Bringing Advent to Work
Advent has arrived. It will point us to the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem on Christmas. It also reminds us of His Second Coming. We both anticipate these events and we prepare ourselves during Advent to greet Our Lord when He comes. We do so in a spirit of penance - not the same sort of penance we practice in Lent, but penance nonetheless.
Surrounded by all the decorations that have already appeared, the "Holiday music" that plays continuously, we head to work today and each day of Advent in this spirit of anticipation and preparation and penance. With our Catholic sensibility guiding us, we work in this world, but we remember we are not of this world. Our life in this world serves as preparation for something greater - our eternal life. Thus our work, a central part of our life, also serves as preparation for eternal life. Our daily efforts to accomplish our goals, to pursue excellence, to provide for our families, to succeed, to prosper - all ultimately must serve as part of our preparation for eternal life.
And so we approach this special time of preparation - Advent - grateful to God and His Holy Church. We thank Him for giving us these days that begin the new Liturgical Year to help us prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of Jesus Christ. We unite our daily work to that of all who seek to prepare their hearts for Our Lord to take His place there on Christmas Day and every day. We want to clean out that manger within us so that His Birth finds Him nestled in a warm, clean place. There He will dwell within us, to remain with us throughout our journey in this life, to give us the graces we will need to some day find ourselves welcomed into an eternal life of joy, of true happiness.
While many of us may be facing a year-end crunch at work, let's not let Advent slip by unnoticed. We'll do our part to help keep Advent in the mix at work in the next few blogs. Let's start with a few simple suggestions for bringing Advent to work today:
First, if you're not already in the habit, make time for prayer each day. Start the day with a Morning Offering. Then make special time for God in prayer and thought (meditation). If you're really serious and can get up early enough, take 10-15 minutes to study your Faith (e.g., the Catechism), and to read some serious spiritual works. (There's a treasure trove of these to be sure.)
Next, as you head for work, or when you arrive, begin your day recollected in God's presence with a simple prayer. If you can, recollect yourself from time to time, remembering that you work in God's presence, and offer all you do for His greater glory.
Practice mortifications throughout the day. Prayer and sacrifice should be central to our lives as Catholics and mortifications are the simplest, most direct way to offer sacrifice: give up something you like with a meal (or give up the meal entirely if you're really ambitious!); delay eating for a couple of minutes after you say grace before meals. You might think of other little sacrifices that are appropriate in your situation, maybe something like refusing to allow that annoying co-worker to get under your skin, instead offering up a quick prayer for the salvation of their soul - a true act of charity.
Speaking of charity, avoid gossip, try to be cheerful and helpful to everyone. Remember that love is not so much a feeling as an act of your will: Be good to people, even those who aren't particularly good to you. And since most of us interact with more people at work during our days than we do elsewhere, the workplace can serve as the perfect venue to practice this all-important virtue of charity.
We could go on, but, if you're Catholic and you know what to do. Just do it now. It's Advent. What better time to practice your Holy Faith in its fullness? And what better place to do so than your place of work? By bringing Advent to work, your work day provides a perfect time and place to prepare in a spirit of penance.
Next time we'll turn to one of our great saints for some counsel on how best to bring Advent to work. You won't want to miss it!
Now it's time to get to work. Let's finish today's thoughts with this special prayer I say and have said throughout Advent for as long as I can remember. My personal practice has been to try to say this prayer one time for each year since our Lord's Birth to help me prepare for His coming. So this year I'm aiming for 2,017 times. (I just love this prayer!) You might try it too.
Surrounded by all the decorations that have already appeared, the "Holiday music" that plays continuously, we head to work today and each day of Advent in this spirit of anticipation and preparation and penance. With our Catholic sensibility guiding us, we work in this world, but we remember we are not of this world. Our life in this world serves as preparation for something greater - our eternal life. Thus our work, a central part of our life, also serves as preparation for eternal life. Our daily efforts to accomplish our goals, to pursue excellence, to provide for our families, to succeed, to prosper - all ultimately must serve as part of our preparation for eternal life.
And so we approach this special time of preparation - Advent - grateful to God and His Holy Church. We thank Him for giving us these days that begin the new Liturgical Year to help us prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of Jesus Christ. We unite our daily work to that of all who seek to prepare their hearts for Our Lord to take His place there on Christmas Day and every day. We want to clean out that manger within us so that His Birth finds Him nestled in a warm, clean place. There He will dwell within us, to remain with us throughout our journey in this life, to give us the graces we will need to some day find ourselves welcomed into an eternal life of joy, of true happiness.
While many of us may be facing a year-end crunch at work, let's not let Advent slip by unnoticed. We'll do our part to help keep Advent in the mix at work in the next few blogs. Let's start with a few simple suggestions for bringing Advent to work today:
First, if you're not already in the habit, make time for prayer each day. Start the day with a Morning Offering. Then make special time for God in prayer and thought (meditation). If you're really serious and can get up early enough, take 10-15 minutes to study your Faith (e.g., the Catechism), and to read some serious spiritual works. (There's a treasure trove of these to be sure.)
Next, as you head for work, or when you arrive, begin your day recollected in God's presence with a simple prayer. If you can, recollect yourself from time to time, remembering that you work in God's presence, and offer all you do for His greater glory.
Practice mortifications throughout the day. Prayer and sacrifice should be central to our lives as Catholics and mortifications are the simplest, most direct way to offer sacrifice: give up something you like with a meal (or give up the meal entirely if you're really ambitious!); delay eating for a couple of minutes after you say grace before meals. You might think of other little sacrifices that are appropriate in your situation, maybe something like refusing to allow that annoying co-worker to get under your skin, instead offering up a quick prayer for the salvation of their soul - a true act of charity.
Speaking of charity, avoid gossip, try to be cheerful and helpful to everyone. Remember that love is not so much a feeling as an act of your will: Be good to people, even those who aren't particularly good to you. And since most of us interact with more people at work during our days than we do elsewhere, the workplace can serve as the perfect venue to practice this all-important virtue of charity.
We could go on, but, if you're Catholic and you know what to do. Just do it now. It's Advent. What better time to practice your Holy Faith in its fullness? And what better place to do so than your place of work? By bringing Advent to work, your work day provides a perfect time and place to prepare in a spirit of penance.
Next time we'll turn to one of our great saints for some counsel on how best to bring Advent to work. You won't want to miss it!
Now it's time to get to work. Let's finish today's thoughts with this special prayer I say and have said throughout Advent for as long as I can remember. My personal practice has been to try to say this prayer one time for each year since our Lord's Birth to help me prepare for His coming. So this year I'm aiming for 2,017 times. (I just love this prayer!) You might try it too.
Divine Infant of Bethlehem, come and take birth in our hearts!
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