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I thirst, I thirst for Jesus alone! Happy the souls who suffer in secret, known to God alone! How I love a soul suffering with patience, hidden with God alone! Once you have given God something, you must never take it back.

Suffering is not unknown to me. In it I find my joy, for on the Cross one finds Jesus and He is love. And what does suffering matter when one loves?

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

The Lord told me this:...'Behold these wounds, for your sufferings have never reached this point. Suffering is the way of truth. By this means you will help me weep over the loss of those who follow the way of the world...

Only in union with the divine Head does human suffering take on expiatory power. To suffer and to be happy although suffering, to have one's feet on the earth, to walk on the dirty and rough paths of this earth and yet to be enthroned with Christ at the Father's right hand, to laugh and cry with the children of this world and ceaselessly to sing the praises of God with the choirs of angels. This is the life of the Christian until the morning of eternity breaks forth.

Never fail to keep your heart at peace and in tender love, ready to suffer as things present themselves.

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.

And it is clear that since God wants to lead those whom He greatly loves by the path of tribulation there is no reason to think that He despises contemplatives, for with His own mouth He praises them and considers them His friends.

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

When it seems to you that the little bark of your soul is about to break, throw out into the sea of tribulation the anchor of hope and have confidence in the divine help. Have no fear that the most merciful God will allow himself to be surpassed by your confidence; He loves our souls so much that He gives much more than we ask of Him.

The end cannot be reached without adopting the means, and since Our Lord had made me understand that it was through the cross He would give me souls, the more crosses I encountered the stronger became my attraction to suffering.

Jesus wishes to bring His Kingdom to souls more by suffering and persecution than by brilliant preaching.