to bear with mortifications and humiliations. And, in the end, you will do the things God wants and in the way He wants.

Practise meditation for a fixed period and at a fixed time.

—Otherwise we would be putting our own convenience first; that would be a lack of mortification. And prayer without mortification is not at all effective.

“You won’t laugh, Father, will you, if I tell you that, a few days ago, I found myself spontaneously offering the Lord the sacrifice of time it meant for me to mend a broken toy for one of my little children?”

—I am not laughing. I am delighted because with that Love, God sets about mending our faults.

A day without mortification is a day lost, because if we have not denied ourselves, we have not lived the holocaust.

Haven’t you gone against your own preference, your whims, some time, in something? —You must realise that the One who asks you is nailed to a Cross, suffering in all his senses and faculties, with a crown of thorns on his head… for you.

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.