Cedric Pisegna - Work with Enthusiasm (01/24/2026)
Hi, I’m Father Cedric Pisegna. I’m so glad that you tuned into the program. Welcome to «Live With Passion». This is a series about trusting in God. Want to proclaim to you from the Gospel of John chapter 5, «This is why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he healed on the Sabbath. Jesus answered them, 'My Father is working still, and I am working also.'» One of the hardest things that I went through as a teenager was not being able to find a job.
As I was graduating from college I had a degree in business and social work. I lived in Massachusetts. I remember I was searching for a job, and there just wasn’t anything good, certainly nothing that was paying well, and I struggled with it. I looked, I tried. I wasn’t good at carpentry, didn’t really like mechanics, didn’t want to go into the military. I chose business and social work in college, didn’t really like that either. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my life. Couldn’t find a job, and it devastated me.
If you can’t find a job, it cuts to your self image, cuts to who you are, your self esteem. I remember how down I felt and how hard it was for me. Right around that time God touched my life, and it was perfect timing because I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my life. And then eventually I felt a call to ministry. I got fully involved, as you know, became a Catholic priest, and the rest is history. Bottom line is is that when one door closes, you have to trust God that another one will open. If one window closes, trust God that he’ll open another window for you. And the bottom line is if you’re struggling with finding a job, maybe you’re struggling with your self esteem, you can trust God to make a way for you. God is faithful. He has a plan for your life, and it’s going to happen.
You simply have to trust. I want to tell you about self esteem here for just a minute. People that are out of work and that are struggling, I understand, because I’ve been through it. There’s nothing worse, wondering what your future is gonna be and the difficulties. What I want to tell you is this. Trust God and be proactive, be passionate, take the initiative, and have ambition. Even after I got into ministry, I’ve always tried to live with passion. Travel preaching, parish missions, tried to develop beautiful sermons that would really help people, and then I wanted to reach out beyond the walls of the church, and that’s why I felt like broadcast media, television and radio, would be the way to go. Because I want to reach people that aren’t going to church as well as people that are going to church.
I was able to get into broadcast media, and it wasn’t because the networks came after me. Rather, I had to go to them, and you don’t know how hard that was for me to knock on their doors and to develop a pilot program, a pilot series, and to really get in the way so that they noticed me. It was hard at first, and it really took a lot of confidence and a lot of ambition and a lot of trials and tribulations. My point is, the doors finally opened. I kept trusting God, believing that God had a plan for my life and this was it, but it took passion and enthusiasm and daring and knocking on doors and risking. What I want to say to you is if you are unemployed or struggling and being underemployed, be ambitious, be daring, be bold, be proactive.
I remember the Hebrews were stuck at the Jordan River. They had to try to cross over the Jordan River to get into the Promised Land, but it was too wide, they couldn’t do it. They were told to put their feet into the Jordan River, and then it would stop, and certainly it did, and then they were able to cross. The same way you have to be proactive, you have to step out, you have to be daring, you have to keep at it and not give up, trusting God the whole time, and then the river will part, the door will open.
I have read that people hire passionate people. If you’re searching for a job, maybe you don’t have the best qualifications, but be enthusiastic in your interview. Be passionate, because I’ve read that they hire passionate people over people that are qualified for the job. I remember one time I was flying on an airplane and heard the flight attendant give the call to buckle your seat belt and do all this and do all that. It was so routine and so boring. Nobody was listening. Went on another flight, and the flight attendant was smiling, and she was almost dancing up there talking about your seatbelt and what a great flight it’s gonna be, and everybody was listening because she was passionate. You could tell that she loved her job.
When you look at the scriptures, people that worked, God worked through. And I want to tell you that God is at work in you, and he will work through you. Those of you who are working have to believe that God will work through you in your job. Be passionate, be enthusiastic. I think about Jesus, for example. He worked for many years, as we know, as a carpenter. Nobody knew about him, nobody knew he was the Messiah. He worked with his hands, he worked with his mind. Being a carpenter, his job actually formed him, formed him as a person. Very practical, learned wisdom, and I know that because I was a carpenter for many years. Actually, I worked for a carpenter, my dad.
My dad was so gracious, he had such a talent at carpentry, and he wanted me to have that talent, but I really didn’t have it, wasn’t really mechanically inclined. But as I watched my dad, I learned so much about his work ethic. He put his heart and soul into his job, and he built the building, and it was very beautiful. There’s a great nobility in work, a great dignity in work. That’s one of the things that my dad taught me. Now, we are made in God’s image. The book of Genesis said that God worked, he created all these different days. He produced light and living things, soil, growth of plants. The universe is all God’s handiwork. And we have within us God’s D.N.A. We have the desire to create, produce, and to be fruitful.
That was God’s first command to us, be fruitful and multiply. We have within us this desire, this ethic, this work we want to produce. We want to be fruitful. I think of artists and sculptures like Michelangelo, musicians, writers, teachers, engineers, producers, builders, there’s this desire to want to create, to leave our mark, and to influence others, but it takes passion and energy, creativity, concentration, focus, and we have that in us. One of the greatest regrets that people have is that they didn’t produce what they could have produced or create what they could have created with their life. They get to the end of their life, they look back at their life, and they think, I should have done more.
I think about Peter and Andrew, James and John. They were fishermen, working. Notice that Jesus called them, spoke to them as they were working. Same in our life, as we’re working we can hear the voice of God. I know a man who works in the insurance business, and he says that he prays while he works, and God leads him. It’s amazing, he senses God speaking to him. Anyway, Peter, Andrew, James, John, they’re working, and unfortunately they were frustrated. They weren’t catching anything. This is Luke chapter 5. They were cleaning their nets, another day where not much was happening, and Jesus told them to launch out into the deep, throw your nets over for a haul.
And, of course, Peter said, «Master, we’ve been at it all night, all day, nothing has been happening. But it’s your word, I will do it». What was Jesus telling him? He was telling him, «Peter, think outside the box. Don’t just do things the way you always do them. Risk, be daring, be bold, try new things, watch what happens. Launch out into the deep». And I found that that’s the way it is in life. People will oftentimes say, better safe than sorry. Well, maybe you’re safe, but I don’t want to be sorry by being safe. I want to try new things. Launch out into the deep. That’s why I got into television. I’m in way over my head with this, but when you launch out into the deep, that’s where the fish are.
That’s when you get the haul, that’s when you get the catch. I want you to not just work, but work with enthusiasm, with passion, with creativity, with daring. Try new things. As I said, many people get to the end of their life and they regret that they didn’t live well or live fully. We were made to express, to create, to become. That’s the saying that I love that is the foundation of my ministry. Who you are is God’s gift to you, but who you become is your gift to God. Jesus said the same thing. He said, «God is still working». God didn’t just rest on the seventh day and quit working. God is at work in you, and he will work through you. He said, «God is still working, and I’m working».
And God worked through Jesus. They were persecuting him because he was healing on the Sabbath. God was working through Jesus on the Sabbath. Well, God is working in us because God is a worker, and God is working through us. Remember that parable about the landowner? He was hiring all these people, 6 in the morning, 7 in the morning, 9 in the morning, noon, even at 5 at night, and that parable generally is interpreted as, and rightly so, that God is very generous, no matter what hour he’s willing to hire you and pay the same amount. I like to think that that parable is about God wants us to work. He doesn’t like it when people are sitting idle and they’re not achieving their potential. He created us to work.
Now, work isn’t everything, but the bottom line is that a third of our life, we are working. We might as well be striving for, achieving, and becoming, and trying our best, living with passion, developing, and becoming all that we can be. My dad and I were close in our relationship. Worked with him as a carpenter, as I said. He had this magnificent gift, but I felt so inept, I just didn’t really have the gift. I’m pretty good at sports and school and technology and those kind of things, but mechanically, I’m not really inclined that well. I can do it, but it takes me forever.
I remember working with my dad one time, and he was up on the roof, and he was hammering, and he would have three or four nails in, and I’m still working on my first nail, and I’m thinking to myself, why does my dad want me to work with him? Certainly, it was because we had a good relationship, but really, when I think about it, it was because I was his son. He didn’t need me, but he wanted me to participate with him in the building that he was creating, he wanted me to share the joy, the exhilaration once we finished. I was his son. He wanted me to be a part of it, and that’s exactly it when it comes to ministry or anything else that we do.
God does not need us. I’m a Catholic priest, and I’ve been a priest for over 30 years, and ministering on television. I like what John the Baptist said. «God from these very stones can raise up children for Abraham». What do I mean by that? God can do whatever he wants without our help. He doesn’t need us. But God has chosen, and this is the way that God designed everything, God has chosen to work with us and through us in the re-creation of the world.
If you’re a minister, trust God that he’s going to work in you and through you. Whatever you’re doing in life, trust God that he has a plan and purpose for you. Same thing as I was thinking about it when it comes to intercessory prayer. When we pray to God for other people, for the world, for the church, God already knows. He knows what we need, he knows the world situation. He really doesn’t need our prayers, per se. He can do it pretty well on his own, thank you very much. However, the way God has designed it, he wants us to pray. He wants us to participate with him in the re-creation, the salvation of the world.
I think about, for example, Abraham. Remember way back when Sodom and Gomorrah was about to be destroyed and Abraham, the great priest, one of the first priests in the Bible, although he wasn’t officially ordained, you’re a priest, a prophet, and a king. Maybe you’re not ordained, but you still are. He petitioned God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. He said, «Lord, if there’s 50 righteous people, would you still destroy it»? God said, «No, I won’t destroy it». «Well, what about 25? If there’s 25, will you still destroy it»? «Okay, no». He got them all the way down to ten or five righteous people there. He changed God’s mind by his prayer. He worked with, he agreed with God, he changed God, God worked through Abraham. In our prayers too, God wants us to pray to intercede for the world.
This is the way he designed it. He can do it on his own. My dad can build that building very clearly, very perfectly without me. In fact, I probably messed it up more often than not. But he wanted me to be with him because I was his son. Same way with God. You’re a minister, whatever your job is, he gives us the dignity and the nobility of work and the dignity and the nobility of being a priestly people, interceding for the world. God is at work in you and in me, changing the world and changing us into the image of Jesus. Think about doctors. They bring healing to people wonderfully. Most of us have had operations and sense the doctor helping us and nurses.
Think about teachers. I remember, it was a teacher when I was going through CCD class as a young man, it was a teacher who helped me with the Bible. She said this. «Truth is to be found in the Bible». And I remembered that. I had fallen away years later, and I remembered what she said about truth being found in the Bible, and I came back to the Bible, had a great conversion. I remember one time I was in ninth grade English class, my English teacher came up to me and gave me a book, and he didn’t give anybody else that book. It was called «Great Expectations» by Charles Dickens. And he was giving it just to me, and it told me that he believed in me. He had confidence in me. He had great expectations for me. And I never forgot that.
That was God working through that teacher for me. And then, of course, there’s so many others. Police who protect us, help us in society. Firemen, firewomen, ministers, priests, social workers, even politicians. They have the best of intentions. They may not go about it the right way, but I believe God works through all these people. This is God working in the world, working with us, all to bring redemption and salvation.
Talking about nurses, I remember a story about my mom. She got sick at age 90 and had an operation. She was in hospital after the operation, she suffered some strokes, and it was the end of her life. She finally passed away. My two sisters and I were at her bedside. It was so hard to let go of my mom. We were there when she passed away and drew her last breath. We were just about to leave the room. My sisters left first, I was alone with my mom, and finally I was just about to walk out of the room, and a nurse came in. And I said to the nurse, I said, «Please take care of my mom». And she looked at me and said something I’ll never forget. She said, «I will take care of your mom just as if she was my mom». And I so needed that at that moment. That nurse was an angel to me. That was God working through the nurse, comforting me, that she was gonna take care of my mom’s body. It’s the same in our life.
How do we transform the world? Through generosity, through compassion, through kindness, and by working. Don’t be afraid of work. Work is dignified and has great nobility. Back in 1991, Saint John Paul II promulgated an encyclical about work. It was called «Laborem Exercens,» and he said that work is a good thing. Through work we transform the world and fulfill ourselves as humans. As I said before, we spend a third of our life working, and it’s meant to fulfill us and to contribute to the good of the world. I remember over Auschwitz, the entrance to Auschwitz they had a saying, and it was facetious. «Work will set you free». They were trying to intimidate the people in the prison camp. Work will set you free, and it will set the world free as we work hard with enthusiasm. Work is a call. It’s a call from God. Don’t think of your work as a curse. Rather, right from the beginning God wanted us to cultivate the garden. He wanted us to be fruitful and to multiply.
I had the opportunity some years ago to go on a sabbatical. Sabbatical is a time when you take some rest from the ministry and you retool and you study and you can do whatever you want. Well, I toured a little bit, I went to the national parks and saw some of those, and it was really fun, had a good time. But the interesting thing is I decided to write books, to preach missions, and produce for TV. And I thought to myself, wait a minute, that’s what I do all the time. And the reason I did that is because that’s what fulfills me. I love reaching out to people. I love being used by God to touch people, and it’s the same in our life. As you open up yourself to God, he will work in you and through you. Jesus said, «God is still working, and I’m working still».
Work with passion, enthusiasm. Reach out, launch out. That’s where the fish are. And God will use you to catch those fish. You realize your potential, you become all that you can be. Just as Jesus showed up when Peter and Andrew, James and John were working, when Matthew was working, called them, spoke to them, ennobled them at their workplace, he’s with you as you work. He’s working in you, and he’s working through you. See your work not just as drudgery or something that you have to do or just try to earn some money. See it as a call. It ennobles us. It dignifies us. And then push the boundaries. Launch out into the deep. Don’t live with regrets. Become all that you can be. Be daring. Take the initiative. Be bold. Take chances. Reach for the stars, and at least you’ll get the moon. And as I love to say, who you are is God’s gift to you, but who you become is your gift to God. Trust God, he’ll make a way for you. And don’t just live, live with passion.