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Faith furnishes a certain but obscure knowledge to the understanding. In fact it shows us God as inaccessible light, as incomprehensible and infinite Being before whom every natural force gives way. And it is just for this motive that faith reduces reason to its intrinsic nothingness: to the realization of its impotence and of the grandeur of God.

In order to become a temple of the Lord (in which He will be pleased to dwell)- it is necessary to put unto practice His teachings and virtues, and the first of these is purity.

I have never heard Him speak, but I know that He is within me.

It seems to the soul that the entire universe is a sea of love in which it is engulfed, for conscious of the living point or center of love within itself, it is unable to catch sight of the boundaries of this love.

There are many Christians who are virtuous men, and who do great things, but their virtues and good works are utterly useless in the matter of eternal life, because they seek themselves in them, and not solely the honor and glory of God.

God, wishing His elect to realize their own misery, often temporarily withdraws His favors: no more is needed to prove to us in a very short time what we really are.

She no longer feels "hunger or thirst," for in spite of her consuming desire for Beatitude, she is satisfied by this food which was her Master's: "The will of the Father." "She no longer feels the heat of the sun," that is, she no longer suffers from suffering. Then the Lamb can "lead her to the fountain of life," where He wills, as He wills, for she does not look at the paths on which she is walking; she simply gazes at the Shepherd who is leading her.

More effective than the mortification one practices according to one's own choice is the cross that God lays upon one, exteriorly and interiorly.

Christ's love knows no bounds, is never ending, does not draw back before ugliness and filth. He came for sinners and not for the just, and if the love of Christ lives in us we ought to do as He did and set ourselves to seek the lost sheep.

Believe me, the question is not whether we wear the religious habit or not, but whether we practice the virtues and submit our will in all things to the will of God.

The cross and peace are my portion. But the cross and discouragement are the portion of the enemy and of those who listen to the enemy.

Oh, then, spiritual soul, when you see your appetites darkened, your inclinations dry and constrained, your faculties incapacitated for any interior exercise, do not be afflicted; think of this as a grace, since God is freeing you from yourself and taking from you your own activity.