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We must, above all, pray as the Savior Himself has taught us so insistently. “Ask and it shall be given you.” This is the certain promise of being heard. And if we pray every day with all our heart: “Lord, thy will be done,” we may well trust that we shall not have failed to do God’s will even when we no longer have subjective certainty.

In order to be an image of God, the spirit must turn to what is eternal, hold it in spirit, keep it in memory, and by loving it, embrace it in the will.

So let us be renewed in our innermost souls, stripping ourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new...according to the image of Him who created us (Col. 3:9-10). It is to be done gently and simply, by withdrawing ourselves from all that is not God. Then the soul no longer fears or desires anything. It's will is completely lost in God’s will and since that is what constitutes divine union, it can say, ‘I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me’ (Gal. 2:20).

Hence, don't pay any attention to the fears they raise or to the picture of the dangers they paint for you...Should anyone tell you that prayer is dangerous, consider him the real danger and run from him. Don't forget this counsel, for perhaps you will need it. There will be danger in not having humility and the other virtues. But that the way of prayer be a way of danger - God would never will that. It seems the devil has invented these fears, and so he has been skillful, apparently, in making some who have practiced prayer fall away.

Turn your eyes upon yourself and look at yourself inwardly, as I have said. You will find your Master; He will not fail you: indeed, the less outward comfort you have, the [much] greater the joy He will give you. He is full of compassion and never fails those who are afflicted and out of favor if they trust in Him alone.

Now I realize that true charity consists in putting up with all one’s neighbor’s faults, never being surprised by his weakness, and being inspired by the least of his virtues.

Sometimes the need to be silent makes itself so strongly felt that one would wish not to know how to do anything else save remain at the Master’s feet with Magdalen, eager to hear everything, to penetrate ever more deeply into the mystery of love which He came to reveal to us.

I always feel the same fearless certainty that I shall become a great saint. I’m not relying on my own merits, as I have none, but I put my hope in Him who is goodness and holiness Himself. It is He alone who, satisfied with my feeble efforts, will raise me to Him, will clothes me with His infinite merits, and will make me a saint.

May You be blessed, my God, forever! How obvious it is that You loved me much more than I did myself! How many times, my Lord, have You freed me from so dark a prison, and how often have I put myself in it again against Your will!

The mirror in which we ought to look at ourselves that we may reach divine union is Jesus Christ, because no one can attain it except by means of and through the merits of Jesus Crucified.

Before the divine fire is introduced into and united to the substance of the soul through a person's perfect and complete purgation and purity, its flame, which is the Holy Spirit, wounds it by destroying and consuming the imperfections of its bad habits. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit, in which He disposes it for the divine union and transformation in God through love.

I know that He is better pleased to see you stumbling in the night upon a stony road, than walking in full light of day upon a path carpeted with flowers, because these flowers might hinder your advance.