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Don’t fear purgatory because of the suffering endured there, but desire to avoid it in order to please the good God, who imposes this purification with such reluctance. Since you seek to please him in everything, if you trust unshakably that he purifies you at every moment in his love and leaves no trace of sin in you, you can be quite sure that you won’t go to purgatory.

O you souls who wish to go on with so much safety and consolation, if you knew how pleasing to God is suffering, and how much it helps in acquiring other good things, you would never seek consolation in anything; but you would rather look upon it as a great happiness to bear the Cross of the Lord.

God calls to us in countless little ways all the time. Through illnesses and suffering and through sorrow he calls to us. Through a truth glimpsed fleetingly in a state of prayer he calls to us. No matter how halfhearted such insights may be, God rejoices whenever we learn what he is trying to teach us.

She asks your pardon for her unbelieving brethren, and is willing to eat the bread of sorrow as long as You may wish. For love of You she will sit at that table of bitterness where these poor sinners take their food, and she will not stir from it until You give the sign.

Mary, who kept all God's words in her heart, in the fullness of grace granted her, understood the great value of suffering. While the apostles fled,she went out to meet the Saviour on the way to Calvary and stood beneath the cross, in order to share His grief and shame to the end. And she carried Him to the grave, firmly trusting that He would rise.

We are so ignorant that what we have read and been told has not sufficed to teach us to disregard wandering thoughts, therefore I shall not be wasting time in instructing and consoling you about these trials. However, this will help you but little until God chooses to enlighten you, and additional measures are needed: His Majesty wishes us to learn by ordinary means to understand ourselves and to recognize the share taken in these troubles by our wandering imagination, our nature, and the devil’s temptations, instead of laying all the blame on our souls.

He that seeks here any other thing than purely God and the salvation of his soul, will find nothing but trouble and sorrow.

We who run in the way of love shouldn't be thinking of sufferings that can take place in the future: it's a lack of confidence, it's like meddling in the work of creation.

God gives me courage in proportion to my sufferings. I feel at this moment I couldn’t suffer any more, but I’m not afraid since if they increase, He will increase my courage at the same time.

Each incident, each event, each suffering, as well as each joy, is a sacrament which gives God to it; so it no longer makes a distinction between these things; it surmounts them, goes beyond them to rest in its Master, above all things.

In stumbling, in falling with Christ, do not withdraw from the cross or abandon it. Consider carefully the fatigue with which He walks and how much greater His trials are than those trials you suffer, however great you may want to paint them and no matter how much you grieve over them.

Do not imagine that love can be found without suffering, for we carry with us our human nature; and yet, what a source of merit it is!