List of points

Our life — a Christian’s life — has to be as ordinary as this: trying every day to do well those very things it is our duty to do; carrying out our divine mission in the world by fulfilling the little duty of each moment.

—Or rather, struggling to fulfil it. Sometimes we don’t manage, and when night comes, in our examination, we’ll have to tell Our Lord, “I am not offering you virtues; today I can only offer you defects. But with your grace I will be able to count myself a victor.”

Why don’t you try converting your whole life into the service of God — your work and your rest, your tears and your smiles?

—You can… and you must!

Good gold and diamonds lie far down in the depths of the earth, not within everyone’s reach.

Your task of holiness — your holiness and that of others — depends on your fervour, your cheerfulness, your everyday, obscure, normal, ordinary work.

In our ordinary behaviour we need a power far greater than that of the legendary King Midas, who changed all he touched to gold.

—We have to change, through love, the human work of our usual working day into the work of God: something that will last for ever.