Let us imagine that we are a brush in the hand of an infinitely perfect artist. What must a brush do to make the painting turn out most beautiful? It must allow itself to be guided as perfectly as possible...When Eternal Wisdom, God, uses us as an instrument, then we shall act most fruitfully...when we permit ourselves to be directed most perfectly and entirely.

God approaches gently, often secretly, always in love...He comes to us, as He Himself has told us, in those whom we know in our own lives. Very often we do not recognize Him. He comes in many people we do not like, in all who need what we can give, in all who have something to give us, and for our greater comfort. He comes in those we love, in our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters, our friends and our children. Because this is so, we must not be content ever to love with only… Continue

Whatever the work with which you have been entrusted - as a religious, as a layperson - it is a means for you to put your love for God in a living action, in an action of love. . .Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. . .So if I want to know how much I love Christ, if I want to know if I am really in love with God, then I have only to look at how I do the work He has entrusted to me- how much love I put into the doing of that work.… Continue

The times of trial are judged to have been profitable. They were good for me. The agent of the humiliation was not others, not events, not even myself. It was the work of God. And the purpose of the process was continued schooling in God's law; to help me to learn the ways of God. It is impossible to conceive of anyone being wise without their having been through hard times. It is the discovery of God's surprising closeness when everything goes wrong that leads to genuine spiritual wisdom.

This hidden God who challenges our faith, teaches us at the same time, by his example. He gives himself, unresisting, into our hands; we are to give ourselves unresisting into His hands, without struggle, without reservations, without misgiving. The inner reality of our souls is to be something different from anything the world sees. Behind the mask of our daily cares and preoccupations, there is to be some other foundation for our lives, a continual aspiration towards God and desire for His… Continue