Spiritual Thoughts and Exortations to Bolster Our Work Life

For five days starting next week we post our annual "A Practical Guide for Planning Designed for Catholic Men." It will help you plan your work and personal life in preparation for the coming year. For this week, we'll look at some thoughts and exhortations for our spiritual lives that will also bolster our work lives. The premise here is simple: if our spiritual lives are in order, if we advance in our spiritual lives, our work will reflect that.

We all need a strong, clear mind to guide us each day as we apply our skills and talents to our work. A soul in the state of sanctifying grace, will illumine and enliven the mind helping us to be diligent in our appointed service.

The present moment reveals the will of God.  Whatever this moment brings – joy, suffering, obligation, temptation – that is God’s will for us.  Everything that occurs can only occur by God’s will.  We abandon ourselves to God’s will because that is, indeed reality.  The sane mind understands this.


What if we pray that we will do His will but don’t really know if we are, in fact, doing it?  Father Caussade tells us to beware Illuminism: “I have prayed, and God will inspire me to do the wisest thing or speak the right words, with infallible results.”  We’re kidding ourselves, pursuing something not meant for us.  Rather we should proceed thusly: “I have prayed and have the right intention: therefore God will be satisfied with the stupid things I do or say, as He knows I cannot do better.”  But over time, our imperfect acts and words prove to be curiously effective, as if by accident, even while we feel and appear foolish and humble.


We never really know what God’s will is going to be; we do know what it is at this moment – because it is this moment.  Think about how effectively this keeps our pride and ego at bay.  See how our humility is increased.  In our foolishness, incompetence, and humility, we cling ever more to Our Lord.  We will walk on water if we keep our gaze locked onto the eyes of Christ.  Keep the gaze.  And just let him steer as we keep peddling.


This doesn’t at all mean that we ought not to be “men of action” as well as men of prayer.  Don’t give in to indecision.  After we have had sufficient time, advice, and prayer, we must choose what we think best for the common good. The saints themselves were doers and did not take refuge in indecision or fear of failure.  Make those spur of the moment decisions we must make from time to time, even if there is no time for prayer beforehand.  …St. Paul said, all things will work together for the good, mistakes and wrong decisions included, and as St. Augustine adds, even sins.


As for whether all this leads to success or failure, in worldly terms, think of this: Those of the Old Testament measured God’s pleasure with material success, which was how God actually dealt with them, but often (not always) it is exactly the opposite for us in the new dispensation. God’s greatest gifts are crosses and trials. This is how He treats his friends, which is one reason why he has so few, as St. Teresa of Avila observed.