“Your work too must become a personal prayer”

      Before you start working, place a crucifix on your desk or beside the tools you work with.
      From time to time glance at it... When tiredness creeps in, your eyes will go towards Jesus,
      and you will find new strength to continue with your task. For that crucifix is more than a
      picture of someone you love —parents, children, wife, sweetheart... He is everything: your
      Father, your Brother, your Friend, your God, the very Love of your loves. (The Way of the Cross, Eleventh Station, 5)

      I have often said that we must not allow these periods of conversation with Jesus, who sees
      us and hears us from the Tabernacle, to degenerate into an impersonal type of prayer. If we
      want our meditation to develop right away into a personal dialogue with Our Lord (for which
      the sound of words is not necessary), we must shed the cloak of anonymity and put ourselves
      in his presence, just as we are. We must avoid hiding ourselves in the crowd that fills the church,
      or diluting our prayer into a meaningless patter that does not come from the heart and is little
      better than a reflex habit, empty of any real content.

      To this I now add that your work too must become a personal prayer, that it must become a real
      conversation with Our Father in heaven. If you seek sanctity in and through your work, you will necessarily
      have to strive to turn it into personal prayer. You cannot allow your cares and concerns to become
      impersonal and routine, because if you were to do so, the divine incentive that inspires your daily
      tasks will straightaway wither and die. (Friends of God, 64)