If you are gladdened by the fact that you feel small before God, very well; but it seems to me – forgive me, for I am nothing – that it would be more perfect not to rejoice in this. It would be better to pay no attention to yourself. The less you look at yourself, the better you will see God. May the Lord grant you true humility, but, having felt it, continue forward, do not be caught up in humility, for you will be caught up in yourself… Go forward, rise to the Lord; when you are with Him, then you will see how you truly feel like nothing…

Do not look at yourself; contemplate Jesus on the Cross, look at God who loves you just as you are. Do not measure your love, because it is yours; measure that which God has for you. Do not investigate or scrutinize what you have in your heart, because it is also yours and you will waste your time: you will find nothing.

If you throw a grain of salt into the sea, it disappears, for the salt dissolves in the water, and then the sea and the grain of salt become one. But if, instead of the tiny grain of salt, you throw a grain of sand, it will remain small and stay in the sea, but it will not dissolve…

Let us strive to be that grain of salt that dissolves in God and disappears, and not the grain of sand. It is better to dispense with ourselves so that we may ascend to Him, for otherwise we will remain always stagnant in our own humility.

ST. RAFAEL ARNAIZ. Letter of 1/12/1935. In: QUATTROCCHI, Paolino Beltrame. Fascinado por el Absoluto. Hermano Rafael. 2.ed. Madrid: Paulinas, 1994, p.112-113