Being Recollected at Work During Advent
We're focusing on being recollected at work during Advent. As we did last time, we'll use The Inner Life of the Soul by S.L. Emery as a helpful resource. But first, let's take a step back and remind ourselves of the special importance of being recollected at work during Advent.
Advent marks the beginning of the Church's Liturgical Year. You'll recall that we've suggested having your plan for the New Year in place by the beginning of Advent. On a practical level, we're prepared to hit the ground running when January 1st rolls around. On a spiritual level, it puts us in sync with the Church's Liturgical Year. A win-win if ever there was one.
Having your plan in place and being in sync with Liturgical Year provides the groundwork for being recollected during Advent. But we need to dig deeper to let our work not only meet our practical needs, but also strengthen our spiritual lives - specifically our interior life. The Inner Life of the Soul explains:
"One thing alone is of any importance - the adorning of our souls with the graces which shall fit them for God's final reward; and all other things are only worth considering as far as they are subservient to that end."
Talk about establishing priorities! That pretty much says it all. And knowing that, how can we not want our work to serve this end?
Last time we saw how God desires intimacy with us. So we therefore understood that it is possible for us to enter into intimacy with Him. But what exactly is this intimacy?
"It is the hidden, interior, supernatural life of the soul."
This is the life we give to God and live for God alone.
"...there exists a life, founded upon our Baptism, rising in endeavor and practice far higher than the mere obligatory keeping of the commandments of the Church, having no limit to its possibilities, until it reaches the heights of sanctity in a perfect union with God. This is what, in spiritual phraseology, is called the interior or hidden life which a soul leads when it seeks, with more or less intensity of purpose, for the divine intimacy."
If you read these words from The Inner Life of the Soul carefully and let them sink in, you know this: We don't abandon our interior life when we start the work day.
Let's tie all this in to Advent. As we did last time, we turn to the Advent of our Blessed Mother when she carried the Son of God in her womb:
"Can she sleep at night or speak by day, in the rapture of that unbroken union, her spotless holiness linked with the Divinity in a manner unknown before and never to be known again?...Do not angels kneel ever in her presence, plainly visible to her who has received the gifts of Divine Maternity? Do not her ears hear heaven's hosannas ring about her...? Can your or I in the slightest degree imagine the rapture that filled to the brim the chosen Mother's soul?"
As sinners, we might brush aside any thoughts of ever being able to approach the depth and splendor of Mary's Advent. And yet, as sinners who sincerely seek forgiveness for our failings, we know what we can do here and now to nourish ourselves with the spirit of the Advent Season:
"One day of this holy season, you and I please God, will kneel in the confessional and before the altar, and our souls will be fed with those 'most nourishing sacraments' left by Jesus Christ in His one true Church for the use of sinful man. One day of this holy season, the true Christ, God and man will be within us, as really as His mother bore Him hiddenly within her all these Advent days. My God! the bliss of Mary in some degree awaits each child of Thine."
Let's carry this thought with us to the job today. If we do, can we fail to feel Mary's presence from time to time. Might we not picture in our minds that Blessed Mother who carried within her the Son of God. It only takes a few brief moments to be recollected in the spirit of this Holy Season, even as we go about our daily work.
More so, though, can we fail - if we have not already done so - to get to confession? If you're blessed, as am I, with access to confession near your workplace, why not get to confession this week? If not, just make a plan to get to confession this weekend at your home parish.
We'll have more thoughts on how to stay recollected at work during Advent. For now, let's all pray that special aspiration that never fails to enrich and inspire Catholics during these days before Christmas:
Advent marks the beginning of the Church's Liturgical Year. You'll recall that we've suggested having your plan for the New Year in place by the beginning of Advent. On a practical level, we're prepared to hit the ground running when January 1st rolls around. On a spiritual level, it puts us in sync with the Church's Liturgical Year. A win-win if ever there was one.
Having your plan in place and being in sync with Liturgical Year provides the groundwork for being recollected during Advent. But we need to dig deeper to let our work not only meet our practical needs, but also strengthen our spiritual lives - specifically our interior life. The Inner Life of the Soul explains:
"One thing alone is of any importance - the adorning of our souls with the graces which shall fit them for God's final reward; and all other things are only worth considering as far as they are subservient to that end."
Talk about establishing priorities! That pretty much says it all. And knowing that, how can we not want our work to serve this end?
Last time we saw how God desires intimacy with us. So we therefore understood that it is possible for us to enter into intimacy with Him. But what exactly is this intimacy?
"It is the hidden, interior, supernatural life of the soul."
This is the life we give to God and live for God alone.
"...there exists a life, founded upon our Baptism, rising in endeavor and practice far higher than the mere obligatory keeping of the commandments of the Church, having no limit to its possibilities, until it reaches the heights of sanctity in a perfect union with God. This is what, in spiritual phraseology, is called the interior or hidden life which a soul leads when it seeks, with more or less intensity of purpose, for the divine intimacy."
If you read these words from The Inner Life of the Soul carefully and let them sink in, you know this: We don't abandon our interior life when we start the work day.
Let's tie all this in to Advent. As we did last time, we turn to the Advent of our Blessed Mother when she carried the Son of God in her womb:
"Can she sleep at night or speak by day, in the rapture of that unbroken union, her spotless holiness linked with the Divinity in a manner unknown before and never to be known again?...Do not angels kneel ever in her presence, plainly visible to her who has received the gifts of Divine Maternity? Do not her ears hear heaven's hosannas ring about her...? Can your or I in the slightest degree imagine the rapture that filled to the brim the chosen Mother's soul?"
As sinners, we might brush aside any thoughts of ever being able to approach the depth and splendor of Mary's Advent. And yet, as sinners who sincerely seek forgiveness for our failings, we know what we can do here and now to nourish ourselves with the spirit of the Advent Season:
"One day of this holy season, you and I please God, will kneel in the confessional and before the altar, and our souls will be fed with those 'most nourishing sacraments' left by Jesus Christ in His one true Church for the use of sinful man. One day of this holy season, the true Christ, God and man will be within us, as really as His mother bore Him hiddenly within her all these Advent days. My God! the bliss of Mary in some degree awaits each child of Thine."
Let's carry this thought with us to the job today. If we do, can we fail to feel Mary's presence from time to time. Might we not picture in our minds that Blessed Mother who carried within her the Son of God. It only takes a few brief moments to be recollected in the spirit of this Holy Season, even as we go about our daily work.
More so, though, can we fail - if we have not already done so - to get to confession? If you're blessed, as am I, with access to confession near your workplace, why not get to confession this week? If not, just make a plan to get to confession this weekend at your home parish.
We'll have more thoughts on how to stay recollected at work during Advent. For now, let's all pray that special aspiration that never fails to enrich and inspire Catholics during these days before Christmas:
Divine Infant of Bethlehem, come and take birth in our hearts!
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