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I believe that it is Jesus Himself, hidden at the bottom of my poor, little heart, who acts in me in some mysterious way and tells me everything He wishes me to do at the present moment.

Our work in the midst of others will be efficacious and blessed by God only if we do not yield even one centimeter of the sure ground of our faith, and if we follow our conscience without letting ourselves be influenced by human respect.

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.

My being, as I see it and as I see myself in it, is null; by myself I am not and I am nothing by myself; at each moment I am faced with nothingness and I ought to receive being anew, moment by moment. And yet "being" is exactly this non-being, and therefore each moment I touch the fullness of being.

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...

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.

To remain in prayer without obtaining any advantage is not lost time, but a season of great gain, because then we labor without interest, and only for the glory of God. And though at first it may seem as if we labored in vain, it is not so; but it is like what happens to sons who work on their father's estate, and who, though at night they receive not wages for the day's work, yet at the end of the year they receive everything.

Always love prayer, and when I say prayer, I don't mean so much imposing on yourself a lot of vocal prayers to be recited every day, as much as that elevation of the soul towards God through all things that establishes us in a kind of continual communion with the Holy Trinity by quite simply doing everything in Their presence.

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.

I am not disturbed at seeing myself weakness itself. On the contrary it is in my weakness that I glory, and I expect each day to discover new imperfections in myself.

Work, especially great work, is a burden and a pain, a suffering precisely because intense activity cannot fail to generate in us that disagreeable phenomenon that is called fatigue, which eventually degenerates into depression or prostration or some other form of real and actual suffering. This painful aspect of work renders it particularly adapted to share as an instrument in the work of our sanctification.

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.