If we abandon ourselves in God’s Hands, He will fashion us as He wants us to be. He will give us so many opportunities! He will make us meet people that are His own. We shall progress in life. And finally we shall flourish in Christ, in God. But when we want things to be according to our own petty will and tell Him: 'No, I do not want that,' then God says to us: 'Let yourself go free.'

To begin with, I don’t accept that there are people who are 'bad'. There are people who are ignorant, who do not know. This is why, to give us an example, Christ said from the Cross: 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do'. The heart never stops being good. You can see even a wrongdoer with tears in his eyes at a given moment and saying: 'Well now, I still cannot understand how I did that.' This spark of God is inside us. It cannot be absent from any human being.

It is a great fallacy to believe that by trying you can change a person. This never happens. It can be done through the example of your own life. The change will occur when the time of God comes. If you change your own self and become a living example to the person you wish to change, if you become his ideal and are seen to be happy, then it will happen.

Since I know how much God loves me, I cannot help but love, in turn, all His creatures, as the Angels do. Father Lev Gillet gave us a fine lecture on the Prophet Daniel, to whom an Angel came and said: 'Daniel, this I have come to pass on to you, for you are a man greatly loved by the Lord'. God sends to us also, with His Angel, every day, the same message. This is why we should not walk in low spirits. We should walk and dance! And if asked: 'Why do you dance?' we should answer: 'Because we are the spoiled children of God!'

Whenever I know something—from my own personal experience—that might help someone, I present it as coming from a third party. The reason I do that is to avoid offending the egoism of the other person and so prevent his negative reaction. Unfortunately, such trifles are of great importance to human egoism.

The only thing I know that I have permanently is what I have day and night, wherever I may be. It is: First, Faith; Second, Faith; Third, Faith. That’s it! There’s nothing else I can say to you. It animates and guides my life. Since I have faith, if someone were to come and tell me: 'Will you go with me to Lebanon?' I would answer: 'Yes'. I say 'yes', because I believe that if it is not for my own good, God will arrange things so that the very same persons who invited me will tell me 'no'.

This is meant to prevent us from being misled by human knowledge and guidance. It is most essential. Because the Power of Darkness will always send near you people who will look like sheep while underneath they are wolves, as the Lord says. And many a time, the evil spirit will enter people that are dear to you. When he sees that you are following a practice with the sole purpose of attaining the way of God, he sends them to deceive you. This is why you should always ask yourselves: If the invisible Christ were here, visible, as happened once before, how would I behave? What would I do?

On this earth? NEVER - in capital letters! No. Yet, step by step, step by step… Provided we don’t turn back, as Lot’s wife did, or do as that man did who had his hand on the plough but was looking backwards. Never backwards! Even if we progress by a very small step every day! Above all, don’t keep much in your heart. Go to confession quickly, and don’t let such things remain in you.

The love we have towards another person should never reach the point of idolatry. The limit where love ends and idolatry begins is something that many people fail to discern. We are, for example, parents of a child and we love it to the point of adoration. Then this child takes the place of God. I have seen it happen many times. The child becomes a small idol and, for its sake, we forget God.

For Christ said: ‘My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth’. And again, ‘…that My joy might remain in you’. This joy is like the grace of God. It dwells in us. We do not wait for the other person to give us joy, since Christ gives it first. Because I love with all my heart those whom I see. I link their life with my own and, at the same time, I think: If I, a mortal and sinful person, can love them so much, how much more must God love them - God Who created them and Whose children they are.

This is the Spirit of God, Who has created us to love. Your destination is to love. Now, is it a young boy? You will love him. Is he a Jew? You will love him. Is he a Turk? You will love him. He is not responsible for what he is or where he was born. Am I to be the judge? No. So, at that moment, when you do not think of yourself, but rather of the limitless love God has for this person, you love him, little by little, as much as you can, while He loves him immensely.

When, for instance, a twenty-year-old girl comes to you and shows you a hand from which you have to cut away with scissors all the gangrenous parts, who helps whom? I, who cut and tremble in my heart for the poor girl? Or she, who tells me: ‘Since this is God’s will, cut, go ahead and cut.’ Who is the one receiving help at that moment? I am.

To enter into married life is like entering a monastery. For marriage is something sacred - it is a sacrament of the church blessed by God. The wife should consider her husband as her Hegumen [Abbot]. Why? Because the basis for happiness in this world is to stop having a will of our own, out of egoism. When we cease to have our own will, and we both wish to obey God’s will, then the blessing of God is upon us.

We must be on the alert, all the time. We must be in a state of readiness. We are fully alert when we are permanently in the presence of God and the Angels - in everything; in all things. Then, it becomes a habit and we are no longer affected by anything. Indeed, it is quite strange. It is as if the mind is split in two: one half of it is there, the other half here. Do you understand? The ‘there’ should be permanent, however. For if the ‘here’ is dominant, you experience a feeling of weariness. Then, you return to Him.

We must have patience, because God lives in eternity and works in eternity. We humans are constrained to a short life of 70-80 years, so we are in a hurry to see everything and see it fast! Because our life goes by quickly. We exist here for only one brief moment in eternity and then what? We are finished with this life. God works in eternity and for this reason, we may ask for something today and get it in 30 years! In this way, we slowly acquire the experience and finally, one day, we stop wishing and asking. For He knows what, where, if and when He will grant it.

We must not revolt against temptation. The Gospel says: ‘Resist not evil’. When something tempts you, say the Jesus Prayer and you will feel an inner change. But you must not have any resentment. The moment we start resenting, the Evil One finds an opportunity to act. He always thrives in confusion, in incoherence, in anxiety. An evil thought comes. It has come, it will go. It comes again. We are accountable for that thought only if we keep it for long and put it into practice.

We should always try to sanctify work and to purify love - even ‘worldly’ love. When we purify love and keep it clear and refined, without anything secret - which will be revealed some day - and when we say: ‘I’ll work as a charwoman’ and do it as if we were university professors (for work is holy, from the job of the street-sweeper to the position of the highest official), then we are on the right road. I recall the joy I felt when three street-sweepers knocked at my door on New Year’s Day. I saw them as the Three Magi, welcomed them and shared with them the first traditional sugared buns.

When we become truly conscious of the gifts of God, we no longer have the time to ask for anything. We keep going and saying Thank You… Thank You… Thank You… Thank You… We see a person: Thank You. We see a flower: Thank You. We see a glass of milk: Thank You. Thank You for everything! And such joy enters into our life that many, even of those that are close to us, cannot understand what all this is about.

You know, when God wants to help someone, He can raise up children for Abraham even out of stones, as the Gospel says. It says so. Fine! Then I, too, am a ‘stone daughter of Abraham’! Let’s say that someone in great need of help comes here, because his steps happened to bring him this way. Then, God places a ‘veil’ between us and he sees me not as I am, but as God wants me to be - that is, as a quite different person from my worthless self. So, he listens to what I say, he is comforted and inspired and, at the end, he leaves a better person than I am, while I remain as I was.

What people want most is a smile, a touch, a tear. Nothing else. When you see the other person as a human being and feel him as a brother, then whatever you do for him will be all right. He may want a cooked meal, or a clean shirt. In a leper colony where I worked [Baba Amte’s] I used to wash dozens of shirts every morning, because a non-infected person had to do the washing for those who were healthy. Well, I did that for six months.