Primarily because they are little

By Jeff Vehige. Jeff is married and has four children. He runs the St. Peter Canisius Apostolate.

From In Conversation with God, Volume 3:

[Christ] chooses us where we are, and leaves us — the majority of Christians, lay people — just where we were: in our family, in our own job, in the cultural or sports association that we belong to . . . so that in the very environment in which we are found we should love him and make him known through family ties, through relationships at work and among friends. From the moment that we decide to make Christ the center of our lives, everything we do is affected by that decision. We must ask ourselves whether we are consistent with what it means to turn our work into a vehicle for growing in friendship with Jesus Christ, through developing our human and supernatural virtues in it.

Ideas like these are what attract me to Opus Dei spirituality. Christ doesn’t call us to live apart from others, just to live differently. And what does that mean? To be a better friend, a harder worker, a more loving spouse, and more self-giving parent.

But it’s not as serious as all that. Being a good friend means taking time to spend with one’s friends — even if that means watching a B-movie. Working harder doesn’t mean doing more, but, rather, doing what needs to be done with more focus. Becoming a more loving spouse may mean taking some extra minutes to clean the bathroom sink, and letting your kids picking the Friday-night movie may be a way of being a little more self-giving. Little things go a long way to holiness primarily because they’re little: They don’t attract the eyes of others, only the eyes of God.