List of points

Since you want to acquire a Catholic or universal mentality, here are some characteristics you should aim at:

—a breadth of vision and a vigorous endeavour to study more deeply the things that are permanently alive and unchanged in Catholic orthodoxy;

—a proper and healthy desire, which should never be frivolous, to present anew the standard teachings of traditional thought in philosophy and the interpretation of history…;

—a careful attention to trends in science and contemporary thought;

—and a positive and open attitude towards the current changes in society and in ways of living.

I understand perfectly when you write to me about your apostolate: “I am going to pray for three hours, studying Physics. It will be a bombardment so that another position, which is on the other side of the library table, falls — you have met him already when he came round here.”

I remember how happy you were when you heard me say that prayer and work can easily go together.

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.

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?

It is easier to bustle about than to study, but it is also less effective.

If you know that study is apostolate, but limit yourself to studying just enough to get by, it is clear that your interior life is going badly.

Such carelessness makes you lose the right spirit. Just like the worker in the parable who cunningly hid the talent he had received, you may, if you do not put things right, exclude yourself from God’s friendship, and be stuck in the mire of your comfort-seeking calculations.

You must study… but that is not enough.

What do those who kill themselves working to feed their self-esteem achieve? Or those who have nothing else in mind but assuring peace of mind for a few years ahead?

One has to study… to gain the world and conquer it for God. Then we can raise the level of our efforts: we can try to turn the work we do into an encounter with the Lord and the foundation to support those who will follow our way in the future.

In this way, study will become prayer.

It is as easy now as it was at the time of Jesus Christ to say No, to deny or to put to one side the truth of faith. You who call yourself a Catholic have to start from Yes.

Later, after some study, you will be able to explain the reasons for your certainty, and that there is no contradiction — there can be none — between Truth and science, between Truth and life.

What use is a student who does not study?

When you find studying is an awfully uphill task offer that effort to Jesus. Tell him that you continue poring over your books, so that you may use your knowledge as a weapon to fight his enemies and so gain many souls for him… You can then be sure that your study is well on its way to becoming prayer.

Do you realise how much depends on whether you are soundly prepared or not? Many, many souls!

—And now will you cease to study or work with perfection?