The Sanctification of Work delves into the theological wellsprings of our faith, offering a broad and wide-ranging exploration of how to find God in your most ordinary daily pursuits.Fr. Illanes considers three major topics: work and holiness, evaluating work, and Opus Dei and lay spirituality. He concludes this enlightening study by sketching out a theology of work.Brightly written and all-inclusive, this book gives you a complete grasp of what it means to find God in ordinary life.

Many popular views try to reduce the process of Christian growth to a single template: Remember past grace. Rehearse your identity in Christ. Avail yourself of the means of grace. Discipline yourself. But Scripture portrays the dynamics of sanctification in a rich variety of ways. No single factor, truth, or protocol can capture why and how a person is changed into the image of Christ. Weaving together personal stories, biblical exposition, and theological reflection, David Powlison shows the personal and particular ways that God meets you where you are to produce change. He highlights the variety of factors that work together, helping us to avoid sweeping generalizations and pat answers in the search for a key to sanctification. This book is a go-to resource for understanding the multifaceted, lifelong, personal journey of sanctification.

Work is a fundamental element of human life that claims much of our time. Consider Jesus’ 30 years as a carpenter under the tutelage of St. Joseph! Our natural tendency can be to often curse or shirk its presence in life, instead of recognizing its true value as a source of personal development, improvement of society, and means of holiness and apostolate. The core part of the book is a dialogue between numerous scholars and Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz about the message of St. Josemaría Escrivá, one of the great teachers of modern spirituality, who has taught us to sanctify work, to sanctify oneself at work, and to sanctify others through work. Use these words to reflect on the meaning of work in your own life and to learn how to change your perception of work as a burden into work as a source of sanctification.

Sanctification | noun | sa(k)-t-f-k-shn : a big word for the little-by-little progress of the everyday Christian life Fighting sin is not easy. No one ever coasted into greater godliness. Christian growth takes effort. But we are not left alone. God loves to work the miracle of sanctification within us as we struggle for daily progress in holiness. With contributions from Kevin DeYoung, John Piper, Ed Welch, Russell Moore, David Mathis, and Jarvis Williams, this invigorating book will help you say no to the deception of sin and yes to true joy in Jesus.

Millions of people go to work each day – some unhappily, if they don’ t like what they’re doing or it doesn’t interest them; others only concerned about the pay they will receive and the financial rewards; while others are an example of what Hannah Arendt calls the “animal laborans”: workers who have no other objective or aim than the very work that life has placed before them and which they carry out by natural inclination or by inertia. At a higher level is the figure of the “homo faber”, the person who works with a wider view, with the aim of making a business or a project a success – sometimes seeking personal affirmation, but often with the noble aspiration of serving others and serving society as a whole. Christians ought to be in this last category, and even higher. If they really are Christians, they will not see themselves as slaves or as paid workers, but as children of God for whom work is a vocation and a divine mission, to be carried out for love and with love. Work is man’s “vocation”, the “place” for his development as a child of God. Further, it is the “matter” of his sanctification and the fulfillment of his apostolic mission. Hence the Christian should not be afraid of effort or tiredness, but should embrace them with joy, “a joy that has its roots in the shape of the cross”. The last sentence comes from St Josemaría Escrivá, the saint who taught us to “sanctify our work”, turning it into nothing less than the “work of God”. The pages of this book are inspired by his message, or rather, they are inspired by the message of the Gospel, since St Josemaría did nothing other than to teach us the words and life of Jesus, above all in his years spent in Nazareth working with St Joseph, from whom he learnt to work as an artisan, and with Our Lady, who served him with her work in the home.

"Living by faith" is much more than a general Christian precept; it is the fundamental posture of believers in a world rife with suffering and injustice. In this penetrating reflection on the meaning of "justification," Oswald Bayer shows how this key religious term provides a comprehensive horizon for discussing every aspect of Christian theology, from creation to the end times. Inspired by and interacting with Martin Luther, the great Christian thinker who grappled most intensely with the concept of justification, Bayer explores anew the full range of traditional dogmatics (sin, redemption, eschatology, and others), placing otherwise complex theological terms squarely within their proper milieu -- everyday life. In the course of his discussion, Bayer touches on such deep questions as the hidden nature of God, the hope for universal justice, the problem of evil, and -- one of the book's most engaging motifs -- Job's daring lawsuit with God.

The Challenges and Joys Unique to Motherhood Written from Personal Experience Motherhood as a Means of Sanctification