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A science of the cross can be gained only when one comes to feel the cross radically.

The soul ought to consider aridity and darkness as fortunate omens; as signs that God is beside it, freeing it from itself, taking the initiative out of its hand.

God is love, and love is goodness giving itself away. It is a fullness of being that does not want to remain enclosed in itself, but rather to share itself with others, to give itself to them and to make them happy.

The fact that God deals with us through messengers is not a sign of the unapproachable majesty of God, rather of His overflowing love.

It is not human activity that can save us, but the sufferings of Christ. To take part in these is my aspiration.

A created spirit can ascend to God only by rising above itself. God, in a word, as Creator and preserver of every being, is the foundation that upholds them all. That which ascends to Him, at the same time descends to its most secure center of gravity.

In the night of blindness that the Lord had made fall on his eyes, Saul waited in solitary prayer for the Lord's answer to his question: "What would you have me do?" And Peter learned of his mission to the pagans while praying in solitude.

By contrast with the lethargy that comes from lack of vital energy, resting in God is something completely new and unique. The former was dead silence. Now it is replaced by the feeling of being safe, of being relieved from all anxiety and responsibility and obligation to act. And as I surrender myself to this feeling, little by little new life begins to fill me, and to stimulate me – without any exercise of my will – to new activity.

But because being one with Christ is our sanctity, and progressively becoming one with him our happiness on earth, the love of the cross in no way contradicts being a joyful child of God. Helping Christ carry his cross fills one with a strong and pure joy, and those who may and can do so, the builders of God's kingdom, are the most authentic children of God.

Living faith is the firm conviction that God exists, an acceptance as true of all that He has revealed, a loving promptness to let oneself be guided by the will of God.

Looking at things from God's viewpoint there is no such thing as chance; my whole life, down to the last detail, is traced in the plan of divine Providence and, to the all seeing eyes of God, constitutes a perfectly intelligible whole.

I keep thinking of Queen Esther who was taken away from her people precisely because God wanted her to plead with the king on behalf of her nation. I am a very poor and powerless little Esther, but the King who has chosen me is infinitely great and merciful. This is great comfort.