These First Days of Advent at Work - Part 2
(Originally posted on December 5, 2013.)
Working during the Holy Season of Advent, we Catholics can look for special graces to help us to faithfully keep this season one of penance and preparation for the coming of Christ even during the busiest times during our work days. Normally it's a challenge -at least for me - to keep God present in my mind and heart during a work day. But during Advent it's a special challenge. There's just a lot of distraction swirling around and through these days as decorating, shopping, parties, and other special tasks and events crowd our schedules more and more as Christmas approaches. So, picking up where we left off last time, we'll apply this virtue of persistence or perseverance to our efforts each day leading up to Christmas, taking a cue from something we've all learned in our work lives: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Put another way: Never give up.
Many, if not most, of our successful efforts at work result from persistence. Let's dig a little deeper into the thoughts from Father Albert Shannon we read last time. His inspiring words connect our efforts at work with our spiritual life in a seamless manner:
Understanding that saints are sinners who keep trying consoles and motivates us in our spiritual life. Just as we understand how persistence pays off in our work, we can translate this understanding to perseverance in our spiritual lives. Notice that sanctity is "nothing more than a wholehearted love of God that has the added note of perseverance." Especially note "wholehearted" here, and compare this to your experience at work if and when you do something in a "halfhearted" manner vs. a "wholehearted" manner. Wholehearted works a lot better, right?
Father Shannon reminds us that sanctity requires an undivided and unchanging heart. This is especially important for us to recognize now, in an age where distractions of all sorts, from so many sources, command our attention, and in a season where distractions proliferate, both those which are inevitable, as well as those which are frivolous. Just as we must focus on our work to accomplish our objectives, despite distractions, so too our spiritual lives must command the effort and attention proportionate to their object: our love of God.
Looked at in this light, Advent now becomes a crucible in which we work out our sanctity, even during our busiest days (or nights) at work. As this new Liturgical Year begins, we willingly leap into the fire of this crucible, remembering the words of John the Baptist, whose words we will soon hear in some of the gospels at Mass during Advent:
Working during the Holy Season of Advent, we Catholics can look for special graces to help us to faithfully keep this season one of penance and preparation for the coming of Christ even during the busiest times during our work days. Normally it's a challenge -at least for me - to keep God present in my mind and heart during a work day. But during Advent it's a special challenge. There's just a lot of distraction swirling around and through these days as decorating, shopping, parties, and other special tasks and events crowd our schedules more and more as Christmas approaches. So, picking up where we left off last time, we'll apply this virtue of persistence or perseverance to our efforts each day leading up to Christmas, taking a cue from something we've all learned in our work lives: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Put another way: Never give up.
Many, if not most, of our successful efforts at work result from persistence. Let's dig a little deeper into the thoughts from Father Albert Shannon we read last time. His inspiring words connect our efforts at work with our spiritual life in a seamless manner:
"The saint is a sinner who keeps trying - trying to love God with all the powers of his mind and heart and soul and strength. Sanctity, you see is nothing more than a wholehearted love of God that has the added note of perseverance (the word sanctity means 'to fix unalterable'). Often we call places holy because of a deep irrevocable attachment which such a person or place has to God. When love of God is wholehearted and steadfast, then that love too is holy. 'There are only two words in the vocabulary of love,' wrote Bishop Sheen, 'you and always. You because love is exclusive; always because love is eternal.' St Thomas said the same thing about love that is holy. 'Sanctity,' he wrote 'seems to imply two things: purity and firmness.' For him, purity meant exclusiveness - the undivided heart; and firmness meant steadfastness - the unchanging heart."First, we remember that all of us are called to be saints. Yes, even we who know how often we fall short of perfection, how often we sin. That's why a Catholic examines his conscience on a regular basis, and goes to confession often. (If you haven't been to confession lately, Advent presents the motivation you may need to confession your sins to a priest in holy confession, to prepare you heart for the coming of Christ at Christmas.)
Understanding that saints are sinners who keep trying consoles and motivates us in our spiritual life. Just as we understand how persistence pays off in our work, we can translate this understanding to perseverance in our spiritual lives. Notice that sanctity is "nothing more than a wholehearted love of God that has the added note of perseverance." Especially note "wholehearted" here, and compare this to your experience at work if and when you do something in a "halfhearted" manner vs. a "wholehearted" manner. Wholehearted works a lot better, right?
Father Shannon reminds us that sanctity requires an undivided and unchanging heart. This is especially important for us to recognize now, in an age where distractions of all sorts, from so many sources, command our attention, and in a season where distractions proliferate, both those which are inevitable, as well as those which are frivolous. Just as we must focus on our work to accomplish our objectives, despite distractions, so too our spiritual lives must command the effort and attention proportionate to their object: our love of God.
Looked at in this light, Advent now becomes a crucible in which we work out our sanctity, even during our busiest days (or nights) at work. As this new Liturgical Year begins, we willingly leap into the fire of this crucible, remembering the words of John the Baptist, whose words we will soon hear in some of the gospels at Mass during Advent:
John answered, saying unto all: I indeed baptize you with water; but there shall come one mightier that I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to loose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. (Luke 3:16)Finally, don't forget our Advent aspiration, to be repeated generously, persistently throughout the days of Advent, to help us focus our attention properly:
Divine Infant of Bethlehem,
come and take birth in our hearts
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