First published in 1946, when the future Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński was Bishop of Lublin, Sanctify Your Daily Life (EWTN/Gracewing, 192pp, £15.50/$18.95) precedes the communist takeover of the Polish government (which happened shortly before he became primate of Poland in 1949). Nonetheless, Wyszyński would have followed events in Russia in the previous decades and known that atheistic communism, influenced by Marx and his “dictatorship of the proletariat”, was the antithesis of a Christian view of work. Subtitled How to Transform Work into a Source of Strength, Holiness and Joy, the book, which has a foreword by Lech Wałęsa, the trade union leader who became president of Poland and who was a personal friend of Wyszyński’s, is a thoughtful and indeed inspirational reflection on man’s relationship first to God and, secondly, on how work is ennobled through this relationship. Challenging the loose phrase, the “Protestant work ethic” – which implies that Protestant countries are more hard-working than Catholic ones – Wyszyński argues that Catholicism teaches man the true meaning of work, its dignity and necessity and how “work done with love helps to achieve man’s redemption”. Communism – to which he never explicitly refers – treated workers as so many units of production. Wyszyński, who was declared Venerable by Pope Francis in 2017, always sees men and women as spiritual beings, whose need for spiritual and personal development is at least as great as the demands of work. Drawing on the papal encyclicals of the 20th century, especially Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, the author appeals for workplaces that give people the conditions for human flourishing. Contrasting the Christian approach to work with the pagan one, where work was done by slaves so that superior men could have leisure, Wyszyński explains that even before the Fall, stewardship of creation required the necessity of work – it was only after the Fall that work involved the “sweat of thy brow”. He refers to the dangers of “our technological age”, not knowing in 1946 how life would come to be revolutionised by it or by the predicted use of artificial intelligence. Even so, the principles laid down by the cardinal do not change. Reflecting on the fact that Christ, who made his living from manual work until the age of 30, chose hardy fishermen to be his Apostles, the cardinal adds: “The Church is God’s boat in which the hardened, robust, fearless fishermen withstand the violent winds.” He was just such a leader himself, spending 32 years as primate of Poland, for long periods under house arrest, but never wavering in his confrontation with the communist authorities for the Church’s right to independence and her defence of the dignity of human beings.