Some Suggestions to Improve Our Day's Work During This Second Week of the Easter Season

Let's look at how we can improve our day's work consistent with the spirit of this Easter Season. Last week we discussed ways to build on any progress we made in our spiritual lives through our Lenten discipline: 

...while we don't need to continue our prayer and fasting in the same fashion we did during Lent, we don't want to throw it all out the window and slip back to that "old self" we were before Lent began...And as you go about your business today...Recognize the graces that flow from these special days and ask Our Risen Lord to grant us the help, the strength we need to continue to sanctify our work and grow ever closer to Him.   

We compared our extraordinary efforts during Lent to the sort of special training an athlete undergoes to improve specific capabilities, followed by workouts designed to maintain any progress:

Now, as we "exit" Lent, just as an athlete maintains the progress he or she has made in their special training, so too we want to maintain any progress we've made...We understand that the greater glory of God is best served and seen in the excellence of our work, along with keeping our spiritual discipline throughout the work day.

Today we'll outline specific ways to apply all this to our work.

First, we remember that everyday life swarms with abundant opportunities to sacrifice, basically little acts of self-renunciation, which can be broken down into: 

• religious duties
• duties of our state in life
• work
• obedience to authority

Our challenge here will be to perform these duties out of love for God, rather than just to get them done and over with. If you look at these areas, you can, I'm sure, parse various duties of your religious life, your work life, and your personal life (including getting up when the alarm clock rings!), that provide plenty of opportunities for sacrifice and mortification. But these include not only attention to the details of the circumstances of our particular lives, but charity in our dealing with others. For example, we can bite our tongue when tempted to say something nasty about someone; be pleasant and cheerful even if you're not feeling particularly great that day; give time to someone in need; in general, forget yourself and think of others.

Some specific bodily mortifications:

• get up at a specific time (that alarm clock)
• don't give in to laziness
• putting up with a little heat or cold
• eat stuff put in front of you even if you don't particularly care for it

(That last one's a challenge in a world of endless food "choices," accompanied by an aversion to leftovers these days; but I always remember my mother telling me to eat what's on my plate. Thanks Mom.)

Each one of these is a victory of the spirit over the flesh.

In addition to bodily mortifications, here are some spiritual mortifications:

• control your whims
• stop your vain day-dreaming
• avoid gossip and uncharitable speech
• be patient
• avoid curiosity (the useless kind, not the kind you need to solve problems)

This should help as a kind of starter kit. Take it to work today and apply some or all of these as you go through your busy day. There's a lot here. Maybe you can work on one or two of these today, a few more as you work through the Easter Season. If you do, Easter won't represent a time of laxity, of falling back into bad old habits. Rather it will be time to celebrate your little victories during Lent, and spur you on to greater victories throughout the year. After all, your eternal happiness depends on it, doesn't it?