…Persons who love very much, easily take offense at trifles. No doubt your excessive affection for me makes you a little diffident about mine. But there is no harm done; I hope you will soon be over this slight jealousy and be convinced that nothing can change the genuine affection Our Lord has given me for you.

Present misfortune presupposes good luck in the future.

…In the kingdom of charity, one prefers to suffer some inconvenience rather than inconvenience the neighbor.

Charity is the cement which binds Communities to God and persons to one another…

There is no act of charity that is not accompanied by justice or that permits us to do more than we reasonably can.

It is His good pleasure that we remain always in the holy joy of His love…

Who will excuse us before God for the loss of such a great number of people, who could be saved by the slight assistance we could give them?

Love is inventive to infinity.

So, our vocation is to go, not just to one parish, not just to one diocese, but all over the world; and do what? To set people’s hearts on fire, to do what the Son of God did. He came to set the world on fire in order to inflame it with His love.

I thank God that you know the art of tearing yourself apart – I mean the way to humble yourself truly by recognizing and realizing your faults. You are right in believing yourself to be as you describe and to be most unsuitable for any kind of duty; it is on this foundation that Our Lord will base the execution of His plans for you.

We must be firm but not rough in our guidance and avoid an insipid kind of meekness, which is ineffective. We will learn from Our Lord how our meekness should always be accompanied by humility and grace so as to attract hearts to Him and not cause anyone to turn away from Him.

I can understand that the man you told me about has offended you, and I am very annoyed that he forgot himself like that. However, you must not consider what he did as coming from him but rather as a trial which God wishes to make of your patience. This virtue will be even more a virtue in you who are more sensitive by nature and have given less cause for the offense that you have received.

May you be more advanced in the school of solid virtue, which is practiced in an excellent way in the midst of suffering, and which keeps good servants of God in fear when they have nothing to suffer!

If your men grow weary of the work or balk at obedience, you must bear with them. Get what you can gently from them. True, it is good to be firm in attaining your goal, but use appropriate, attractive, and agreeable means.

Let us do our duty well; let us go straight to God; let us work to become very humble, very patient, very mortified, and very charitable.

God allows us to give rise to the practice of two beautiful virtues: perseverance, which leads us to attain the goal, and constancy, which helps us to overcome difficulties.

There are some persons who are content with everything and others who are scarcely content with anything. These latter need patience to bear with themselves.

You say you experience great difficulty in the mission. Alas! Monsieur, there is no lot in life where there is nothing to be endured.

In God’s name, Monsieur, let us remain indifferent; let us strive to be equally attached to whatever obedience marks out for us, be it agreeable or disagreeable.

Experience has shown us that virtue puts down only shallow roots in those who are there for just a short time.

In the name of God, Monsieur, let us not be so little attached to God’s service that we yield to a useless fear which may cause us to abandon the task He has given us.

I know well, Monsieur, how much you have to endure in your present duty, and I ask Our Lord to strengthen you in your difficulties. It is in such circumstances that we acquire virtue; where there is no suffering, there is little merit. My wish is that God may grant us great indifference with regard to duties. O Monsieur, how sure we would then be of doing His Holy Will, which is our sole aspiration, and how much peace and contentment we would enjoy, or so it seems to me!

We must be full reservoirs in order to let our water spill out without becoming empty, and we must possess the spirit with which we want them to be animated, for no one can give what he does not have.

…in the final analysis, virtue is not found in extremes, but in prudence…

Let us work to rid ourselves of our attacks of over-zealousness especially when it offends against respect, esteem, and charity.

Excess in the practice of virtue is no less imperfect than the lack of it.

You can give me no greater consolation nor render greater service to your neighbor than to place yourself in a condition to serve him for a long time.

Ordinarily, God allows these things [i.e. evil suggestions and wickedness] to happen to free us from some hidden pride and to engender in us holy humility.

In order to become soundly virtuous, it is advisable to make good practical resolutions concerning particular acts of the virtues and to be faithful in carrying the out afterwards. Without doing that, one is often virtuous only in one’s imagination.

Peace is never so complete that we may not have something to suffer. Since it is impossible to please all of those you serve, they offer you the occasion for practices which increase your merit in the measure that you make them meritorious by your patience.