Sanctification of work isn't just about offering God the results of an impressive project or a good grade on an exam. It's about the way you live your encounter with Christ, even in the material aspects of daily life.

Do you believe that your work is yours alone? What if we told you that work is God's favourite place to meet you?

St. Josemaría wrote that God wants to work miracles through your work... But how? Here are some practical tips:

1. Do your job well

For a nurse, sanctifying work ranges from the effort to draw blood well to listening to a patient's fears. For a pilot, it includes a skillful take-off and kindness toward the crew. For a coach, it's in enthusiastically planning training sessions and thinking about being a positive role model for the team. What do all these examples have in common? The desire to do the job in front of each of them well, with consistent effort, care, and focus.

2. Do everything with love (and with God)

In addition to working well, it is essential to put love into it. St. Josemaría said: "Work is born of love; it is a manifestation of love and is directed toward love" (Christ is Passing By, no. 48). You can discover the quid divinum (Latin for "something divine") hidden even in material things every day, because God left signs of his love on the world from the time of creation.

The Bible shows us something amazing: God is the first person in history to work. Creation is the first manifestation of his love for us. Without love, what we do would be just a succession of salaries, internships, pages to study... But with it, all of those things are opportunities to love. Do you play the violin? Write textbooks? Play football? Whatever you do, if you offer it to God and do it with love, it can become holy and remain in his heart forever.

3. Talk to God every day

Would your boy- or girlfriend be happy with seeing you only on Sundays? Would you want to go through the day without sharing the things that happen or occur to you? Well, God is always thinking of you, too, and He wants to spend time with you. Seek Him out! When you finish a chapter of your thesis or try a new solution for a tricky problem, turn to Him, even if it's just to say hello. You can thank Him, ask Him for help, unburden yourself, or even get angry with Him, just like you would with a friend.

God listens to you even when you turn away from Him, and He will never turn his back on you. He will always be waiting for you, with open arms, as only a true Father knows how to do.

4. Pray for your peers and coworkers

Alex, Hailey, Amaka, Damian... The people God put around you can be happier because of you. Whether you have a classmate having problems at home or a classmate in crisis, not sure what to do with their life, you have a powerful remedy to offer: prayer. God is waiting for your prayer, and even if you don't see an effect right away, one day He'll show you how much they're worth. He wants to take care of your friends through your prayer and action, and He'll give you light in your one-on-one conversations.

If we struggle daily to become saints, each of us in his own situation in the world and through his own job or profession, in our ordinary lives, then I assure you that God will make us into instruments that can work miracles and, if necessary, miracles of the most extraordinary kind. We will give sight to the blind. Who could not relate thousands of cases of people, blind almost from the day they were born, recovering their sight and receiving all the splendour of Christ's light? And others who were deaf, or dumb, who could not hear or pronounce words fitting to God's children… (Friends of God, no. 262)

5. Keep cheerful

Gloomy over-seriousness doesn't suit you! You can change the world, but you'll only do it with a smile, letting go of the tension in yourself and lifting the people around you up. Optimists aren't people who ignore bad news: they just know that sadness and evil don't have the last word. They trust in something (hint: it's really Someone) bigger than themselves. 

Nothing can stop you. "Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved. I understand the grief of people who have to endure great suffering, yet slowly but surely we all have to let the joy of faith slowly revive as a quiet yet firm trust, even amid the greatest distress" (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, no. 6).

6. Be a good friend

Whether you get along with someone right away or decide to go up to them because they're new to the school or often excluded, making friends is an essential part of being Christian. Sanctifying oneself, getting closer to God, involves getting closer to others, learning how to understand, listen, and forgive. 

St. John of the Cross' advice is this: "Put love where there is no love, and thus you will gather love."

It's not only superheroes who can imitate Christ... You and I can too!

Jesus "did all things well," the Gospel says. Let's work like Him. Jesus cared for others' needs, relieving their burdens, and we too can work small miracles, caring for our friendships with the same attention He had for his disciples and apostles.