Though Blessed Preca preceded the Second Vatican Council1, which claimed that holiness is every Christian’s vocation, he was convinced that life only makes sense if one strives to achieve union with God. This call to holiness is a continuous leitmotif in the Bible. We find it in the Covenant2, where God invites the Jews to be his Holy People, in the prophetic literature and it reaches its climax in Jesus Christ’s imperative: "You must be perfect - just as your Father in Heaven is perfect!" (Mt 5,48)

Father Preca realized that since we were called to be holy, it is only through holiness that our soul can be at rest. He writes: "The purpose of human life is what gives rest to the human being; everything has a particular aim and whatever goes astray from this aim will lack rest. A stone rolls until it rests upon its centre, water is restless until it has found its place, a flame flickers until it has found the right position. The human heart is restless until it has found its rest in God."3 It is precisely to help people achieve this rest, this union with God, that he writes most of his books.

For Blessed Preca, holiness can only be achieved through Jesus Christ. Thus Jesus Christ occupied a central place not only in Blessed Preca’s life but also in his writings. The basic principle which he set his life upon, and which he wanted the members of his Society to found their life upon was "I propose to follow him exclusively throughout all my life." In Blessed Preca’s spiritual theology, Jesus Christ, the God-made-flesh, through his incarnation, paved the way for our journey towards God by becoming our model. When the infinity of God became finite in Jesus Christ, when the spiritual identity of God became human through Jesus Christ, it became possible for the Christian to gaze at the God-made-flesh, and to travel along the path taken by him to return back to his Father. In the Gymnasium for the Spiritual Life, Blessed Preca imagines Christ telling us: "In order that you may acquire perfection in general, and all the virtues in particular till union with God is reached, you must set yourself a model… I myself especially as your crucified Lord, should be the One, held up by God as the unique model for all people."4

As Natalino Camilleri points out: "Dun Ìor© seems to be suggesting that in the uncertainties and insecurities of his pilgrimage, the Christian’s relationship with Christ should provide the stability which enables him to go on."5 While everything changes, and the journey can take any twist and turn, the disciple must do what Peter failed to do, that is to look directly at the face of Christ without paying heed where he is treading and all the dangers involved.

Blessed Preca stresses that discipleship is far from being a passive attitude, sitting at the Master’s feet and gazing at his face. It certainly entails a very active attitude on the disciple’s part to meet to his master’s demands, to respond to his master’s challenges and to fulfill his master’s invitations and orders. Since the master is Jesus Christ, this is not easy, because following him entails surrendering to the will of the Father, who is far from being a Father who spoils his children with trifles. Blessed Preca claims: "Whoever follows in Christ’s footsteps, must fulfill his duty toward God with a spirit of a victim; in fact Christ sacrificed his life on the cross in obedience to his Father’s will, and became a victim because of a divine sacrifice, a victim of God’s will."6

It is precisely this spirit, which led Christ to his crucifixion, which is emphasized most in Blessed Preca’s writings. One can hardly overestimate the importance and the role which the crucified Lord has in the disciple’s life. Discipleship and bearing the cross are, for Blessed Preca, synonymous, inspired of course by Christ’s words: "If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross everyday and follow me."7 Thus, Blessed Preca warns that ‘If a Christian leads a life devoid of the cross, he is not a true Christian since he would not be imitating his master who embraced the cross."8

The suffering Christ was a subject of continuous contemplation for Blessed Preca9, and he invited everyone to contemplate him often as he does in Il-Ktieb il-kbir.10 Elsewhere he writes: "I encourage you to read often this book which is open for the whole world to be carried out, for everyone’s reflection and study. This book is Jesus of Nazareth, crucified on the cross."11

1 Perhaps unlike previous councils, the Second Vatican Council reflected a lot about lay people, publishing, amongst other things, a whole document called Apostolicam Actuositatem, Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, where the Council encourages lay people to take an active role in the Church’s mission and evangelisation and to strive towards holiness and to a life of "an intimate union with Christ in the Church." Decree on the Lay Apostolate, 4.
2 See Lev 11,44-45, Lev 19,2, and Lev 20,7-26.
3 Preca George, Il-Vuçi tal-Kustodju (The Voice of the Guardian), First published in 1930s as part of a compendium of books called Il-Pa©na tax-xahar. 6 January.
4 Preca George, Gymnasium for the Spiritual Life, First published in 1930, English Edition Societas Doctrinae Christianae 1996, p 92.
5 Camilleri Natalino, Metaphors of the Christian Life in the writings of Dun Ìor© Preca, Thesis, University of Malta, 1997, p 33.
6 Preca George, Is-Sakrarju ta’ l-Ispirtu ta’ Kristu, First published in 1947, New Edition Societas Doctrinae Christianae 1981, p 59. This book was also publised         in   English.
7 Lk 9,23. It is interesting to note that Blessed Preca wanted the Members of his Society to utter these words each morning.
8 Preca George, Il-Vuçi tal-Kustodju, op. lit. p11.
9 The centrality of the crucified Christ echoes St Paul’s words in 1 Cor 2,2.
10 Preca George, Il-Ktieb il-Kbir, First published in the 1920s, New Edition Societas Doctrinae Christianae , 1983.
11 Preca George, Il-Pulptu ta’ Patri Franku n 57. First published in Kalendarju Museumin in 1957.