List of points

You often ask yourself why souls who have had the great fortune of knowing the true Jesus ever since their childhood, hesitate so much in responding with the best they have: their life, their family, their ideals.

Look: you are bound to show yourself very grateful to the Lord, precisely because you have received ‘everything’ in one go. Just as it would strike a blind man if he suddenly recovered his sight, while it does not even occur to others to give thanks because they see.

But that is not enough. You have to help those around you, daily, to behave with gratitude for their being sons of God. If you don’t, don’t tell me you are grateful.

Meditate on this slowly: I am asked for very little compared to how much I am being given.

Those of us who have dedicated ourselves to God, have lost nothing.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, Teacher of unlimited self-giving. Do you remember? It was in praise of her that Jesus Christ said: “Whoever fulfils the Will of my Father, he — she — is my mother!…”

Ask of this good Mother that her answer, with the generosity it shows, may grow stronger in your soul — with the strength of love and liberation. Ecce ancilla Domini — behold the handmaid of the Lord.

He seemed to be totally determined… But, when he took up his pen to break with his girl friend, his indecision and lack of courage got the better of him: it was all very human and understandable, people said. According to some, it seems human love is not among the things which one has to leave behind in order to follow Jesus Christ totally, when He asks you.

Some behave, throughout their lives, as though Our Lord had only talked of self-giving and upright behaviour to those who did not find it hard — they don’t exist! — or to those who don’t need to fight.

They forget that Jesus said, for all: the Kingdom of heaven is won by violence, by the holy battle of every moment.

Ups and downs. You have many, too many, ups and downs.

The reason is clear: till now, you have led an easy life, and you are reluctant to admit that there is a notable gap between “wanting to give” and “giving” oneself.

Make up the time you have lost resting on the laurels of your self-complacency, and thinking what a good person you are, as if it were enough just to keep going, without stealing or killing.

Speed up the pace of your piety and your work: you still have such a long way to go: Live happily with everyone, even with those who annoy you, and make an effort to love — to serve! — those whom you despised before.

Renewal is not relaxation.

It would not be worth giving oneself unless it were to build up a great work which is very much for God — your own holiness.

That is why the Church, when canonising saints, proclaims the heroism of their lives.

Be careful you don’t get it wrong! —While you raise the temperature of the atmosphere around you make sure you do not cool down.

Jesus speaks to us all the time, and happy are those blessed souls who, when they hear Jesus being spoken about, recognise him immediately as the Way, the Truth and the Life.

—You are well aware that when we do not enjoy that happiness it is because we have lacked the determination to follow him.