"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Holiness—a growing love for God and for others for the sake of God—can and must be acquired in the things of every day, those which are repeated many times with apparent monotony. 'To love God and serve Him, it is not necessary to do extraordinary things. Christ asks all men without exception to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48). For the vast majority of men, being holy means sanctifying one’s own work, sanctifying oneself in one’s work, and sanctifying others through work, thus finding God on the path of their lives.'
In order for work—any honest task—to become a means of holiness, it must be humanly well-done, since we cannot offer God anything defective, as it would not be worthy of Him. Work well-performed implies both the care for the small duties that every profession entails and the most faithful fulfillment of the virtue of justice toward other people and society. It means correcting promptly if an error has been made with or for those we work for, and a constant eagerness to improve professionally in our endeavors. This applies equally to the entrepreneur, the worker, or the student; to the doctor or the mother of family who must dedicate herself to the care of the home, carrying out the ordinary household chores.
Sanctifying ourselves in work will lead us to turn it into an occasion and a place for conversation with God. To achieve this, we can offer our work as we begin it, and then renew that offering frequently, taking advantage of any circumstance. Throughout its performance, many moments will arise to offer small mortifications that enrich the interior life and the very work we are doing; also, for the exercise of human virtues (industriousness, fortitude, joy…) and supernatural ones (faith, hope, charity, prudence…).
Work can and must be the means to make Christ known to many people. There are professions that have an immediate impact on social life: teaching, those related to the media, the exercise of public functions in a country… But there are no tasks that have nothing to do with the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Even in very technical problems of a company or in the way a mother manages her home, different solutions will arise—sometimes radically different—depending on whether one has a pagan or a Christian vision of life. Whoever lacks faith will always have an incomplete vision of the world, and the Christian way of behaving will sometimes clash with the fashion of the moment or the common practices among colleagues in the same profession. These are especially favorable circumstances to make Christ known by being exemplary in the Christian way of acting, full of naturalness and firmness.
The world is in need of God, all the more so the more frequently it repeats that it has no need of Him. We Christians, by striving to follow Christ seriously, will make Him known. 'A secret. —An open secret: these world crises are crises of saints.
—God wants a handful of men of "His" in every human activity. —Afterward… "pax Christi in regno Christi" —the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ.'
**Sanctify work. Sanctify oneself in work. Sanctify with work.**