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The following ideas come from Nguyen Van Thuan’s excellent book “The Road of Hope – A Gospel from Prison” and I recommend it strongly to anyone looking to grow in holiness.

425. ‘Blessed are the pure in hearth for they shall see God.‘ (Matthew 5:8). Priests and religious are not the only people called to observe chastity. Rather, everyone must do so according to his or her state of life. The life of chastity is not a life of restriction, but a life of greater freedom.

426. There are many people who, while appearing to be angels of charity, are in fact devils of covetousness. Unhappy the community that meets with such an angel!

427. God grants the gift of chastity only to humble souls. Pray for it every day then with a simple and sincere heart, one that acknowledges its own weaknesses.

428. The proud will fall sooner or later: because they rely on their own strength rather than on God, he will allow them to stand alone on this shallow foundation.

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“If you do not sacrifice in small things, you will surrender when confronted by big sacrifices.”

I have tried to repudiate something big, like a “big” piece of chocolate, and give it to somebody else as a present – but didn’t succeed and ended up eating it all myself. Is this really just because when there was a small committment made, such as to pray in the morning, I just ignored it and didn’t stick to it?

Does it mean that I will not able to look after my children properly, because I fail to sacrifice some small things now?

So this morning, I decided to hold on to all small opportunities to prove that I want to take the next step and to get closer to God. And when I finally managed to get quiet, He told me this:

“I do care about you. I want you to grow, I want you to reach happiness, wisdom and love. I forgive you and now you can start again. Just be patient, you will not become a saint in one day.”

Lord, now I see that You love me, and I can feel that You are serious about this - You keep washing my feet Yourself – through my friends, parents, husband, colleagues and everybody I meet. Please, let me go now and wash other people’s feets as well. Teach me how to do this with humility, egolessly.

Thanks.

The following ideas come from Nguyen Van Thuan’s excellent book “The Road of Hope – Thoughts of Light from a Prison Cell” and I recommend it strongly to anyone looking to become a Saint.

118. Action without prayer is useless in the sight of God; otherwise, a robot could do more than you.

119. Prayer is of prime importance; secondly there is sacrifice; and only in third place do we have activity.

120. Prayer is the foundation of the spiritual life. When you are praying you are joined in communication with God, just as an electric light bulb glows by being connected with a generator.

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The following ideas come from Nguyen Van Thuan’s excellent book “The Road of Hope – A Gospel from Prison” and I recommend it strongly to anyone looking to grow in holiness.

102. If everybody should approve of you, but God disapproves of your conduct, how terrible for you! If everybody should insult you, falsely accuse you or persecute you, but God praise you, happy are you, for the Kingdom of Heaven is yours (Lk 6:22).

103. What use is it if everybody should affirm you, but God disapprove of you? If everybody should mock you, but God affirms you, happy are you! When the crowd cried out, “We must have Barabbas released!” (Lk 23:18), Barabbas remained a robber just the same. When the crowd shouted, “Crucify Him!” (Lk 23:21), Our Lord was still the sinless Son of God.

104. If you are faced with ungrateful people who have betrayed you and falsely accused you, what hurts you most is irrational malice which pours forth from those who you least expected to act thus. Your reaction in such circumstances should be: to forgive right from the heart, to beg forgiveness for one’s enemies, to pray with love for them to be converted, and then in this way you will not need to rely on the consolation of the world.

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The following ideas come from Nguyen Van Thuan’s excellent book “The Road of Hope – A Gospel from Prison” and I recommend it strongly to anyone looking to grow in holiness.

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, Saint 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, you 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 every day, very soon you would achieve quite an improvement.

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The following ideas come from Nguyen Van Thuan’s excellent book “The Road of Hope – A Gospel from Prison” and I recommend it strongly to anyone looking to grow in holiness.

61. “Come and follow me” (Mt 9:9). The apostles gave up everything to follow Our Lord. Like them, are you going to decide once immediately to follow Him when He calls? Or, how many times does He have to call you?

62. Making a decision will always involve some uncertainly. Hesitate, ponder over it, but in the end you will have to make the decision.

63. Jesus states clearly the drastic measures that He requires: “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23) and “If any one comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even and his own life, he can not be my disciple” (Lk 14:26). The road to follow has been clearly defined. The call is clear and unambiguous.

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The following ideas come from Nguyen Van Thuan’s excellent book “The Road of Hope – A Gospel from Prison” and I recommend it strongly to anyone looking to grow in holiness.

39. To be fearless means that you must not wander about aimlessly. If you
desire to reach the end of this Road of Hope, you have to be fearless. How
many people were there standing beside Our Lord at the foot of the Cross?

40. Do not be afraid to talk to Our Lord about everything you desire. Think
of these words of Our Lord, “Hither to, you have asked nothing in my name;
ask, and you will receive” (Jn 16:24). To be fearless is to love just as a child
loves its father.

41. Do not be discourage by failures. If you are seeking to do the will of God
and meet with failure, that failure may be in God’s eyes success, for that is
the way God wants it. Look at the example of Jesus on the Cross.

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The following ideas come from Nguyen Van Thuan’s excellent book “The Road of Hope – A Gospel from Prison” and I recommend it strongly to anyone looking to grow in holiness.

17. Duty points out the will of God for you during the present moment.

18. There are some people who, while not carrying their own cross or anybody else’s, still imagine their own cross is too heavy. Some are eager to take upon their own shoulder everyone else’s cross, but refuse to carry their own.

19. Make your duties holy. Help others to holiness by your duties. Grow in holiness by the way you carry out your duty.

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The following ideas come from Nguyen Van Thuan’s excellent book “The Road of Hope – A Gospel from Prison” and I recommend it strongly to anyone looking to grow holy.

1. Our Lord guides you onto this road so that you will “go out and bear fruit, fruit which will endure” (Jn 15:16). This road is called THE ROAD OF HOPE because it is overflowing with hope, because it is a beautiful as hope. Why should you not have hope when you set off with our Lord Jesus Christ on the way to the Father?

2. The ground plan of this Road of Hope has three stages:
a) Departure: “Renounce self.”
b) Duty: “Take up your cross daily.”
c) Perseverance: “Follow me” (Lk 9:23).

3. If you give up everything but still have not denied yourself, actually you have not given up anything at all, because you will gradually gather again to yourself all those things which you gave up in the first place.

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The following ideas come from Nguyen Van Thuan’s excellent book “The Road of Hope – Thoughts of Light from a Prison Cell” and I recommend it strongly to anyone looking to become a Saint.

Duty points out the will of God for you in the present moment.

Make your duties holy. Help others to holiness through your duties. Grow in holiness by the way you carry out your duties.

If everyone were faithful to their duties in life, growth in personal holiness would, while renewing their own hearts, also renew their families and the whole world aroiund them.

Despite any superficial appearance of holiness, a person who neglects his duties in life is a spiritual fraud. Should he work ‘miracles’, they wil be both out of time and out of place and a cause of confusion, not edification. Moreover, such a person would be difficult to live with.

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