1. Duty before everything else, even before what is holy.

2. My children, to remain like this, unable to do my duty, is useless, it is better that I die!

3. One day a spiritual son asked him: Father, how can I increase my love? Reply: By doing your duty with exactitude and upright intentions and observing the law of the Lord. If you do this with constancy and perseverance, your love will grow.

4. In order to aim at perfection it is necessary to take the greatest care to do everything in order to please God and to try to avoid even the smallest fault; to do one's duty and everything else with more generosity.

5. Always and in everything let there be more uprightness of intention, more exactitude, more punctuality, more generosity in serving the Lord and then you will be as the Lord wants you.

6. Reflect on what you write, because the Lord will ask you to account for it. Be careful, journalist! May the Lord grant you the satisfactions you desire in your career.

7. You too, doctors, you came to the world as I did with a mission to accomplish. Take note: I speak to you of duties when everyone talks about rights.... You have the mission of curing the sick, but if you do not bring love to the bed of the patient, I do not think the medicines will be of much use.... Love cannot do without words. How can you express it if not with words that relieve the patient spiritually? Bring God to the patient. It will be worth more than any other cure.

8. Be like little spiritual bees, bringing nothing into their hive but honey and wax. May your home be full of sweetness, peace, agreement, humility and piety as regards conversation.

9. Make Christian use of your money and savings and then so much misery will disappear and so many suffering bodies and afflicted beings will find relief and comfort.

10. Not only do I find nothing wrong in your returning the visits to your acquaintances, but I consider it to be an absolute duty. Mercy is useful in all situations and is adaptable to everything in accordance with the circumstances, except when it involves sin. By all means return the visits and you will also have the reward of obedience and the Lord's blessing.

11. I see that all the seasons of the year can be found in your souls. Sometimes you feel the winter of much sterility, distractions, listlessness and boredom; sometimes the dews of the month of May with the perfume of holy little flowers (small sacrifices); sometimes the heat of the desire to please our divine Spouse. Nothing remains but the autumn in which you don't see much fruit, but it often happens that when the grain is threshed and the grapes crushed, there is a bigger harvest than the harvesting promised.

12. I beseech you, for the love of God, do not fear God, because He doesn't want to do you any harm at all. Love Him a great deal because He wants to do you a great deal of good. Walk simply, with certainty in your resolutions, and reject the reflections of spirit concerning your suffering, treating them as cruel temptations.

13. Be totally resigned in the hands of our Lord, giving Him your remaining years, and always pray Him that you may live a life which is pleasing to Him. Don't worry about useless promises of tranquillity, enjoyment or merits, but present your hearts to your divine Spouse, totally emptying it of all other affections, except his chaste love. And beseech Him to fill it purely and simply with actions, desires and a will which pertain to his love, so that your hearts, like mother of pearl, do not conceive anything, except with the dew of Heaven, and not with the water of the world.

14. May the Lord bless you and render the family yoke less heavy for you. Always be good. Remember that there are difficult duties in marriage that only divine grace can facilitate. Always be worthy of this grace. May the Lord preserve you unto the third and fourth generation.

15. In family life have strong convictions, smile in the face of self-denial and in the constant sacrifice of your whole self.

16. The principal self-denial takes place in the home.

17. There is nothing more nauseating than a woman, especially if she is married, who is fickle, frivolous and haughty.
The Christian wife must be a woman of sound piety towards God, an angel of peace in the family, dignified and pleasant towards others.

18. God gave me my poor sister, and God has taken her away. Blessed be his holy name. In this resignation and exclamation I find the strength to avoid giving way to sorrow. I exhort you, too, to resign yourselves to the divine will, and you will find, like me, relief for your sorrow.

19. May God's blessing accompany, sustain and guide you! Form a Christian family if you want a little bit of peace in this life. May the Lord give you children and then the grace to direct them on the way to Heaven.

20. Courage, courage, children are not nails.

21. Take comfort then, my dear lady, take comfort, because the sustaining arm of the Lord has not been shortened. Oh yes, He is the Father of all, but He is more so for the unhappy and even more so for you who are a widow, and a widowed mother.

22. Place all your worries in God alone, because He has the greatest care of you, and those three angelic children with whom He has blessed you. By their conduct, these children will be a comfort and consolation to you during your lifetime. Take care, not so much of their scientific as of their moral education. And you should take this very seriously, and guard it as the pupil of your eye. As you educate their minds with good studies, assure the education of their hearts, along with that of our holy religion; one without the other causes a mortal wound to the human heart.

23. Why is there evil in the world? Listen carefully. There is a mother who is embroidering. Her son sitting on a low stool sees her work, but upside down. He sees the knots of the embroidery; the tangled threads, and says: "Mother, what are you doing? Your work is not at all clear?"
Then the mother lowers the embroidery frame and shows the right side of her work. Each colour is in its place and the variety of threads form a harmonious design.
So, we are seeing the reverse side of the embroidery. We are sitting on the low stool.

24. I hate sin! Our country would be fortunate if, as mother of law, it would perfect the laws and customs in the light of honesty and Christian principles.

25. The Lord points out and calls, but we do not want to see and answer because we prefer our own interests.
It also sometimes happens that because the voice is always audible, we no longer hear it; but the Lord enlightens and calls. It is man who puts himself in the position of no longer being able to hear.

26. There are such sublime joys and such deep sufferings that words cannot express them. Silence is the last resort of the soul in ineffable joy as in extreme affliction.

27. We must become accustomed to the sufferings which Jesus will be pleased to send us. Jesus, who cannot bear to keep you in a state of affliction at length, will come to help and comfort you, by instilling new courage in your spirit.

28. All human ideas, from wherever they come, can be both good and bad. One must learn to assimilate all the good and offer it to God, eliminating the bad.

29. It is a great grace to begin to serve this good God when youth renders one susceptible to everything. Oh how this offering, by which one offers the flowers and the first fruits of the tree, is appreciated. And what can restrain you from making a total offering of your entire self to the good God, by deciding, once and for all, to give the world, the devil and the flesh a kick, as our god-parents did for us in a determined manner when they held us at Baptism? Perhaps the Lord does not deserve this further sacrifice from you?

30. Remember that God is in us when we are in the state of grace and outside of us, so to speak, when we are in a state of sin; but his angel never abandons us. He is our most sincere and faithful friend when we do not make the mistake of saddening him with our wicked conduct.