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We come home exhausted, shattered. New vexations possibly await there....and there is still so much to do until evening. Should we not immediately go to it? No, not before calm sets in at least for a moment. Each one must know, or get to know, where and how she can find peace. The best way, when it is possible, is to shed all cares again for a short time before the tabernacle. Whoever cannot do that...should take a breathing space in her own room...When there is no place in which to retreat, if duties prohibit a quiet hour, then at least she must for a moment seal herself inwardly against all other things and take refuge in the Lord. He is indeed there and can give us in a single moment what we need.

It is very important to consult people of experience; for otherwise you will imagine that you are doing yourselves great harm by pursuing your necessary occupations. But, provided we do not abandon our prayer, the Lord will turn everything we do to our profit, even though we may find no one to teach us.

Our Lord wishes that we mortify ourselves, for that is good, and it is well that we love it. He has first suffered for us and all those who would have to labor at His work. We must be His imitators in little things as in great ones...

On another occasion when I was engaged in the laundry, the Sister opposite to me, who was washing handkerchiefs, kept splashing me continually with dirty water. My first impulse was to draw back and wipe my face in order to show her that I wanted her to be more careful. The next moment, however, I saw the folly of refusing treasures thus generously offered, and I carefully refrained from betraying any annoyance. On the contrary I made such efforts to welcome the shower of dirty water that at the end of half an hour I had taken quite a fancy to the novel kind of aspersion, and resolved to return as often as possible to the place where such precious treasures were freely bestowed.

...Sunday must be a great door through which celestial life can enter into everyday life, and strength for the work of the entire week, and how the great feasts, holidays, and seasons of lent, lived though in the spirit of the Church permit the soul to mature the more from year to year to the eternal Sabbath rest.

To prove to Our Lord how much you love Him, learn to forget yourself always ... and be very faithful to all your duties and all your resolutions. Live by will rather than by imagination. If you feel your weakness, God wants you to make use of it in order to make acts of the will which you will offer Him as so many acts of love ... He so loves you and He so wants you for His own, whatever may be the path whereby you must follow Him here below.

Humility has an excellent feature: when it is present in a work, that work does not leave in the soul a feeling of frustration.

God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher.

The bread of life that we need each day to augment eternal life in us renders our will a docile instrument of the divine will, establishes in us the kingdom of God, and purifies our lips and heart to glorify His holy name.

One ought to be careful not to devote oneself wholly and with too much solicitude to exterior occupations, to which it is expedient only to lend oneself as much as is necessary, keeping the rest (namely the mind and heart) for God.

I keep my eyes fixed on Eternity, and from this source I draw constancy in the midst of the confusion of daily life; freedom in my social relations, and joy in spirit...

We must enter continually more deeply into the Divine Being by means of recollection. ‘I press on’ cried St Paul (Phil. 3:14). Thus, every day we must go down deeper along the path of the abyss that is God, letting ourselves slide down the slope in a confidence that is full of love.