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Road of Hope - Chapter 5

The interior life
The contemplative life is realised in your actions.

80. Peace is dependent on a victory, and victory is dependent on a struggle. If you desire peace, you will have to fight continuously.

81. Your weapons are meditation, self-denial, the sacraments, the rosary and recollection. Your allies are our Blessed Mother, St Joseph, the angels, your patron saints and your spiritual director. Unless you gradually drop your weapons or betray your allies, you will certainly gain a victory.

82. if you stand on an upper story of a tall building and look down on the road below, yo will see a stream of people running around in all directions. There are all kinds of cars, and all kinds of people fighting and quarrelling with each other, frantically rushing around in circles, all for the sake of love or money, ambition or the competition of life. Only when we throw ourselves into the work of God without any fear will we have a faith that is alive and a fervent apostolic spirit.

83. If you were determined to practice one virtue every year and if you would practice it everyday, very soon you would achieve quite an improvement.

84. The diver seeking the sea bed or the astronaut in his spaceship launch out adventurously in the cause of science:(can you do less?) When you give up everything for our Lord, even to risking your life for him, then the authenticity of your interior life will be evident to others.

85. You wish to set fire to the whole world by the love which the gospel preaches; you wish to conquer the five continents. Your every moment should be a flash of fire, the fire of your duty, of your obedience, of your patience. Such a flame will burn brightly to illuminate the whole world.

86. External silence and, even more interior silence is the atmosphere conducive to the interior life.

87. You do not have to be learned nor extraordinarily talented to become holy. All you require is the grace of God and your own determination. Few people become saints, because it is easier to become learned than to change one's whole life in order to become holy.

88. Although you are eager to serve God well, nevertheless, if this enthusiasm is not accompanied by a deep personal renewal, you will not be pleasing to God.

89. People of the world are frightened of silence because they feel empty when alone. Those people who live an interior life value silence because they discover a new and beautiful world in a a life of intimacy with the Blessed Trinity, a iife which this world cannot give.

90. If in the past you had done your utmost to eliminate one bad habit during each year, correcting yourself a little every day, by today you would have reduced quite a lot of your faults and imperfections.

91. You ask, when do you have to commence to live this interior life? you have to commence it right from this very moment and you have to recommemce it each and everyday.

92. Who must become holy ? Everybody without exception must become holy. Commence with yourself, because God callls everybody.

93. In this world there is nothing as precious as divine grace. With it heaven has commenced in your heart even now in this world.

94. A precious sparkling diamond is formed in a mass of rock in the depths of the earth over millions of years. Do you mature from the interior in the same way?

95. Spread throughout the whole world and proclaim in a loud voice to everyone. "There is one man who has laid down his life for his friends."(Cf.John15:13, 1Cor.15:3, 2Cor.5:14-15, 1Thess.5:9-10).

96. On the screen of a cinema a raging fire makes everybody frightened, but that fire does not burn hot, nor can it cook anything, because it is only the image of a fire. It does not come issuing forth from a red hot furnance.

97. Our love of God has to be absolute. Our Lord teaches us. "A man cannot be the slave of two masters at once." (Matt.6:24). How many masters do you serve?

98. Set aside a few quiet moments every day to help you advance in the interior life. How many minutes have you set aside lately?

99. Some people say there is a crisis of faith or a crisis of authority, but i think there is actually a crisis of holiness. god send trials to ou in order to refine and separate good from bad in you.

100. You might find it hard to understand why St Augustine says in his prayer. "Lord, let me know you, let me know myself." His reason can be understood from Our Lord's question. "What, phillip, here am I, who have been all this while in your company; have you not learned to recognize me yet?" (John14:9). If you do know truly, your life will change completely.

101. There are people whose practice of religion consists of reciting many prayers and attending many masses, but they do not put their faith into practice. This is no different from someone who might ask a friend "Are you well?", and the friend replies, "I eat six meals a day."". Eating a lot meals is not necessarily the same thing as being healthy.