On Jesus, Love, Meaning of Life, Perfection, Perseverance
On Jesus
Jesus never fails his friends.
'We have a very good friend in Jesus'...
St. John 15:13: "Greater love has no man than this that he lays down his life for his friends." Jesus has indeed proved that He is our friend by dying to save us.
What more can we want, than so good a friend at our side, who will not forsake us when we are in trouble and distress, as they do who belong to the world!
With the Lord by our side, there is nothing we cannot do. Separated from Him, we will collapse almost immediately. With so good a friend and Captain ever present, Himself the first to suffer, everything can be borne. He helps. He strengthens. He never fails. He is the true friend.
Humour
"Those watching from the river bank saw the carriage she was in swaying on the brink of the torrent. She jumped out awkwardly, up to her knees in water, and hurt herself in the process. Wryly, she complained. "So much to put up with and you send me this!" Jesus replied, "Teresa, that's how I treat my friends." She was not lost for an answer: "Small wonder you have so few!"
On Love
Love draws out Love.
Love makes labor light. Love alone gives value to all things.
Love has its greatest power when it is perfect. Then we forget our own feelings for the sake of the one we love. If this really their case, if we seek only to please God, then even the greatest of trials will be made sweet.
The best thing must be to flee from all to the All.
Love and fear of God! These are two strong castles whence we can wage war on the world and on the devils.
Holy church - that mother who is also a queen because she is a king's bride.
On the Meaning of Life
Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and there is only one glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.
On Perfection
The highest perfection consists not in interior favours or in great rapture, but in bringing of our wills so closely into conformity with the will of God that as soon as we realize that He wills anything, we desire it ourselves with all our might.
On Perseverance
Patient endurance attends to all things.