List of points

More is achieved by whoever goes up closer to plead… That is why you must get close to God and be intent on becoming a saint.

I like to compare the interior life to clothing, to the wedding garment the Gospel speaks about. The cloth is woven from all the habits or acts of piety which, like threads, together give strength to the cloth. And so, just as a torn dress is rejected even though the rest of the material is in good condition, if you pray and work… but are not penitent (or the other way round) your interior life is not (so to speak) complete.

When will you realise that your only possible way is to seek sanctity seriously.

Make up your mind — don’t be offended — to take God seriously. That levity of yours, if you do not fight against it, could end up by becoming a sad and blasphemous mockery.

You sometimes allow the bad side of your character to come out, and it has shown itself, on more than one occasion, in an absurd harshness. At other times, you do not bother to prepare your heart and your head so that they may be a worthy dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity… And you invariably end up by remaining rather distant from Jesus, whom you know so little.

—If you go on like this, you will never have interior life.

Iesus Christus, perfectus Deus, perfectus Homo — Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect Man.

There are many Christians who follow Christ and are astonished by his divinity, but forget him as Man… And they fail in the practice of supernatural virtues, despite all the external paraphernalia of piety, because they do nothing to acquire human virtues.

Personal sanctity is a remedy for everything! —That is why the saints have been full of peace, of fortitude, of joy, of security…

Until now you had not understood the message that we Christians bring to the rest of men: the hidden marvel of the interior life.

What a wonderful new world you are placing in front of them!

How many new things you have discovered! And yet you are sometimes rather naive and think you have seen everything, that you have found out everything already. As time goes by, you will be able to reach out and touch the unique and unfathomable treasures of the Lord, who will always show you new things, if you respond with love and sensitivity. Then you will realise that you are only beginning, because holiness consists in identifying oneself with God, with that God of ours who is infinite and inexhaustible.

It is through Love rather than study that one comes to understand the things of God.

That is why you have to work, you have to study, you have to accept illness, you have to be sober — lovingly!

Here is a point for your daily examination. Have I allowed an hour to pass, without talking with my Father God? Have I talked to him with the love of a son? You can!

We should make no mistake… God is no shadowy or distant being who created us then abandoned us; nor is he a master who goes away and does not return. Though we do not perceive him with our senses, his existence is far more true than any of the realities which we touch and see. God is here with us, really present, living. He sees and hears us, He guides us, and knows our smallest deeds, our most hidden intentions.

We believe this — but we live as if God did not exist. For we do not have a thought or a word for him; for we do not obey him, nor try to control our passions; for we do not show that we love him, and we do not atone…

—Are we going to continue living with a dead faith?

If you had presence of God you would remedy many things that have apparently “no remedy”.

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.

Once again you felt Christ was very near. —And once again you realised that you have to do everything for him.

Come closer to the Lord… Closer! —Until he becomes your Friend, your Confidante, your Guide.

Every day you notice that you are more rooted in God… you tell me. —Every day, then, you will be closer to your brothers.

If until now, when you had not yet found Him, you wanted to run through life with your eyes wide open, to find out about everything, from this moment onwards you can run with a clear vision, to see with him what is really of abiding interest to you.

When there is interior life, you can have recourse to God in any difficulty, with the spontaneity with which blood rushes to a wound.

“This is my Body…”, and the immolation of Jesus took place, hidden under the appearances of the bread. He is now there, with his Flesh and with his Blood, with his Soul and with his Divinity. He is the same as on the day that Thomas placed his fingers in His glorious Wounds.

And yet, on so many occasions, you saunter by, giving not even a hint of a greeting out of simple good manners that you would give to any person you knew when you met him.

—You have much less faith than Thomas!

If, to free you, a close friend of yours had gone to prison, would you not try to visit him, to talk to him for a while, take him some present, console him and show him the warmth of your friendship…? And, if that conversation with the prisoner were to save you from some evil and do you good… would you go without it? And if instead of a friend it were to be your father himself or your brother?

—Well then!

Jesus has remained in the Sacred Host for us! So as to stay by our side, to sustain us, to guide us. —And love can only be repaid with love.

—How could we not turn to the Blessed Sacrament each day, even if it is only for a few minutes, to bring him our greetings and our love as children and as brothers?

Have you seen it happening? Any old sergeant or a low ranking second lieutenant… sees coming towards him a fine-looking recruit, of an incomparably better quality than the officer; but the salute and its return are still given.

Meditate on the contrast. From the tabernacle of that church, Christ, perfect God, perfect Man, who has died for you on the Cross and gives you everything that you need… approaches you. And you go by without paying any attention to him.

You have started to visit the Blessed Sacrament every day… I am not surprised to hear you say, “I have come to love the sanctuary light madly.”

Do not neglect to say, “Jesus, I love you”, and make one spiritual communion, at least, each day, in atonement for all the profanations and sacrileges he suffers because he wants to be with us.