Need for human virtues

To break through this mentality, after so many centuries of error or of forgetfulness of a Christian’s duties, you must be friends of work. Without work, we will not sanctify ourselves. The reason for this is that work is the material we have to sanctify and the instrument of our sanctification.

You have to be faithful, you have to be strong, you have to be docile. You need human virtues, a big heart, and loyalty. With all this, I am not asking you for anything extraordinary. I am simply asking you to touch heaven with your head, because it is your right as children of God. But may your feet, the soles of your feet, be firmly planted on the ground, to glorify God our creator, through the world and through the earth and through all human work.

I can already see, across the centuries, all my children – we are, I repeat, God’s children – carrying out their professional work with the wisdom of an artist, the happiness of a poet, the confidence of a master, and a modesty that is more persuasive than any eloquence. They seek the good of all humanity by seeking out Christian perfection in their profession and in their state in the world.