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Therefore the whole perpetual sacrificial offering of Christ at the cross, in the holy Mass, and in the eternal glory of heaven can be conceived as a single great thanksgiving as Eucharist: as gratitude for creation, salvation, and consummation. Christ presents himself in the name of all creation, whose prototype he is and to which he descended to renew it from the inside out and lead it to perfection. But he also calls upon the entire created world itself, united with him, to give the Creator the tribute of thanks that is his due.

It is also an evident truth that sympathy with the neighbor grows the more the soul is united with God through love.

The cross...It is the path from earth to heaven. It will lift one who embraces it in faith, love, and hope into the bosom of the Trinity.

One must pray much to remain faithful in every circumstance, above all for the many who have to go through trials more arduous than mine and are not so anchored to eternity.

The Lord is patient and has great mercy. In His economy He knows how to profit even by our faults, if we deposit them on His altar.

To die with Christ on the cross, to rise again with Him, is translated into reality for all the faithful and especially for every priest in the sacrifice of the Mass. In those who celebrate it or participate in it with lively faith, is reenacted what happened on Golgotha.

To make room for God in one's own soul means to undertake struggle without quarter against one's own nature, to take up one's own cross and to abandon oneself to crucifixion.

The work of salvation takes place in obscurity and stillness. In the heart’s quiet dialogue with God the living building blocks out of which the kingdom of God grows are prepared, the chosen instruments for the construction forged.

Our knowledge is piecemeal. When our will and action build on it alone, they cannot achieve a perfect structure. Nor can that knowledge, because it does not have complete power over the self and often collapses before reaching the goal. And so this inner shaping power that is in bondage strains toward a light that will guide more surely, and a power that will free it and give it space. This is the light and the power of divine grace.

Finally, misguided joy in their own works "makes them incapable of taking counsel and of receiving reasonable instructions" about what they ought to do. "Such souls become very slack in charity toward God and neighbor for the self-love contained in their works makes them grow cold in charity."

quoting St. John of the Cross

God came to redeem us, to unite us to himself, with one another, and to conform our will to his. He knows our nature; he takes it into consideration and therefore he has given us everything which can help us to reach our goal.

The "good Catholic" who, with self-satisfaction fulfills his duties, reads a good newspaper, votes well, etc. but for the rest does what he pleases, has a long way to go before he attains a life that is lived in and that comes from the hands of God, with the simplicity of a child and the humility of the publican. But whoever has once traveled that way will not turn back again.