Archive

When I think that previously I was envious of Mary Magdalene for having had Jesus in her home so many times, for having listened to Him, I become ashamed; for He did not abandon our earth.  He remains in the tabernacle.  There I look at Him in faith and listen to Him.

We live too much our own individual lives and think much too little of how we are united with each other in and through God and all together with God. And yet therein lies our supreme worth and strength, our dignity.

When God communicates this bright ray of his secret wisdom to the soul not yet transformed, he causes thick darkness.

Nothing is accomplished without effort, without struggle. In our better moments, we no longer shed tears over our own weaknesses or over those of others, but we recall what was interiorly said to St. Paul: My grace is sufficient for you; in union with me you can do all things.

O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life in listening to You, to become wholly teachable that I may learn all from You. Then, through all nights, all voids, all helplessness, I want to gaze on You always and remain in Your great light. O my beloved Star, so fascinate me that I may not withdraw from Your radiance.

In order to reach the ideal life of the soul, I believe we must live in the realm of the supernatural and be persuaded that God dwells in our innermost being, and go to everything with Him. Then nothing can be trivial, no matter how commonplace in itself, for we do not live in those things, but soar above them.

O soul, most beautiful of creatures, who desire so ardently to know that place where your Beloved dwells in order to seek Him and unite yourself to Him; you yourself are the retreat where He takes refuge, the dwelling where He hides Himself.

… the soul (possessing a will the more generous and free the more it is united with God) gives to God, God himself in God; and this is a true and complete gift of the soul to God.

How wonderful is this presence of God in us, in the inner sanctuary of one's soul! There we always find Him... Let us try never to leave Him alone, so that our lives may be an unceasing prayer.

He has suffered your committing a thousand ugly offenses and abominations against Him, and this suffering wasn't enough for Him to cease looking at you. Is it too much to ask you to turn your eyes from these exterior things in order to look at Him sometimes?

It seems to me that if our sacrifices take Jesus captive, our joys make Him prisoner too. All that is needed to attain this is that, instead of giving ourselves over to selfish happiness, we offer to our Spouse the little joys He scatters in our path to charm our hearts and draw them towards Him.

The soul is not united with God in this life through understanding, or through enjoyment, or through imagination, or through any other sense; but only faith, hope, and charity (according to the intellect, memory, and will) can unite the soul with God in this life.