List of points

Many things, whether they be material, technical, economic, social, political or cultural… when left to themselves, or left in the hands of those who lack the light of the faith, become formidable obstacles to the supernatural life. They form a sort of closed shop which is hostile to the Church.

You, as a Christian and, perhaps, as a research worker, writer, scientist, politician or labourer… have the duty to sanctify those things. Remember that the whole universe — as the Apostle says — is groaning as in the pangs of labour, awaiting the liberation of the children of God.

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.

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

Here is a mission for ordinary Christians which is heroic and will always be relevant to the present day: to carry out in a holy way all different kinds of occupations even those that might seem least promising.

Let us work. Let us work a lot and work well, without forgetting that prayer is our best weapon. That is why I will never tire of repeating that we have to be contemplative souls in the middle of the world, who try to convert their work into prayer.

You are writing to me in the kitchen, by the stove. It is early afternoon. It is cold. By your side, your younger sister — the last one to discover the divine folly of living her Christian vocation to the full — is peeling potatoes. To all appearances — you think — her work is the same as before. And yet, what a difference there is!

—It is true: before she only peeled potatoes, now, she is sanctifying herself peeling potatoes.

You say that you are now beginning to understand what a “priestly soul” means. Don’t be annoyed with me if I tell you that the facts show that you only realise it in theory. —Every day the same thing happens to you: at night time, during the examination, it is all desire and resolutions; during the morning and afternoon at work, it is all objections and excuses.

Are you in this way living a “holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”?

When you started your ordinary work again, something like a groan of complaint escaped you: “It’s always the same!”

And I told you: “Yes, it’s always the same. But that ordinary job —which is the same one your fellow workers do — has to be a constant prayer for you. It has the same lovable words, but a different tune each day.”

It is very much our mission to transform the prose of this life into poetry, into heroic verse.

We read in the Scriptures: Stultorum infinitus est numerus, the number of fools is infinite, and they seem to grow more every day. In all sorts of places, in the most unexpected situations, under the mantle of high office and respected positions — and even in the guise of “virtue”— you will have to put up with so much forgetfulness and so little good judgement.

But I do not understand how you can lose the supernatural view of life and give up caring. There is nothing you can do but put up with these situations, though your interior dispositions must be very poor if you put up with them for human motives.

If you do not help these people to find the right way by doing your work responsibly and finishing it well — by sanctifying it! — you will become like them, a fool. Either that or an accomplice.

You tried to belittle somebody else’s work by mumbling: “He has only done his duty.”

And I said, “Does that seem so little to you?” The Lord gives us the happiness of Heaven for doing our duty: Euge serve bone et fidelis… intra in gaudium Domini tui — Well done good and faithful servant, enter into eternal joy!