“Providence was well aware what lay ahead for me, and my Capuchin training was to prepare me for it.”

My family background was deeply Christian.

What I would say to the young men and women who are beset by hopelessness and doubt is that they should go and see what is being done on the ground to fight poverty.

I came from a wealthy family. I made over my share of the estate to various charities.

It’s true that humanity has seen a succession of crises, wars and atrocities, but this negative side is offset by advances in technology and cultural exchanges.

Illness has always brought me nearer to a state of grace.

People are needed to take up the challenge, strong people, who proclaim the truth, throw it in people’s faces, and do what they can with their own two hands.

After the war, prompted by the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, I entered Parliament so that a priest could speak out for the poor, as canon law at that time still permitted.

When they are assailed by despair, young people should let universal concerns into their lives.

It’s not enough to attend church and pray every Sunday; you have to act.

A smile costs less than electricity, but gives much light .

Those seven years in the cloister were the key to my life.

The process of my transformation came to a head with my discovery of St. Francis of Assisi during a pilgrimage I went on with a scout troop from my school.

Lucid dreaming is dreaming but you being aware that you’re doing it.

You cannot teach a person something he does not already know, you can only bring what he does know to his awareness.

If, then, my awareness of the past and future makes me less aware of the present, I must begin to wonder whether I am actually living in the real world.

Energy is what I believe all of us are. We’re just conscious awareness dancing for itself for no other reason but to stay amused.

Other people teach us who we are. Their attitudes to us are the mirror in which we learn to see ourselves, but the mirror is distorted. We are, perhaps, rather dimly aware of the immense power of our social enviornment.

My earthly parents don’t know my potential or my divine qualities. They weren’t taught how to diagnose or be aware of such things.

I have no other self than the totality of things of which I am aware.

It is important to make a child aware of the existence of a weird creature like a water spider that breathes through its backside.