List of points

It was you who wrote what I am now copying out: “Domine, tu scis quia amo te! — Lord, you know that I love you! How very often, Jesus, I repeat again and again those words your dear Cephas uttered, as a bitter-sweet litany. For I know that I love you, and yet I am so very unsure of myself that I cannot bring myself to say it to you clearly. There are so many denials in my wicked life. Tu scis, Domine! — You know that I love you! — May my actions, Jesus, never go against these yearnings of my heart.”

—Keep up this prayer of yours and he will certainly hear you.

You, who see yourself so badly lacking in virtues, in talents, in abilities… Do you not feel the desire to cry out like the blind Bartimaeus, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”?

—What a beautiful aspiration for you to say very often, “Lord, have pity on me!”

—He will hear you and come to your aid.

You have to feel the urgent necessity to see yourself as small, weak and bereft of everything. You will then throw yourself onto the lap of our Mother in Heaven, with heartfelt aspirations and loving glances, Marian devotions… which are such a vital part of your filial spirit.

—She will watch over you.

God loves me… And John the Apostle writes: “Let us love God, then, since God loved us first.” —As if this were not enough, Jesus comes to each one of us, in spite of our patent wretchedness, to ask us, as he asked Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others?…”

—This is the moment to reply: “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you!” adding, with humility, “Help me to love you more. Increase my love!”

Repeat to yourself, with all your heart, and with ever-increasing love, and more when you are in front of the Tabernacle or have the Lord within your breast: Non est qui se abscondat a calore eius — “No one can hide from his warmth.” May I not flee from you, may I be filled with the fire of your Holy Spirit.

We have to love the Blessed Virgin Mary more. We will never love her enough!

—Love her a lot! It shouldn’t be enough for you to put up pictures of her, and greet them, and say aspirations. You should learn to offer her, in your strenuous life, some small sacrifice each day, to show her your love, and to show her the kind of love that we want the whole human race to proclaim for her.

From there, where you are working, let your heart escape to the Lord, right close to the Tabernacle, to tell him, without doing anything odd, “My Jesus, I love You”.

Don’t be afraid to call him so — my Jesus — and to say it to him often.