To desire Him to be merciful to us is to acknowledge Him as God. To seek His pity when we deserve no pity is to ask Him to be just with a justice so holy that it knows no evil and shows mercy to everyone who does not fly from Him in despair.

We thank Him less by words than by the serene happiness of silent acceptance. It is our emptiness in the presence of His reality, our silence in the presence of His infinitely rich silence, our joy in the bosom of the serene darkness in which His light holds us absorbed, it is all this that praises Him.

When you expect the world to end at any moment, you know there is no need to hurry. You take your time, you do your work well.

Good moral actions are not enough. Everything in us, from the very depths, must be cleansed and reordered.

You pray best when the mirror of your soul is empty of every image except the Image of the Invisible Father.

How far have I to go to find you in whom I have already arrived.

The only influence that can really upset the injustice and iniquity of men is the power that breathes in the Christian tradition, renewing our participation in the Life that is the Light of men.