Characteristics, elements and symbols of the Christian life

Trust summarises the theological virtues. Those who trust have faith. Those who trust hope. Those who trust love. When we love, we hope, we believe in a person, we trust. Otherwise we do not. God deserves our trust. If we trust poor men who may fail, why should we not trust God Who can never fail?

Trust is also humility. The proud man says: ‘I will do it by myself. I do not trust him because he is an incapable man, a liar, an overbearing fellow…’ The humble man says: ‘I trust him. Why should I not? Why should I think that I am better than he is?’ And more rightly he says of God: ‘Why should I mistrust Him Who is so good? Why should I think that I can do it by myself?’ God gives Himself to the humble, but withdraws from the proud.

Trust is also obedience. And God loves the obedient man. Obedience implies that we acknowledge ourselves as His children and we acknowledge God as our Father. And a father can but love when he is a real father. God is our real Father and a perfect Father.

• Trust in God

Eve’s sin was a four branched tree: pride, avarice, gluttony and lust. And all four were to be cut off, before making the roots of the tree sterile.

• Original sin
• Redemption

Heaven! My aim. Where God was. My only hunger. A hunger which is not gluttony, but a necessity blessed by God, Who wants us to crave for Him.

• Heaven - Paradiso
• Words of wisdom

Every unrestrained vice leads to a bigger vice.

• Sin
• Vice
• Words of wisdom

[I] had destroyed in Me the very last trace of Eve. It had destroyed the last root of that tree with four poisonous branches, a root stuck in the sensuality that had dragged mankind to fall and that will go on biting at your intestines until the end of time and to the last woman.

• Original sin

They elected him protector of Christian families, of workers and many other categories. But he should be appointed protector not only of dying people, of married couples, of workmen, but also of those consecrated to God. Who, of all the people in the world consecrated to the service of God, has consecrated himself as he did, to the service of his God, accepting everything, foregoing everything, bearing everything, fulfilling everything with quickness, with a cheerful mind, a constant humour? There is no one like him.

• Consecrated souls
• Family
• Husband and wife - Husband and wife
• Priests
• Work
• Workers

I respected the priest because of his dignity, not because of his knowledge.

• Priests
• Words of wisdom

31.8 In general, a priest is always enlightened by God. I said: ‘in general’. He is enlightened when he is a real priest. It is not his robe that consecrates him: it is his soul. To judge whether one is a real priest, one must consider what comes out of his soul. As My Jesus said, the things that sanctify or contaminate come out from the soul, and they characterise the whole behaviour of a person. So, when one is a real priest, he is generally inspired by God. We must have a supernatural charity and pray for the others, who are not such.

But My Son has already placed you at the service of this redemption, so I will say no more. Be happy to suffer, so that the number of real priests may increase.

• Priests

Respect for a priest is always a sign of a Christian education. Woe to those priests who lose their apostolic ardour! Also Jesus said that. But woe also to those who think that they are right in despising them! Because they consecrate and hand out the True Bread that descends from Heaven. And that contact makes them holy, just like a sacred chalice, even if they are not totally holy. They will answer to God for it. You must consider them as such and not worry about anything else. You must not be more strict than your Lord Jesus, Who, at their command, leaves Heaven and descends to be raised by their hands. You must learn from Him. And if they are blind, if they are deaf, if their souls are paralysed and their thoughts are unsound, if they are lepers full of faults in strong contrast with their mission, if they are like corpses in sepulchres, then call Jesus that He may heal them and revive them.

Call Him with your prayers, and your suffering, o victim souls. To save a soul is to predestine one’s own soul to Heaven. But to save the soul of a priest is to save a large number of souls, because every holy priest is a net that drags souls to God. And to save a priest, that is to sanctify: re-sanctify, is to create this mystical net. Each prey is a light to be added to your eternal crown.

• Eucharist
• Health - Well-being - Comfort
• Judging a soul
• Prayer
• Priests
• Soul-victim
• The fruitfulness of suffering

The goodwill exerts "with a life devoted, as far as possible, entirely to God: in faith, obedience, purity, charity, generosity and in prayer."

• Union with God and Jesus - Living with God