As souls dedicated to our Lord’s service, we need to keep in our hearts these words: Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven (Matt 6:1).

Hope

The theological virtue of hope makes us value so highly the reward our Father God has promised us that we are unwilling to risk its loss by a lack of collective humility. We do not want applied to us, because we sought human applause, these words of our Lord: Amen dico vobis, quia receperunt mercedem suam (Matt 6:16); truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. How sad that would be!

For this reason we do not want to receive praise or public recognition. We want to work silently and humbly, with interior joy – servite Domino in laetitia²³ – and with an apostolic ardour that does not weaken, precisely because it is not diverted into exterior pretensions or ostentation. We want there to be, in every profession and every walk of life, select groups of men and women who, without waving flags or giving themselves distinctive names, live holy lives and influence their companions and society at large, all for the good of souls. This is the Work’s only desire.