List of points

'This is the carpenter's son, surely? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary?'

This, which was said of Jesus, may very well be said of you, in a tone half of astonishment, half of mockery, when you really decide to carry out God's will, to be an instrument: 'But, isn't this "So-and-so"…?'

Say nothing. And let your works confirm your mission.

Be slow to reveal the intimate details of your apostolate: don't you see that the world in its selfishness will fail to understand?

Don't seek to be 'understood'. That lack of understanding is providential: so that your sacrifice may pass unnoticed.

There are many people, holy people, who don't understand your way. Don't insist on making them understand: you would be wasting your time and you would give rise to indiscretions.

Once again they have spoken, they have written: in favour, against; with good and with not so good will; faint praise and slander; panegyrics and plaudits; hits and misses…

Don't be a fool! As long as you are making straight for your goal, head and heart intoxicated with God, why worry about the voice of the wind, or the chirp of the cricket, or the mooing or the grunting or the braying?

Besides, it's inevitable; don't waste time answering back.

Outside events have placed you in voluntary confinement, worse perhaps, because of its circumstances, than the confinement of a prison. You have suffered an eclipse of your personality.

On all sides you feel yourself hemmed in: selfishness, curiosity, misunderstanding, people talking behind your back. All right: so what? Have you forgotten your free-will and that power of yours as a 'child'? The absence of flowers and leaves (external action) does not exclude the growth and activity of the roots (interior life).

Work: things will change, and you will yield more fruit than before, and sweeter too.

'There are so many ways', you told me dejectedly. There need to be many; so that each soul can find its own in that wonderful variety.

Bewildered? Make your choice once and for all: and the bewilderment will turn into certainty.