1. Holy Mary is the Queen of peace, and thus the Church invokes her. So when your soul or your family are troubled, or things go wrong at work, in society or between nations, cry out to her without ceasing. Call to her by this title: Regina pacis, ora pro nobis. Queen of peace, pray for us. Have you at least tried it when you have lost your calm?… —You will be surprised at its immediate effect.
2. In your heart and soul, in your intelligence and in your will, implant a spirit of trust and abandonment to the loving Will of your heavenly Father… From this will arise the interior peace you desire.
3. There is a remedy for those anxieties of yours. Be patient, have rectitude of intention and look at things from a supernatural perspective.
4. God is with you! So cast far away from you that fear and spiritual agitation… They are reactions to avoid in the first place, for they only serve to multiply temptations and increase the danger.
5. Everything may collapse and fail. Events may turn out contrary to what was expected and great adversity may come. But nothing is to be gained by being perturbed. Furthermore, remember the confident prayer of the prophet: “The Lord is our judge, the Lord gives us our laws, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.”
—Say it devoutly every day, so that your behaviour may agree with the designs of Providence, which governs us for our own good.
6. If you fix your sight on God and thus know how to keep calm in the face of worries; if you can forget petty things, grudges and envies, you will save a lot of energy, which you need if you are to work effectively in the service of men.
7. As soon as you truly abandon yourself in the Lord, you will know how to be content with whatever happens. You will not lose your peace if your undertakings do not turn out the way you hoped, even if you have put everything into them, and used all the means necessary. For they will have “turned out” the way God wants them to.
8. When darkness surrounds us and our soul is blind and restless, we have to go to the Light, like Bartimaeus. Repeat, shout, cry out ever more strongly, Domine, ut videam! Lord, that I may see… And daylight will dawn upon you, and you will be able to enjoy the brightness He grants you.
9. Fight against your harshness of character, against your selfishness, your spirit of comfort and your dislikes… We have to be co-redeemers; and, besides, consider carefully that the prize you receive will bear a very direct relation to the sowing you may have done.
10. The task for a Christian is to drown evil in an abundance of good. It is not a question of negative campaigns, or of being anti anything. On the contrary, we should live positively, full of optimism, with youthfulness, joy and peace. We should be understanding with everybody, with the followers of Christ and with those who abandon him, or do not know him at all.
—But understanding does not mean holding back, or remaining indifferent, but being active.
11. Through Christian charity and human good manners, you should make an effort not to create an unbridgeable distance between you and anybody else… You should leave a way out for others, so that they need go no further from the Truth.
12. A paradox: I have had fewer worries on my mind every day since I decided to follow the advice of the psalm: “Cast your cares upon the Lord, and he will sustain you.” And at the same time, once we have done whatever needs doing, everything can be solved more easily!