Matthew 10: 1 – 7 (Wednesday July 11, 2007)

When you look at all the people that Jesus chose to be his disciples, they are all ordinary people. They are not the most educated; not the professionals and not even the most holy people. They are the common, ordinary people. However, Jesus empowers them and gives them authority to heal to do extraordinary things. Jesus Christ chooses ordinary people and make them extraordinary people. That is what Jesus wants to do with every one of us. He knows that we are ordinary people, but he wants to make us extraordinary people.

As we celebrate today the feast of St. Benedict, we keep in mind the basis of his rule – work and pray. Many people have mistaken this rule to be “laborare ets orare” (to work is to pray.) That is not what St. Benedict invites us to. He invites us to work and to pray. These two go hand in hand. Our prayer sanctifies our work, so that this work which is an ordinary thing becomes extraordinary. When we bring that Christian spirit of prayer to our work, our work would be transformed and become a part of our daily sanctity – it becomes a prayer. This is what makes us truly saints. Saints are not those who do great things, but they are those who do little things in an extraordinary way.

We are invited today to go out and become saints by the way we pray and do our work.