On the suffering of sinners

Wherever you put a person suffering from an internal disease or oppressed with cruel sorrow, he will suffer, even if he is put in the most magnificent palace; that is because his disease and sorrow are always and everywhere with him and in him.  It is the same in the case of a sinner who is impenitent and not cleansed of his sins - wherever you put him, he will suffer even in Paradise itself, because the cause of his suffering (i.e., sin) is in his heart.  To a sinner everywhere is hell.



Dead to sin, but alive to God

To deny oneself means to give up one's bad habits; to root out of the heart all that ties us to the world; not to cherish bad thoughts and desires; to suppress every evil thought; to avoid occasions of sin; not to desire or to do anything out of self-love, but to do everything out of love for God.  To deny oneself, according to St. Paul means "to be dead to sin. . . but alive to God."