Suffering without faith would be like love without hope. - Adrienne von Speyr

There is an intensification of negative force at work in the apostate. He resembles a man who works swiftly and surely to erect a wall in order to make the Lord's image, which he knows exactly, disappear and become unrecognizable behind it.

When we make our own calculations, we need so many numbers and factors that any mistake is possible. The Lord's calculation boils down to love.

If there had been no Judas, Peter would be the great betrayer. It is only because he stands in the framework of a still greater betrayal that we find a thousand excuses for him and for the faults of the Church continuing and occurring over and over again.