Meditation for January 31, The Secret of Success

St. John Bosco spent some years in working on a farm. One day while sowing seed with his master, the Angelus rang; John stopped and knelt down.

"What are you doing there, my boy? Get up and get to work!"

John answered that it is prayer which renders work fruitful. "lf we pray while sowing two seeds, four ears grow. If we sow four seeds without praying, only two ears grow."

This advice is worthwhile. Only too often we work untiringly but with too little supernatural spirit. God grant that my exercises of piety may not suffer too much from this excessive activity. We need not be surprised that the results are not in proportion to the work.

There is nothing surprising in it. "lf we pray while sowing two seeds, four ears grow." Where there is union with God, true de­tachment from self, and a purely supernatural motive for work which is in reality only the continuation of prayer, there is, even if appearances do not indicate it, a true spiritual fruitfulness.

"lf we sow four seeds" neglecting to pray while throwing them into the furrow, that is if the work is not actuated by faith, re­nunciation, union with Our Lord, the results, even though they seem successful, will be only mediocre; "only two ears will grow."

"St. John Bosco, who so clearly points out the secret of success in work, grant that by your example I may supernaturalize all my works, and put as much as possible of the divine into my human activity."

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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)