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“When I think how much I have to acquire!” said a sister to St. Therese. “Say rather ‘to lose'” Therese answered, “for Jesus has charge of filling your soul with virtues as fast as you will get rid of the imperfections.”

It is enough to humble ourselves to bear patiently our imperfections. There lies true sanctity for us.

God highly esteems these works...done for him in aridity and hardship, for by such means the virtues and gifts are acquired in a high degree. Those acquired through this labor are for the most part more select, refined, and stable than if they were obtained with spiritual relish and enjoyment, for virtue takes root in dryness, difficulty, and labor, as God says to St. Paul: Virtue is made prefect in weakness.

Oh, ask Him that I may be equal to my vocation and not abuse the graces He lavishes on me; if you knew how fearful that makes me sometimes...Then I cast myself on Him whom Saint John calls 'the Faithful and True,' and I beg Him to be Himself my fidelity!

I say, daughters, that we should set our eyes on Christ, our Good, and on His saints. There we shall learn true humility, the intellect will be enhanced, as I have said, and self-knowledge will not make one base and cowardly.

We do not climb Calvary as heroes, like the champion who has won the race. A saint is not a hero: he is someone filled with God and with God's strength.

Let us now come to the detachment which we must practice, for if this is carried out perfectly it includes everything else. I say “it includes everything else” because, if we care nothing for any created things, but embrace the Creator alone, His Majesty will infuse the virtues into us in such a way that, provided we labor to the best of our abilities day by day, we shall not have to wage war much longer, for the Lord will take our defense in hand against the devils and against the whole world.

The imitation of the virtue in which one sees another excel has a great tendency to spread. This is good advice; don't forget it.

The Way of Spiritual Childhood...is the only means to make rapid progress in love and the only way by which saints are made.

God is ready to pardon a sinner who humbles himself. He looks with more love on a soul who returns to Him in Humility, than on a faithful soul who finds pleasure in its virtues.

In the patience and forbearance practiced in these voids and aridities, and through perseverance in its spiritual exercises without consolation or satisfaction, the soul practices the love of God, since it is no longer motivated by the attractive and savory gratification it finds in its work, but only by God.

Crucified inwardly and outwardly with Christ, you will live in this life with fullness and satisfaction of soul, and possess your soul in patience.