How to Bring Order To Our Work
We need to bring order to our work. A day of frantic activity won't do. It's not enough to just "work hard."
It's not so much that we need to slow down. Some of us have to work hard and fast to keep up with what's expected of us. On the other hand, some of have to slow down to make sure our work is accurate, complete.
Whatever it takes to bring order to the day's work, whatever kind of order is appropriate to our particular work, that's what we Catholic men need to bring to our jobs each day.
Here, let's keep it simple and see how to bring order to our work. It starts the minute we wake up. Just get up. Don't linger. Don't delay. Get up! You weren't made for pleasure. You were made to know, love and serve God.
As for work, we work for the greater glory of God. How many times, in how many ways do I have to remind myself? And it's never enough!
Too many days come and go in a flash. Deadlines press, details overwhelm. I want to get a jump on things. I'm into my work. Poof - the day flies by. Not a single thought of God entered my mind all day.
But at least I got right up and started my day in prayer - maybe the Morning Offering. Then on to some reading, and maybe a brief few minutes of meditation. My intentions were good. I prepared my mind and my heart in God's light, in His presence.
At least a sense of order found its way into my day during the early morning hours - that sense of order that St Benedict writes of in The Rule he wrote for his monks.
The same sense of order that rules the monastery should rule our work. And even if we have the sort of pressed, hectic day - a day of deadlines and details - we can start it right. We can apply ourselves dutifully throughout the day. And our work, done with a sense of order, completed dutifully will please Him - even if we didn't specifically think of Him even for a moment through those 8+ hours we were toiling away.
That's why starting the day right - in prayer, reading some scripture, some spiritual work, spending a few minutes studying (for example, reading a few questions and answers of the Catechism), is so important. That's why taking time - even if only five minutes - in silent meditation, thinking about what He wants from us today, what He wants us to do this particular day - is so important.
That's why when that extra-busy, hectic day shoots by and we've not given Him even a dedicated moment of our time, we can at least feel we started with the intention of working for His greater glory.
And that's why it's so important at the end of that day that we spend a few minutes - maybe just three minutes or so - examining our conscience: How did things go? What went wrong, what went right? Were we faithful to Him in all things? Where, how, when did we come up short? Then an Act of Contrition, acknowledging His perfection and our lack of that same perfection.
But we took that time to order our day. We took that time to acknowledge His supremacy in our lives. We attended to our work with diligence, performed our duties well - even as we seemingly "ignored" Him.
The order with which we began our day, the order with which we attended to our duties, the order with which we end our day all keep us within His orbit, in His sacred presence.
That order, the same order St Benedict writes of in his Rule, that same order that pervades the monastery, brings us closer to God at the end of the day. Any day we can move ever so slightly closer to Him is a good day. That's why bringing order to our work is so important - even critical - to us Catholic men at work.
It's not so much that we need to slow down. Some of us have to work hard and fast to keep up with what's expected of us. On the other hand, some of have to slow down to make sure our work is accurate, complete.
Whatever it takes to bring order to the day's work, whatever kind of order is appropriate to our particular work, that's what we Catholic men need to bring to our jobs each day.
Here, let's keep it simple and see how to bring order to our work. It starts the minute we wake up. Just get up. Don't linger. Don't delay. Get up! You weren't made for pleasure. You were made to know, love and serve God.
As for work, we work for the greater glory of God. How many times, in how many ways do I have to remind myself? And it's never enough!
Too many days come and go in a flash. Deadlines press, details overwhelm. I want to get a jump on things. I'm into my work. Poof - the day flies by. Not a single thought of God entered my mind all day.
But at least I got right up and started my day in prayer - maybe the Morning Offering. Then on to some reading, and maybe a brief few minutes of meditation. My intentions were good. I prepared my mind and my heart in God's light, in His presence.
At least a sense of order found its way into my day during the early morning hours - that sense of order that St Benedict writes of in The Rule he wrote for his monks.
The same sense of order that rules the monastery should rule our work. And even if we have the sort of pressed, hectic day - a day of deadlines and details - we can start it right. We can apply ourselves dutifully throughout the day. And our work, done with a sense of order, completed dutifully will please Him - even if we didn't specifically think of Him even for a moment through those 8+ hours we were toiling away.
That's why starting the day right - in prayer, reading some scripture, some spiritual work, spending a few minutes studying (for example, reading a few questions and answers of the Catechism), is so important. That's why taking time - even if only five minutes - in silent meditation, thinking about what He wants from us today, what He wants us to do this particular day - is so important.
That's why when that extra-busy, hectic day shoots by and we've not given Him even a dedicated moment of our time, we can at least feel we started with the intention of working for His greater glory.
And that's why it's so important at the end of that day that we spend a few minutes - maybe just three minutes or so - examining our conscience: How did things go? What went wrong, what went right? Were we faithful to Him in all things? Where, how, when did we come up short? Then an Act of Contrition, acknowledging His perfection and our lack of that same perfection.
But we took that time to order our day. We took that time to acknowledge His supremacy in our lives. We attended to our work with diligence, performed our duties well - even as we seemingly "ignored" Him.
The order with which we began our day, the order with which we attended to our duties, the order with which we end our day all keep us within His orbit, in His sacred presence.
That order, the same order St Benedict writes of in his Rule, that same order that pervades the monastery, brings us closer to God at the end of the day. Any day we can move ever so slightly closer to Him is a good day. That's why bringing order to our work is so important - even critical - to us Catholic men at work.
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