List of points

“Why do so many people spread slander?”, you ask in distress…

—Some do so through error, fanaticism or malice. —But most of them pass on the story through inertia, superficiality and ignorance.

That is why, I insist again: when you cannot praise, and there is no need to speak, keep quiet!

When the victim of the slander suffers in silence, “the executioners” are relentless in their bold cowardice.

Distrust those categorical assertions if those who utter them have made no attempt, or have preferred not to speak with the person concerned.

There are many ways of holding an investigation. With a bit of malice, by listening to slanders, ten large volumes can be compiled against any honest person or worthy enterprise. —There will be more if that person or enterprise works effectively. —And even more if that effectiveness is apostolic.

It is sorry work for the investigators, but more pitiful still is the attitude adopted by those who are ready to echo such wicked and superficial assertions.

Doubt, whether it concerns the field of knowledge or the good name of others, is a plant that is easily sown but very difficult to root out.

Hypocrisy always leads those who cultivate it to a life of bitter and grudging mortification.

Herod said: “Go and enquire carefully for the child, and when you have found him, bring me back word, so that I too may come and worship him.” Faced by proposals such as this, let us ask the Holy Spirit to keep us from the “protection” or the “promise of good things” of people who appear well-intentioned.

—We will not lack the light of the Paraclete if, as the Wise Men did, we seek the truth and speak with sincerity.

Are there people who protest because you say things clearly? Perhaps they live with a troubled conscience, and they need to cover it up in that way.

—You should continue to behave in the same way, to help them to change.

While you continue to interpret in bad faith the intentions of your neighbour, you have no right to demand that people should be understanding with you.

You are constantly talking about the need to change and reform things. Good… Reform yourself! For you need it badly, and already you will have begun the great reform.

In the meantime, I shall not be putting too much faith in your proclamations of reform.

There are some who are so pharisaical that… they are scandalized when others repeat precisely what their own lips have let fall.

You are such a busybody that it seems as if your only concern were to dive into the lives of your neighbours. And when, at last, you stumble upon an upright man of good will and energy who has stopped you in your tracks, you complain in public as if he had offended you.

—Your shamelessness and deformed conscience…, have led you thus far. And that goes for many others.

In one move, you have tried to appropriate the “honesty” of the true opinion and the ignoble “advantages” of the opposite opinion…

—That, in any language, is called duplicity.

How good they are!!… They are ready to “excuse” what is only worthy of praise.

It is an old stratagem for the persecutor to say that he is being persecuted… Popular wisdom has seen right through this all along. In the words of the old Spanish saying: “They throw the stone and then bandage themselves up.”

Is it not true, unfortunately, that many people spread calumnies unjustly and then make their appeal to charity and honesty so that their victims cannot defend themselves?

It is a sad ecumenism indeed when Catholics who take part in it ill-treat other Catholics!

What a mistaken view of objectivity they have! They focus upon people or tasks through the deformed lenses of their own defects and then, with acid shamelessness, criticise or dare to offer their advice.

—Let us make a firm resolution: when we correct or give advice, let us speak in the presence of God, and apply our words to our own behaviour.

Never have recourse to the always deplorable method of organising slanderous attacks on anyone… It is even worse if it is done through allegedly moral motives, which can never justify an immoral action.

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.

There are many sides to lying: reticence, intrigue, slander… But it is always the coward’s weapon.

Those people you heard speak ill of that loyal friend of God, will also speak ill of you when you decide to behave better.

Certain comments can hurt only those who consider themselves to be affected. That is why, once you are following the Lord with all your heart and soul, you can accept criticisms as purification, and as a goad to make you lengthen your stride.

Be on guard against the propagators of scandal and innuendo, which some take in through lack of reflection while others do so through bad faith. They destroy a calm atmosphere and poison public opinion.

Sometimes true charity demands that such abuses and their promoters should be denounced. Otherwise, with their devious or badly-formed consciences, they or those who listen to them could think: “They keep quiet, so they must agree.”

I write this number so that you and I can finish this book with a smile, and so that those blessed readers who out of simplicity or malice sought a cabalistic significance in the 999 points of The Way may rest easy.