Be very childlike! The more childlike, the better. I speak from my experience as a priest, who has had to pick himself up many times in these past thirty‑six years (how long and yet how short they now seem to me!) which have been spent striving to fulfill a very precise requirement of God’s Will. There’s one thing that has helped me always, the fact that I am still a child, and I am always climbing onto my Mother’s lap and finding refuge in the Heart of Christ, my Lord.

Serious falls, of the kind that can do great damage to the soul, at times almost irreparable damage, can always be traced back to the pride of thinking oneself to be grown up and self-sufficient. In such cases, people seem almost incapable of asking for help from those who can give it: not only from God, but also from a friend, or from a priest. And the poor soul, alone in its misfortune, sinks into confusion and loses its way. (Friends of God, 147)