Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that.

The man of impure speech is a person whose lips are but an opening and a supply pipe which hell uses to vomit its impurities upon the earth.

We put pride into everything like salt. We like to see that our good works are known. If our virtues are seen, we are pleased; if our faults are perceived, we are sad. I remark that in a great many people; if one says anything to them, it disturbs them, it annoys them. The saints were not like that - they were vexed if their virtues were known, and pleased that their imperfections should be seen.

If you invoke the Blessed Virgin when you are tempted, she will come at once to your help, and Satan will leave you.

The pure soul is a beautiful rose, and the Three Divine Persons descend from Heaven to inhale its fragrance.

The Lord is more anxious to forgive our sins than a woman is to carry her baby out of a burning building.

To serve the Queen of Heaven is already to reign there, and to live under her commands is more than to govern.