Issue of Holiness

May 10Holiness means to be better than ourselves, means perfect victory over all our passions, mean real and constantly despise ourselves and the things of the world to prefer poverty to riches, humiliation to glory, the pain pleasure. Holiness is to love our neighbor as ourselves for love of God. Holiness, at this point, is love also those who curse us, hate us, pursues us, even to do good. Holiness is living humble, unselfish, prudent, just, patient, charitable, chaste, meek, hardworking, observant of one's duties, for no other purpose than to please God, and to receive only from him deserved reward.In short, in the language of the sacred books, holiness, oh Raffaelina, possesses in itself the virtue of transforming man into God.(December 30, 1915, to Raffaelina Cerase - Ep. II, p. 541)