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When Christ was on earth as the God-man, suffering amongst sinners, and praying for us to be forgiven, it was as though His love for God the Father and for human beings was so great that His prayers could not fail to reach Heaven - thus ending the alienation of mankind. His prayers were heard and granted; and so it's as though He threw out a landline, so that not just He but all who trust in Him can follow His Way into glory.

The Father is like a great king, in Heaven; and whenever we pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ at our side, delivering our requests, it is as though the Father is so full of love for His Son that - as He declares to the Saints, Who surround the Father in Heaven - I can refuse nothing to my Son Jesus, nor can I refuse anything He asks for His friends.

The life of grace is like a journey up a mountain, round hairpin bends. Drivers need to know the highway code, and refrain from drink; so we must know about God's Will, and by prayer and other means be able to do it. In the life of grace, however - unlike mountain driving, where there are foolish drivers who might kill us - no-one loses his own soul and goes to Hell except through his own fault.

Whenever someone makes a good confession, she should be confident that she has done something which is not only important and useful for herself and her own spiritual life. She delights the Three Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity, who gaze upon her with delight, admiring her humility and simplicity.

Some Catholics ignore Christ; others look bored in His Presence; many take no notice of the teachings He gives through His Church. They scarcely believe that He is a real person - a Divine Person - Who is pleased to be shown love as well as to give it.

A person who has freely chosen to deny the existence of God and to live as though God does not exist and makes no demands of us, is like a man who shuts himself into an underground cellar, in darkness, without the light of Christ. It is so dark that he is in danger of losing the keys of the door, and of imprisoning himself forever in darkness, instead of climbing Christ's ladder to Heaven.

One of the darkest cellars in which people choose to live is the 'cellar' of disbelief which is atheism. A person who refuses to believe in the existence of God cannot therefore thank God for the gift of life, or turn to Him in sorrow-for-sin. By his own acts, he locks himself in a dark cellar, perhaps loses the key, and is unable to follow Christ when, at the end of his life, Christ calls to him.

If we wish we could give to a beloved relation all the wisdom and goodness that we have received from God in a life-time, the best means is by encouraging them to receive Christ with devotion in Holy Communion. In Christ is His Divinity, wisdom, power, beauty, and goodness: more than enough to fill our hearts, if we open our hearts fully to receive Him.

Every day is a new day, in the life of a Christian, no matter how mundane or routine was the previous day. Each day stretches ahead like an area of countryside to be traversed - with no knowing what might happen. God can intervene in our quiet lives through people: through phone calls received, sermons heard, or through insights and requests offered by the Lord in prayer.

The great MIND of God, that made human DNA and the genome, cannot be understood by human beings; nor can the Godhead by pierced by thought alone. He should be adored; yet He has revealed Himself in and through His Son, God-made-man; and Christian mystics, through Christ, can see deep into the 'heart' of God.

The Church teaches the truth, in every age of our history, yet each of the mystics experiences it - for example, St Paul, St Teresa of Avila, St Thomas Aquinas. It is the Christian mystic who prays with trust, reverence and humility, who knows God better than anyone, through union with Christ in prayer. The mystics have produced the most lyrical and intellectually-coherent accounts of what they have learned of God - which knowledge echoes and confirms the truths taught by the Church, and illumines them.

Christ showed me that the person who knows God best is the Christian mystic. She who has been drawn up to the heights of mystical union, in prayer, after her trial and purification, comes to know the Father and Christ, and the Holy Spirit; and she is able to inspire and encourage others to follow Christ's way of love and humility.

In Lisieux, St.Therese was grateful to God, in every circumstance. We cannot dictate to God about when we will experience His love, and His glory, in earthly life. What is important is that we do His Will; and He who is good always trains His friends - and rewards them. A person like St.Therese who lived much of her life in spiritual darkness had a special vocation to show out naked faith, as well as love.

As well as being fervent teachers, the Church's greatest sinners, when forgiven, have been the most lyrical in their expressions of gratitude to God for helping the weak and hopeless: for example, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Ignatius Loyola, and St. Francis of Assisi.

The Lord has a plan for every life: an invitation which, when heard and accepted, enables each one to love and serve Him and to find true happiness, both in this world, even amidst differences, and in life after death.

It is God Who has given each of us life, and various gifts, and promptings to do good. People who decide, on a selfish whim, to stop serving God and to fulfil their own selfish ambitions are like a chemist who, having been trained, and given responsible work to do, suddenly wanders off into the sunshine, leaving his work at a critical stage, and hindering and upsetting his colleagues. When millions act like this, we have today's world.

God is loving, pure and wise; therefore God chooses, for intimate friendship, a person who loves Him and is reverent, prayerful, humble and obedient. That obedience includes loving his neighbour, and the Church. God cannot bring into close union with Himself those who hate fellow creatures, or believe Jesus was a liar, or hide away in sin, or despise the Church, or are self-important, or pray with little reverence, or despise popular devotions that lead people closer to Heaven, including honour to the Blessed Sacrament, and to the Virgin Mary and other Saints.

The Lord does not look upon each repentant 'child of God' as if classifying us by our past sins; as an ex-greedy banker, or as an ex-prostitute. He thinks of each one in a state of grace as being His glorious, delightful child, whom He loves, and with whom He shares His glory. We must not allow ourselves to be dragged down by our past lives.

If we want to be adorned by gifts which will make us beautiful and pleasant to look upon, there are no 'jewels' more beautiful than those given by God. To posses love for God, and a kind heart, is to be beautiful in the sight of Heaven.

The Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, became man, and bore suffering and death in order to fulfil His Mission, for our sakes. He knew He would rise from the dead; and by His Resurrection He proved that He has conquered death; and He can conquer our sins, if we put our trust in Him.