Take care of your health, that it may serve you to serve God.
Whatever happens, abide steadfast in a determination to cling simply to God.
Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.
Humor is the foundation of reconciliation.
True humility scarcely ever utters words of humility.
To be pleased at correction and reproofs shows that one loves the virtues which are contrary to those faults for which he is corrected and reproved. And, therefore, it is a great sign of advancement in perfection.
Many who confess their venial sins out of custom and concern for order but without thought of amendment remain burdened with them for their whole life and thus lose many spiritual benefits and advantages.
Do not complain then of your poverty, my daughter, – we only complain of that which is unwelcome, and if poverty is unwelcome to you, you are no longer poor in spirit.
We shall steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God. If at times we are somewhat stunned by the tempest, never fear. Let us take breath, and go on afresh.
The truly patient man neither complains of his hard lot nor desires to be pitied by others. He speaks of his sufferings in a natural, true, and sincere way, without murmuring, complaining, or exaggerating them.
True virtue has no limits, but goes on and on, and especially holy charity, which is the virtue of virtues, and which having a definite object, would become infinite if it could meet with a heart capable of infinity.
Truly it is a blessed thing to love on earth as we hope to love in Heaven, and to begin that friendship here which is to endure for ever there.
Is it not a great temptation to be so valiant in imagination and so cowardly in execution?
Do not fret under such assistance as is needful; therein lies one great grace of poverty. It were overambitious to aim at being poor without suffering any inconvenience, in other words, to have the credit of poverty and the convenience of riches.
There are no galley-slaves in the royal vessel of divine love – every man works his oar voluntarily!
Many would be willing to have afflictions provided that they not be inconvenienced by them.
I see crosses at every turn. My flesh shudders over it, but my heart adores them. Yes, I hail you, crosses little and great, I hail you, and kiss your feet, unworthy of the honor of your shadow.
The spirit cannot endure the body when overfed, but, if underfed, the body cannot endure the spirit.
The state of marriage is one that requires more virtue and constancy than any other; it is a perpetual exercise in mortification.
The highest point of humility consists in not merely acknowledging one’s abjection, but in taking pleasure therein, not from any want of breadth or courage, but to give the more glory to God’s Divine Majesty, and to esteem one’s neighbour more highly than one’s self.