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We are like so many foolish peasant lads: we think we know something of Thee, yet it must be comparatively nothing, for there are profound secrets even in ourselves of which we know naught.

The highest perfection obviously does not consist in interior delights or in great raptures or in visions or in the spirit of prophecy but in having our will so much in conformity with God's will that there is nothing we know He wills that we do not want with all our desire, and in accepting the bitter as happily as we do the delightful when we know that His Majesty desires it. This seems most difficult (not the doing of it, but this being content with what completely contradicts our nature); and indeed it truly is difficult. But love has this strength if it is perfect, for we forget about pleasing ourselves in order to please the one we love.

My father was fond of reading good books...These good books together with the care my mother took to have us pray and be devoted to out Lady and to some of the saints began to awaken me.

There may come a day when my glory will sing to Him, and when my conscience will not feel compunction, where all sighs and fears will have ceased; but in the meantime, in silence and hope will be my strength.

Let us praise Him, my daughters, for He has granted it to us, and let us not tire of praising so great a King and Lord. He has prepared for us a kingdom without end in exchange for a few little trials, which come wrapped in consolations and will end tomorrow.

What hope can we have of finding rest outside ourselves if we cannot be at rest within...well, believe me, if we don't obtain and have peace in our own house we'll not find it outside. Let this war be ended.

We are fonder of consolation than we are of the cross. Test us, Lord — for You know the truth — so that we may know ourselves.

O my Lord, how poorly we profit from the blessing You grant us! You seek ways and means and You devise plans to show Your love for us; we, inexperienced in loving You, esteem this love so poorly that our minds, little exercised in love, go where they always go and cease to think of the great mysteries this language, spoken by the Holy Spirit, contains within itself...

Life is long, and there are in it many trials, and we need to look at Christ our model, how He suffered them, and also at His apostles and saints, so as to bear these trials with perfection.

Let us not desire delights daughters; we are well off here; the bad inn lasts only a night. Let us praise God; let us force ourselves to do penance in this life. How sweet will be the death of one who has done penance for all his sins, of one who won't have to go to purgatory!

If the Lord put up with someone as miserable as myself for so long a time...who, no matter how bad they may be, has reason to fear? For no matter how bad they may be, they will not be bad for as many years as I was after having received so many favors from the Lord. Who can lose confidence?

Vocal prayer . . . must be accompanied by reflection. A prayer in which a person is not aware of Whom he is speaking to, what he is asking, who it is who is asking and of Whom, I don't call prayer-----however much the lips may move.