List of points

Try to be considerate, well-mannered. Don’t be boorish!

—Try to be polite always, which doesn’t mean being affected.

Charity succeeds always. Without charity nothing can be done.

Love, then, is the secret of your life… Do love! Suffer gladly. Toughen up your soul. Invigorate your will. Make sure that you surrender yourself to God’s will, and efficacy will follow.

Have the piety and simplicity of a child, and the strength and fortitude of a leader.

—My son, where is the Christ that people look for in you? In your pride? In your desire to impose yourself on others? In those defects of character which you don’t wish to overcome? In your stubbornness?… Is Christ to be found there? No, he is not!

—You need to have your own personality, agreed. But you should try to make it conform exactly to Christ’s.

If I behaved differently, if I were more in control of my character, if I were more faithful to you, Lord, how marvellously would you help us!

Because of the trust He has placed in you, by bringing you to the Church, you ought to have the balance, the calm, the strength, the human and supernatural prudence of a mature person, that many acquire with the passing of the years.

Don’t forget that Christian, as we learnt in the Catechism, means a man or woman who has the faith of Jesus Christ.

When you lose your peace and get nervous, it’s like not listening to reason.

At such times, one hears again the Master’s words to Peter as he sank among the waves of his own nerves and lack of peace: “Why did you doubt?”