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But because being one with Christ is our sanctity, and progressively becoming one with him our happiness on earth, the love of the cross in no way contradicts being a joyful child of God. Helping Christ carry his cross fills one with a strong and pure joy, and those who may and can do so, the builders of God's kingdom, are the most authentic children of God.

Perfection does not lie in the virtues that the soul knows it has, but in the virtues that our Lord sees in it. This is a closed book; hence one has no reason for presumption, but must remain prostrate on the ground with respect to self.

Living faith is the firm conviction that God exists, an acceptance as true of all that He has revealed, a loving promptness to let oneself be guided by the will of God.

It is a good proof and test of our love if we can bear with such faults and not be shocked by them. Others, in their turn, will bear with your faults, which, if you include those of which you are not aware, must be much more numerous.

Blessed is he who, setting aside his own liking and inclination, considers things according to reason and justice before doing them.

At the moment the soul recollects itself in the presence of God, it enters on an act of general, loving, peaceful, and tranquil knowledge, drinking wisdom and love and delight.

Looking at things from God's viewpoint there is no such thing as chance; my whole life, down to the last detail, is traced in the plan of divine Providence and, to the all seeing eyes of God, constitutes a perfectly intelligible whole.

If through feebleness I sometimes fall, may Your divine glance purify my soul, consuming all my imperfections, like the fire that transforms everything into itself.

To make acts of penance of all my contradictions, temporal or spiritual pains, as well as all the actions that could displease me is what I call the penance of the moment.

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!

If you should fall at times don’t be discouraged and stop striving to advance. For even from this fall God will draw out good.

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.