List of points

Don’t confuse serenity with laziness, with neglect, and putting off making decisions or studying questions that need attending to.

Serenity always goes hand in hand with diligence, which is a virtue we need in order to consider and resolve pending matters without delay.

Plan everything? Everything! you told me. All right: we need to use our prudence. But bear in mind that human undertakings, whether they are hard or simple, always have to count on a margin of the unforeseen; and that a Christian should never shut off the road of hope, or be forgetful of God’s Providence.

You must always have, in everything, the same “sentiments” as the Church. For this, you must acquire the spiritual and doctrinal training that you need, which will make you a person of sound judgement in temporal matters, humble and quick to correct yourself when you realise you have made a mistake.

—Correcting your own mistakes, nobly, is a very human and very supernatural way of using your freedom.

It’s not possible to comment on events or doctrines without making personal references…, although you are not judging anyone: qui judicat Dominus est — it is God who has to judge.

—Don’t worry, then, if now and again you come across someone who lacks an upright conscience and — either in bad faith or through lack of discernment — takes your words for gossip.