The faith that moves mountains

Faith goes hand in hand with long-term work. It is the fruit of efforts repeated day after day. Faith is something that lives, something that we must never separate from our everyday life. This is what we need to understand if we are to discover the hidden meaning of Jesus' words: if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move.

We can move a mountain, but only if we do not rush at it, thinking to move it in one go. We can move a mountain, but only if we are ready to move it stone by stone. Every stone we move - that is, every time we succeed in something, however small - increases our faith; we begin to feel that we are stronger and more stalwart, more in control of the situation. And then one day, if we look back at the progress we have made and find that half the work is already done, it is just possible that our faith will have become so strong that we can move the rest in one go.