List of points

Lord, we are glad to find ourselves in your wounded palm. Grasp us tight, squeeze us hard, make us lose all our earthly wretchedness, purify us, set us on fire, make us feel drenched in your Blood.

—And then, cast us far, far away, hungry for the harvest, to sow the seed more fruitfully each day, for Love of you.

Ask the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and your Mother, to make you know yourself and weep for all those foul things that have passed through you, and which, alas, have left such dregs behind… — And at the same time, without wishing to stop considering all that, say to him: Jesus, give me a Love that will act like a purifying fire in which my miserable flesh, my miserable heart, my miserable soul, my miserable body may be consumed and cleansed of all earthly wretchedness. And when I have been completely emptied of myself, fill me with yourself. May I never become attached to anything here below. May Love always sustain me.

Beg the Lord for his grace so that you may be purified by his Love… and by constant penance.

When that priest, our good friend, used to sign himself “the sinner”, he did so convinced that what he wrote was true.

—My God, purify me too!

Christ is nailed to the Cross. And you?… Still taken up with your whims and fancies — or rather, nailed by them!

We cannot, must not, be sugar-candy Christians: on earth there must be suffering and the Cross.

In this life of ours we must expect the Cross. Those who do not expect the Cross are not Christians, and they will be unable to avoid their own “cross”, which will drive them to despair.

Now, when the Cross has become a serious and weighty matter, Jesus will see to it that we are filled with peace. He will become our Simon of Cyrene, to lighten the load for us.

Then say to him, trustingly: “Lord, what kind of a Cross is this? A Cross which is no cross. Now I know the trick. It is to abandon myself in you; and from now on, with your help, all my crosses will always be like this.”

Renew in your own soul the resolution that friend of ours made long ago: “Lord, what I want is suffering, not exhibitionism.”

To have the Cross is to have found happiness: it is to have you, Lord!

What really makes a person — or a whole sector of society — unhappy, is the anxiety-ridden, selfish search for well-being, that desire to get rid of whatever is upsetting.

The way of Love is called Sacrifice.