The saints were so completely dead to themselves they cared very little whether others agreed with then or not! 1
If something uncharitable is said in your presence, either speak in favor of the absent, or withdraw, or if possible stop the conversation. 2
We do not have to talk very much in order to pray well. We know that God is there in His holy tabernacle; let us open our hearts to Him; let us rejoice in His Presence: This is the best prayer. 3
God is like a mother who carries her child in her arms by the edge of a precipice. While she is seeking all the time to keep him from danger, he is doing his best to get into it. 6
Humility is to the various virtues what the chain is in a Rosary. Take away the chain and the beads are scattered; remove humility, and all virtues vanish. 7
When it's God Who is speaking . . . the proper way to behave is to imitate someone who has an irresistible curiosity and who listens at keyholes. You must listen to everything God says at the keyhole of your heart. 8
... whoever is envious is proud. ... envy comes to us from Hell; the devils having sinned through pride, sinned also through envy, envying our glory, our happiness. ... Why do we envy the happiness and the goods of others? Because we are proud; we should like to be the sole possessors of talents, riches, of the esteem and love of all the world! We hate our equals, because they are our equals; our inferiors, from the fear that they may equal us; our superiors, because they are above us. In the same way, my children, that the devil after his fall felt, and still feels, extreme anger at seeing us the heirs of the glory of the good God, so the envious man feels sadness at seeing the spiritual and temporal prosperity of his neighbour. We walk, my children, in the footsteps of the devil; like him, we are vexed at good, and rejoice at evil. If our neighbour loses anything, if his affairs go wrong, if he is humbled, if he is unfortunate, we are joyful. . . we triumph! The devil, too, is full of joy and triumph when we fall, when he can make us fall as low as himself. ... Shall we be richer, because our neighbour is poorer? Shall we be greater, because he is less? Shall we be happier, because he is more unhappy? St. Cyprian said that other evils had limits, but that envy had none. In fact, my children, the envious man invents all sorts of wickedness; he has recourse to evil speaking, to calumny, to cunning, in order to blacken his neighbour; he repeats what he knows, and what he does not know he invents, he exaggerates. . . Through the envy of the devil, death entered into the world; and also through envy we kill our neighbour; by dint of malice, of falsehood, we make him lose his reputation, his place. . . 10
We must always choose the most perfect. Two good works present themselves to be done, one in favour of a person we love, the other in favour of a person who has done us some harm. Well, we must give preference to the latter. 11
God is always almighty; He can at all times work miracles, and He would work them now as in the days of old were it not that faith is lacking! 12
When we must do something we dislike, let us say to God, " My God I offer You this in honor of the moment when You died for me. 13
All our religion is but a false religion, and all our virtues are mere illusions and we ourselves are only hypocrites in the sight of God, if we have not that universal charity for everyone - for the good, and for the bad, for the poor and for the rich, and for all those who do us harm as much as those who do us good. 14
I turn to you, dear parents, and implore you to imitate the HolyFamily of Nazareth. 15
It is not the sinner who comes back to God to ask His pardon, but God Himself who runs after the sinner and who brings him back to Himself. 17
The devil writes down our sins--our guardian angel all our merits. Labor that the guardian angel's book may be full and the Devil's empty. 18
One must do all one can do for everybody, expecting no return save from God only. 19
God's mercy is like an unleashed torrent. It bears all hearts away in its flood. 20
Here is a rule for everyday life: Do not do anything which you cannot offer to God. 22
Just as a mother holds her child's face in her hands to cover it with kisses, so does God hold (us). 23
When we do something we dislike, let us say to God, "My God, I offer You this in honor of the moment when You died for me. 24
