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The "good Catholic" who, with self-satisfaction fulfills his duties, reads a good newspaper, votes well, etc. but for the rest does what he pleases, has a long way to go before he attains a life that is lived in and that comes from the hands of God, with the simplicity of a child and the humility of the publican. But whoever has once traveled that way will not turn back again.

God has to work in the soul in secret and in darkness because if we fully knew what was happening, and what Mystery, transformation, God and Grace will eventually ask of us, we would either try to take charge or stop the whole process.

"In perfect love this law holds:

that the lover become like the one he loves;

for the greater their likeness the greater their delight.

Surely your bride's delight would greatly increase

were she to see you like her, in her own flesh."

"My will is yours," the Son replied,

"and my glory is that your will be mine...

What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetites and our tongue, for the language He best hears is silent love.

O my Jesus! You never ask what is impossible; You know better than I how frail and imperfect I am; You know that I shall never love my Sisters as You have loved them, unless You love them Yourself within me, my dearest Master.

When one cannot put oneself right by speaking, it is better to have recourse to prayer and silence; and thus to keep one's peace alone with God.

The immense gifts of God can only be contained by empty and solitary hearts.  Therefore our Lord, who loves you greatly, wishes you to be quite alone, for he desires to be your only companion.

To be a child of God, to do His will, not one's own; to place all our hopes and cares in His hands and no longer be concerned about one's self or future. Thereupon rest the freedom and the good cheer of the child of God.

The road and ascent to God, then, necessarily demands a habitual effort to renounce and mortify the appetites; the sooner this mortification is achieved, the sooner the soul reaches the top. But until the appetites are eliminated, a person will not arrive, no matter how much virtue he practices. For he will fail to acquire perfect virtue, which lies in keeping the soul empty, naked, and purified of every appetite.

Christ's love knows no bounds, is never ending, does not draw back before ugliness and filth. He came for sinners and not for the just, and if the love of Christ lives in us we ought to do as He did and set ourselves to seek the lost sheep.

Aristotle says that, even as are the eyes of the bat with regard to the sun, which is total darkness to it, even so is our understanding to that which is greater light in God, which is total darkness to us. And he says further that, the loftier and clearer are the things of God in themselves, the more completely unknown and obscure are they to us.

We practice charity much better when we are helping a person who is less appealing to us.