List of points

Work is man’s original vocation. It is a blessing from God, and those who consider it a punishment are sadly mistaken.

The Lord, who is the best of fathers, placed the first man in Paradise ut operaretur, so that he would work.

To study, to work: these are inescapable duties for all Christians. They are means of defending ourselves from the enemies of the Church and of attracting, with our professional prestige, so many souls who, being good, fight in isolation. They are most fundamental weapons for whoever wants to be an apostle in the middle of the world.

I ask God that you may take as your model Jesus as an adolescent and as a young man, both when he disputed with the doctors in the Temple and when he worked in Joseph’s workshop.

Jesus’ thirty-three years!…: thirty were spent in silence and obscurity; in submission and work…

That big young man wrote to me saying: “My ideal is so great that only the sea could contain it.” I answered: “And what about the Tabernacle, which is so ‘small’; and the ‘common’ workshop of Nazareth?”

—It is in the greatness of ordinary things that He awaits us!

Before God, no occupation is in itself great or small. Everything gains the value of the Love with which it is done.

Heroism at work is to be found in finishing each task.

Let me stress this point: it is in the simplicity of your ordinary work, in the monotonous details of each day, that you have to find the secret, which is hidden from so many, of something great and new: Love.

You say it helps you a lot to wonder how many businessmen have become saints since the time of the early Christians.

And you want to show that it is also possible today… —The Lord will not abandon you in that effort.

You too have a professional vocation which spurs you on. Well, that spur is the hook to fish for men.

Rectify your intention, then, and be sure you acquire all the professional prestige you can for the service of God and of souls. The Lord counts on this too.

To finish things you have to start them.

—It seems a truism. But you so often lack that simple decision! And… how satan rejoices in your ineffectiveness!

You cannot sanctify work which humanly speaking is slapdash, for we must not offer God badly-done jobs.

You are going through a critical stage. You feel a certain vague fear and find it difficult to adapt your plan of life. Your work seems to weigh you down, since twenty-four hours are not enough for everything you ought to do each day…

—Have you tried following the Apostle’s advice: “let all things be done decently and according to order”? That means, in the presence of God, with Him, through Him, and only for Him.

When you parcel out your time, you need also to think how you can make use of the odd moments that become free at unforeseen times.

I have always seen rest as time set aside from daily tasks, never as days of idleness.

Rest means recuperation: to gain strength, form ideals and make plans. In other words it means a change of occupation, so that you can come back later with a new impetus to your daily job.

Now that you’ve got a lot to do, all your “problems” have disappeared. —Be honest: as you have made up your mind to work for Him, you no longer have time to think about your own selfish interests.

Ejaculatory prayers do not hinder your work, just as the beating of your heart does not impede the movements of the body.

Sanctifying one’s work is no fantastic dream, but the mission of every Christian — yours and mine.

—That is what that lathe-worker had discovered, when he said: “I am overwhelmed with happiness when I think how true it is that while I am working at the lathe and singing — singing all the time, on the outside and on the inside — I can become a saint. How good God is!”

Your work has become disagreeable, especially when you see how little your colleagues love God and at the same time flee from grace and the good services you want to render them.

You have to try to make up for all that they leave out. You must give yourself to God in work too, as you have done up to now, and convert it into prayer that rises to Heaven for all mankind.

Working with cheerfulness is not the same as “working away merrily” with no depth, as if you were getting rid of a troublesome burden.

—You must try not to lessen the value of your efforts through lack of attention or superficiality, so that in the end you are in danger of coming to God empty-handed.

Some people act out of prejudice in their work: on principle they trust nobody, and it goes without saying that they do not understand the need to seek to sanctify their job. If you mention it to them they tell you not to add another burden to their own work, which they put up with reluctantly as if they were supporting a heavy weight.

—That is one of the battles of peace we have to win: to find God in our work and, with Him and like Him, serve others.

You are put off by difficulties, and you shrink back. Do you know what characterises your behaviour? Nothing but comfort, comfort, and more comfort!

You had said that you were ready to wear yourself out, unstintingly, yet you still seem to be at the level of an apprentice to heroism. It is time to act with more maturity!

As a student, you should dedicate yourself to your books with an apostolic spirit, and be convinced in your heart that one hour added to another already make up — even now! — a spiritual sacrifice offered to God and profitable for all mankind, your country and your soul.

You have a warhorse called study. You resolve a thousand times to make good use of your time, yet you are distracted by the merest thing. Sometimes you get annoyed at yourself, because of your lack of will, even though you begin again every day.

Have you tried offering up your study for specific apostolic intentions?