mortifications

because I want it to be clear to my children throughout the centuries that the foundation of our life is prayer and mortification.

Mortification has to be looked for in small, everyday things: in work that is intense, constant and methodical. Little things that won't harm our health but will keep our love of God alight. Mortifications at meals. Heroic minutes throughout the day. Punctuality. Tidiness. Guarding our sight on the street, without doing anything odd, which isn't part of the spirit of the Work. We have to walk naturally; and when there is something harmful, or which could cause our love to grow cold, then we have to "see" without “looking." Dozens and dozens of features and opportunities to take advantage of!

I want to emphasise that we have to learn to sacrifice ourselves, not in spectacular outward demonstrations, but in the humble little things of every day; by eating a little less of something we like more, and a little more of what we like less, including among the ingredients of the meal the particularly tasty one of temperance; sitting or standing in a less comfortable posture, without doing anything peculiar... And don't forget that a mortification which is very pleasing to God, very typical of the path created by Opus Dei, and which is always within our reach, is to be found in professional work carried out as perfectly as possible, including humanly. All this, for the love of God, is a very pleasing prayer to our heavenly Father.

Like the beating of the heart

Don't forget either that among our habitual mortifications the first priority has to be given to passive mortifications, the ones we meet unexpectedly. Very often difficulties are far too subjective. We each find as many difficulties as we want. People who dwell in God have few, because whenever they encounter something objectively hard, they surrender to God's will, ask for light to do the right thing, and that's that. So when there seem to be lots of difficulties, we need to examine if we are short on supernatural outlook.

One particularly good mortification is interior mortification: ensuring that our conversations don't always centre on ourselves, always being ready to greet anything unpleasant with a smile, so as to make life pleasant for other people. Remember the Apostle's advice: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 7 You must always try particularly hard to make life pleasant for others and avoid mortifying one another. You should say to yourself: I will willingly put myself out a little, to make other people's path to God more attractive.

My children, we have to die little by little, through continuous mortification in a thousand little things. And this shouldn't in any way frighten us, because it should be as natural as our heartbeat. I don't notice my heart beating right now, but it is. God help me the day it stops!

I'll say the same to you: in your spiritual life take care of the life of the heart, its constant beating, which means an effort to mortify yourself at every instant, and to maintain a loving conversation with our Lord, our Lady, St Joseph, and the Guardian Angels. Love, my son! Self-sacrificing love! Because human love too, when it is genuine, means sacrifice, self-denial, and joyful mortification.