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When I accepted the fact that I might spend my life suffering from these troubles and anxieties-which in no way diminished the trust I had in God and served only to increase my faith-I found myself changed all at once. And my soul, until that time always in turmoil, experienced a deep inner peace as if it had found its center and place of rest.

True poverty of spirit...means being at rest in labors and dryness and not seeking consolation or comfort in prayer...but seeking consolation in trials for love of Him who always lived in the midst of them.

We ought to receive everything as coming directly from our Father’s divine hand, who loves us and who, in all our trials, is working out His own end end — that of uniting us more closely to Himself. Launch your soul upon the sea of courage and holy abandonment to Him! Remember that nothing that troubles you and makes you afraid comes from God, for He is the Prince of Peace and has promised peace to men of good will.

If I ask You to free me from a trial, and the purpose of that trial is my mortification, what is it that I'm asking for, my God?

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.

Always receive with equal contentment from God’s hand either consolations or sufferings, peace or distress, health or illness. Ask nothing, refuse nothing, but always be ready to do and to suffer anything that comes from His Providence.

As for what concerns our relations with our fellow men, the anguish in our neighbor's soul must break all precept. All that we do is a means to an end, but love is an end in itself, because God is love.

The meek are those who know how to suffer their neighbor and themselves.

Sanctity lies not in saying beautiful things, or even in thinking them, or feeling them: it lies in truly being willing to suffer.

Since a double measure of bitterness must follow the doing of your own will, do not do it even though you remain in single bitterness.

You must build a little cell within your soul as I do. Remember that God is there and enter it from time to time; when you feel nervous or you're unhappy, quickly seek refuge there and tell the Master all about it....We come quite simply to the One we love, stay close to Him like a little child in the arms of its mother, and we let our heart go....If you only knew how well He understands....You wouldn't suffer any more if you understood that.

So Sisters, if you love Him, strive that what you say to the Lord may not amount to mere polite words; strive to suffer what His Majesty desires you to suffer. For otherwise, when you give your will, it would be like showing a jewel to another, making a gesture to give it away, and asking that he take it; but when he extends his hand to accept it, you pull yours back and hold on tightly to the jewel.