The present moment is always full of infinite treasure. It contains far more than you can possibly grasp. Faith is the measure of its riches: what you find in the present moment is according to the measure of your faith. Love also is the measure: the more the heart loves, the more it rejoices in what God provides. The will of God presents itself at each moment like an immense ocean that the desire of your heart cannot empty; yet you will drink from that ocean according to your faith and love.

God makes all chosen souls pass through a fearful time of poverty, misery, and nothingness. He desires to destroy in them gradually all the help and confidence they derive from themselves so that He may be their sole source of support, their confidence, their hope, their only resource.

God teaches the soul by pains and obstacles, not by ideas.

God instructs the heart, not by ideas but by pains and contradictions.

In the shadow of death he produces life, and though the senses are terrified, faith taking all for the best, is full of courage and assurance.

All created things are living in the Hand of God. The senses see only the action of the creatures; but faith sees in everything the action of God.

Souls who can recognize God in the most trivial, the most grievous and the most mortifying things that happen to them in their lives, honor everything equally with delight and rejoicing, and welcome with open arms what others dread and avoid.