Sweet Maxims of St.Alphonsa
1. I had aspired zealously to become a saint. I felt that burning desire after reading the autobiography of St. Little Teresa of Lisieux
2. Practise your austerity in strict secrecy; it will fortify your spirit.
3. I desired to be ever faithful to Jesus. I would rather die than break this promise.
4. It is my beloved Spiritual Instructors who guided me to the threshold of Knowledge and enabled me to experience it, by training me to prepare and use each of them in the apt time.
5. By nature, I am affectionate; it seems that my whole heart is full of love.
6. I have love towards everyone. It is impossible for me to hate anyone.
7. My only desire is to love my Lord to perfection.
8. My Jesus is sufficient for me. I don’t want anything else.
9. How great is the joy experienced when everything is offered in the Sacred Heart of Jesus!
10. I will rejoice in whatever comes through the hands of my Jesus.
11. It is my strong faith that nothing shall ever happen to me without the knowledge of my Jesus.
12. I have completely abandoned myself to Jesus. Let Him do with me as He wills.
13. God in His infinite goodness has granted me the strength to preserve inviolate the sanctifying grace I obtained at my Baptism.
14. I would rather die than commit consciously even a trivial venial sin and thereby offend God.
15. Humility is the queen of all virtues. I consider all occasions to humble myself as a great blessing.
16. Smile is a wick of light. I shall gaze upon gloomy faces and smile graciously to them.
17. It is the ‘Woman beneath the Cross’ who held me steadfast in my love to my Spouse in times of severe pain and tribulations.
18. Let us keep sealed our Aromatic Phial of Virtues. Jesus alone need know everything.
19. Whenever I make a mistake, no matter how trivial it is, I shall do some acts of penance. This is the easiest way to stop repeating the mistake.
20. If there is love of God, there will be love of fellow beings like the pollen dust in a flower.
21. We should use words with diligence, even more than a miser who is stingy in spending money.
22. It is in giving away; not in receiving that I find joy. I shall flee from those who flatter me.
23. How sweet it is to my tongue, to utter the Holy Name of Jesus!
24. Suffer everything that runs counter to our wishes and give them as offering to the Lord.
25. The only thing I wish for in this life is to bear suffering for the sake of God’s love and to rejoice in it. I am fully convinced that the worldly pleasures are not for me.
26. We need never be unhappy over anything, for the Lord is there always with us.
27. Jesus shows us His love, by giving us crosses. He sends crosses and sorrows only to those whom He loves. As for me, suffering is delightful. I consider that day when I don’t have the chance to suffer, as a day which is lost.
28. Whatever my superiors decide for me, I count it as God’s Will for me.
29. I shall never complain, whatever be the miseries that might befall me.
30. Was it not aloft a cross that my Spouse did die? I too must die upon a cross of sufferings.
31. Was not Jesus scorned without mercy by those who stood by the foot of the cross? Our Lord had no consolation whatever. As for me, I have by my side many to sympathize, to console and to serve. Am I not the bride of Jesus? How trifling are my sufferings when compared to the great agony of my Spouse!
32. I have a loving Mother in Heaven. My eyes well up with joy when speaking about that Mother.
33. The Lord who gives the bitter concoction will serve the sweetening sugar too. I can hardly bring myself to pray for a remission from these ecstatic pangs of convulsions when I think of the spiritual ecstasy and the ineffable joy that follows them.
34. When the grains of wheat are crushed and ground, wheat flour is obtained. We bake it to form the host for the Holy Eucharist. Similarly we too should be crushed in the mill of suffering and transformed to become like hosts.
35. The grapes are crushed in the wine press to get juice. When we preserve and purify this juice, it becomes inebriating wine. Even so, we mature into spiritual fortitude when purified through miseries and sufferings.
36. I am a daughter of suffering. It is with stones of suffering and sacrifice that we build mansions for us in heaven.
37. How sweet it is to leave ourselves to others as to be judged either good or bad by them!
38. My interceding vouchsafes only crosses. I do believe that along with the crosses, our love and fortitude increase.
39. I have offered myself as a holocaust of love and suffering to my Divine Spouse.
40. I should gain more crosses for the consummation of my life. I should drink to the dregs the chalice of suffering given by the Lord.
41. My only work is to suffer. He gives to me everything only after having weighed and measured them.
42. It seems to me that the Lord keeps vigil on me in order to purify me like silver.
43. My present state is like that of a flea writhing in the scorching fire.
44. I have this consolation that He leaves me to suffer all these things when He is enthroned in my heart.
45. Entrust everything with St. Joseph of the Holy Family. Pray with confidence. Then all miseries will be transformed into happiness. He will lighten the entire burden.
46. The riches of my Spouse are poverty, ignominy and humiliations. Even I too have got it. I am a smart girl.
47. In a sense, it is good that I have no proper sleep at night. I can recite the prayer of love with diligence.
48. I have been fortunate in becoming a perfect religious sister. More than that God has given me the special grace to suffer with Jesus. What else more should I aspire for?
49. Never for once has my good God declined me a favor whatever it be, that I did solicit.
50. I have not denied You anything whatsoever that You have required of me. Therefore, isn’t it right and just that You grant me that which I ask You ardently?
51. I have immolated myself totally on the sacrificial altar of love, so that others may not understand my likes and dislikes.
52. Sometimes I have felt like complaining. But I have never succumbed to that.
53. I do not lose my peace of mind in times of grief and suffering.
54. I feel like giving everything when someone begs something in the name of The Mother of God.
55. Whenever I get time, I should pay visits to the Most Holy Sacrament.
56. My beloved Lord is dwelling within my heart. Nobody can take Him away from there.
57. I should be careful not to retort to anyone. If possible, I will speak sweetly with them.
58. Is it proper to be unfaithful to the Lord in the least, after joining the convent facing these many obstacles and hardships?
59. When I have to face humiliation and profanation, I will seek refuge in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. And I will thank Him for having given me the grace to endure all these in my life.
60. It was difficult for me to tolerate even the most trifle negative remark about me. I confided sincerely this state of my heart to my Spiritual Director.
61. Even if I am unjustly accused of some faults, I will admit them without justifying myself and apologize, “I am sorry, excuse me.”
62. Lord, do with me as if I am your own.
63. I should pray to bless me with more sufferings.
64. Allow this poor victim to be trampled upon and trodden according to God’s Will as a reparation for the world that marches towards its disaster and for the sins of unfaithful priests and religious and who become an easy victim to virtue ridden material ideologies.
65. We are to be configured like finely cut and carved figures to befit Jesus.
66. I have the deep conviction that whatever misunderstandings happen in my community life, God has ordained some people to affect my life so that I may progress to higher perfection.
67. Doesn’t St. Little Teresa say that we should strew flowers of sufferings at the feet of Jesus?
68. In one sense everyone is alike; there is no difference. But during times of hardships and sufferings, the good is distinguished from the other.
69. What have we given to Holy Mary today? How much mortification? How many renunciations of ‘selfish desire’?
70. No one need know about me. I am none other than a mean worm.
71. You have deteriorated in Divine Matters. You should come closer to the Eucharistic Jesus. There you should open your hearts as if to a Father.
72. The words of our Spiritual Directors have the special power to console us and to empower our fortitude. It is due to the spiritual fervour of the grace that is bestowed on them by Almighty.
73. We should get used to suffer small small crosses because it enables us to bear bigger ones. Your Excellency, as my Jesus loves me this much, I am willing to suffer not only this, but a lot more lying on this sick bed till the end of this world.
74. My interceding can bring only crosses; so you may solicit my prayers only if you are ready to endure them.
75. As time passes, crosses will increase. Then you should embrace and kiss them.
76. God discloses the secrets of His heart to those who are with Him.
77. Consider me insignificant like the smallest atom that is present in the atmosphere.
78. The leaves that are put at the base of the plants decay to become manure for it. Then new flowers blossom on it which adds joy to human heart. But who bothers about that foliage that have become manure for the plant? I prefer always to become the manure.
79. My spirit abides in peace, as, since seven years I am no longer mine. I have sacrificed my whole being as an oblation of love to my Divine Spouse.
80. It seems my sacrifice is being consumed rather slowly. My prayer and wish is that no one should divulge my likes and dislikes.
81. If there is any good in me and if God wills others to know of it, it will be known by itself.
82. Words cannot communicate the ineffable joy of the success of forgiving. When I share my pain and affliction with others, I might get some worldly consolation. But what is the use of that? All complaints are to be narrated only before my Lord. I shall try not to hamper it.
83. If we hurt the feelings of others, the seriousness of our sin is proportionate to the intensity of the pain it has inflicted on the victim.
84. Like Veronica, I shall wipe the blood stained face of my Lord, with the silken kerchief of my chaste soul dipping it in the aromatic perfume of love and suffering.
85. I have chosen novel flowers of sufferings and mortification to offer to my beloved Lord each day. I shall try to collect more and more flowers daily.
86. See only the good of others. Speak only well. Ignore their frailties. Weigh each word in the Love Balance of Jesus before speaking.
87. We should remember that to some delicate souls, even the simplest words may inflict great pain, or at times, make them sick.
88. I am on the cross like my Lord. He was unable to move His limbs or to shift Himself. He was scorned by those who were near Him. I can move my limbs and I am comforted and consoled by my sisters around me.
89. He would provide us with the things that are necessary for us through some one. We are not deprived of things when we give to others.
90. I don’t wish to be healed. I wish everything to be according to the Will of my Lord.
91. The Food I relish most is the Holy Eucharist. Ineffable joy wells up my soul every time the Lord who said ‘I am the Living Bread’ descends into me.
92. Just like an eagle snatches away the chicken, I too will be snatched away by my Lord.
93. Lighter birds make it easier to soar high. With some of these, even the flutter of wings are not audible. My flight upwards shall resemble this. I shall flee to find a refuge in the lap of my Beloved.
94. My Divine Bridegroom will call me at the consummation of my sacrifice. Then I will run a race; towards my home. I will speed to the bosom of my Lord.
95. I offer myself completely to my Lord as a sacrifice of love and reparation.