At Work the Week Before Pentecost
We begin this week at work in anticipation of Pentecost. Some of us may be praying the great Novena to the Holy Spirit to prepare for this most important feast. (We talked about this oldest of all novenas on Sunday.) This week, we'll focus on the Act of Consecration to the Holy Spirit, a part of the Novena prayed each of the nine days leading to Pentecost. Ideally, we'll see how its inspiring words can help us at work.
We begin with the first part of this prayer:
On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself, soul and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of Your love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In You I live and move and am.
Do we begin each day in this spirit of adoration, offering up every bit of ourselves (body and soul) to God? How so? By waking up with a prayer, maybe the Morning Offering? That's one tried and true method. It basically says it all, as long as you say the words and mean them.
Or do thoughts of the day's work, or chores, or personal problems, or desires crowd God out from the get go? Let's hope not. And if they do, maybe this is the time to start developing the habit of saying "Good morning!" to God the moment we awake.
Then what? Are we up and about, getting ready for work right away? Or do we make some time for prayer, for meditation, for reading (Holy Scripture, good spiritual works) study (of our Catholic religion). It only takes 10-15 with each of Holy Scripture, good spiritual works, thoroughly learning our Faith to build a sure foundation for our spiritual life. Would it be asking too much to get up a little early and make time for this? If not in the morning, then when?
The importance of that foundation: It comes with us everywhere we go - and that includes your workplace. It lifts us up and keeps you all in one piece. With it, we can say, in the words of this prayer, "I adore Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of your love" and mean every word. Not only can we mean what we say, but we can do what we say. Our thoughts, words, and actions will be imbued with purity, with justice, with love.
As a result, the virtue of purity helps us resist temptations to use other people, or see them as objects to satisfy your selfish wants and desires. Justice helps us concentrate on giving each person his or her due. At work, this means we not only work diligently, but we also avoid gossip, and consistently meet our deadlines. As His instrument, we reflect God's love in the quality of the work we produce and in the way we treat others. Not only do we avoid gossip, but our cheerful attitude and demeanor allow us to go the extra mile to lend a helping hand where needed, encouraging others who may be having a tough day.
What about when we're having a tough day? With that solid foundation of faith and a solid spiritual life, we'll be more likely to remember that, in the words of our prayer, "You are the Strength and Light of my soul." Rather than rely on our own strength, we turn to our Father. We know we can lean on Him. His Light will help us solve problems that come up throughout the day.
In time, our persistent prayer, meditation, reading, study, and - most importantly - practice of our Holy Catholic religion will allow us to sincerely say, "In You I live and move and am," and mean every word.
We hear the phrase "power of prayer" a lot. Today we saw an example of this power. We'll see more next time. For now, let's remember that in this week leading up to Pentecost, we know that this power lives in us in the Holy Spirit. With that in mind, let's pray together the great prayer that we all learned when we were children:
We begin with the first part of this prayer:
On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself, soul and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of Your love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In You I live and move and am.
Do we begin each day in this spirit of adoration, offering up every bit of ourselves (body and soul) to God? How so? By waking up with a prayer, maybe the Morning Offering? That's one tried and true method. It basically says it all, as long as you say the words and mean them.
Or do thoughts of the day's work, or chores, or personal problems, or desires crowd God out from the get go? Let's hope not. And if they do, maybe this is the time to start developing the habit of saying "Good morning!" to God the moment we awake.
Then what? Are we up and about, getting ready for work right away? Or do we make some time for prayer, for meditation, for reading (Holy Scripture, good spiritual works) study (of our Catholic religion). It only takes 10-15 with each of Holy Scripture, good spiritual works, thoroughly learning our Faith to build a sure foundation for our spiritual life. Would it be asking too much to get up a little early and make time for this? If not in the morning, then when?
The importance of that foundation: It comes with us everywhere we go - and that includes your workplace. It lifts us up and keeps you all in one piece. With it, we can say, in the words of this prayer, "I adore Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of your love" and mean every word. Not only can we mean what we say, but we can do what we say. Our thoughts, words, and actions will be imbued with purity, with justice, with love.
As a result, the virtue of purity helps us resist temptations to use other people, or see them as objects to satisfy your selfish wants and desires. Justice helps us concentrate on giving each person his or her due. At work, this means we not only work diligently, but we also avoid gossip, and consistently meet our deadlines. As His instrument, we reflect God's love in the quality of the work we produce and in the way we treat others. Not only do we avoid gossip, but our cheerful attitude and demeanor allow us to go the extra mile to lend a helping hand where needed, encouraging others who may be having a tough day.
What about when we're having a tough day? With that solid foundation of faith and a solid spiritual life, we'll be more likely to remember that, in the words of our prayer, "You are the Strength and Light of my soul." Rather than rely on our own strength, we turn to our Father. We know we can lean on Him. His Light will help us solve problems that come up throughout the day.
In time, our persistent prayer, meditation, reading, study, and - most importantly - practice of our Holy Catholic religion will allow us to sincerely say, "In You I live and move and am," and mean every word.
We hear the phrase "power of prayer" a lot. Today we saw an example of this power. We'll see more next time. For now, let's remember that in this week leading up to Pentecost, we know that this power lives in us in the Holy Spirit. With that in mind, let's pray together the great prayer that we all learned when we were children:
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful,
And enkindle in them the fire of Thy Love.
Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created,
And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
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