Have you struggled with the question, ‘can I pursue holiness and success in my career’? Have you struggled with feeling these are opposed to one another? If you are actively looking to integrate your faith and business life, are you unsure of how to go about this? In the book, Become a Saint by Succeeding in Business, Joseph Valentic answers these questions and more through a unique combination of Church teachings, writings of the saints, stories of entrepreneurial saints, and real-life practical strategies. This book helps you not only integrate faith and business, but to thrive in both as a result!
In the section on entrepreneurial saints, the author provides stories of both religious and lay saints that achieved seemingly superhuman entrepreneurial results. Their lives show that the integration of faith and business is not only possible but it is accessible to all.
A great example in the book is the story of the parents of St. Therese, St. Louis and Zelie Martin. They were both truly successful entrepreneurs who devoutly lived their faith. He was a master watchmaker, and she made Alencon lace. Both lived lives of prayer and devout practice of the Faith. They were both known for serving the poor in their community with their money. They also insisted on treating their employees justly and paid them daily, so they did not have to wait for their money. They also raised five daughters who all became religious sisters. Their daughter St. Therese is Doctor of the Church and another daughter, Leonie, is in the process of canonization. In addition to all this, they were also successful in their business! How did they do it all? They truly integrated the pursuit of holiness and success in business, for the glory of God.
In addition to the lives of the saints, the book draws from their writings, particularly of St. Josemaría Escrivá. These two passages come early in the book and set the stage for the reader:
“God is not removing you from your environment. He is not taking you away from the world, or from your condition in life, or from your noble human ambitions, or from your professional work... But he wants you to be a saint—right there!” (1)
“Be convinced that our professional vocation is an essential and inseparable part of our condition as Christians. Our Lord wants you to be holy in the place where you are, in the job you have chosen for whatever reason.” (2)
Through these and other saint’s writings, the book explains that for those called to the lay vocation, it is through that vocation that they are to pursue sainthood. Their business or professional lives are not separate from their path to holiness, but the way in which we actually achieve it. The book also shows that we cannot be the best in our vocations, unless we are also actively applying our faith to and through our work.
In that last section of the book, Valentic provides very practical strategies and guidance on how to succeed at integrating faith and business life. He also includes actual stories from his ongoing journey of over thirty-three years in business, as a husband, a father of seven, and an active volunteer in multiple apostolates, including the Tepeyac Leadership Inc.'s Leadership Council USA.
St. Josemaria, pray for us to become saints in and through our vocations!
You can order Become a Saint by Succeeding in Business on Amazon.
(1) St. Josemaría Escrivá, The Forge ( New York: Scepter Publishers Inc., 2011), Kindle edition, 362.
(2) St. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God (New York: Scepter Publishers Inc., 2002), Kindle edition, 60-61.
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