“You must realize now, more clearly than ever, that God is calling you to serve him in and from the ordinary, secular, and civil activities of human life. He waits for us every day, in the laboratory, in the operating theatre, in the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the fields, in the home, and in all the immense panorama of work. Understand this well: there is something holy, something divine hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it."
Sanctity can reveal itself in many ways, as evidenced by even a quick glance at the lives of the saints. The story of Blessed Bartolo Longo, who will be canonized on October 19th this year, is a case in point. It reveals not a straight path toward sainthood, but rather a circuitous route paved with inherently dangerous implications for the fate of his soul.
“The work that you are doing in the office is sacred work. Never do it slap dash . . . it is Jesus there. Your hands are feeding the hungry Christ, your hands are clothing the naked Christ, your hands are giving home to the homeless Christ in some part of the work. So, do your work well, and do it with great love. Otherwise it is not worth doing it. It is not worth doing it half-half. That is the means for you to become holy because Jesus our God is there.”
Authorities are looking for vandals who scrawled anti-Catholic slogans on the walls of historic Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz, California, and broke into the church where they damaged a baptismal font that was a gift from Blessed Junipero Serra who founded the California missions.
“It’s not how much we do but how much love we put in the action that matters to Almighty God and that is love for God—that God keeps on loving the world through each one of us, through the work that has been entrusted to you.”
“Prayer, true prayer, is a communication—and it occurs only when two people, two minds, are truly present to each other in some way. So in prayer we must do more than merely visualize God as present as some sort of father figure. His fictionalized presence will not do; his imaginative presence will not do.
"If we could constantly live in the realization that we are [children] of a heavenly Father, that we are always in his sight and play in his creation, then all our thoughts and every action would be a prayer. For we would be constantly turning to him, aware of him, questioning him, thanking him, asking for his help, or begging his pardon when we have fallen. And every true prayer begins precisely here: placing oneself in the presence of God.”
“Let us go forth, then let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ… If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life…”
