How Your Work Can Show You the Best Way to Pray
Today we consider how your work can show you the best way to pray.
Many, if not most, of our posts focus on integrating our work life and our spiritual life. We want to create "one cloth", so to speak. No separation. It's not always easy.
For example, we wake up, say our prayers, read some Scripture, maybe some spiritual reading too. That's our spiritual life.
Then we leave all that behind as we head off to work and get on with the "secular" part of our life.
Uh-uh. That's compartmentalizing our lives. Not good. Here's an example of this compartmentalizing mentality:
A colleague looking to hire an assistant for his business once told me of a prospect he really liked. The colleague was Catholic and so was the prospect. The colleague said he liked the prospect because (however he knew this), the prospect took care of his spiritual life early in the day and then was "done," ready to get down to work.
This isn't what we're striving for. And yet, this is how so many of us view our work lives. Despite my awareness of this, I still slip into this from time to time. It's a real struggle to keep things integrated.
While we've made many suggestions over the years on just how we might integrate our work with our spiritual lives, at the end of the day it's really an individual choice. And each of us as individuals need to determine the best way to go about doing this. So much depends on our unique personality and temperament. Some of us can take quick mental breaks from our daily toil and mentally utter a prayer or two, no matter what's going on around us. Others get so caught up in their work, it's something they can manage only rarely, if at all.
We could fall back on the idea that, if done with the right intention, we can turn the work itself into a kind of prayer. And that's true. Yet it would be better if we could manage to refresh our hearts and minds and acknowledge God's Presence - at least from time to time - as we plow through the day's task list.
So today, instead of repeating all the various ways we might avoid compartmentalization and retain our spiritual focus in the midst of a busy day at work, let's take some advice from a master of the spiritual life.
The late Abbot Chapman of Downside, England, had a very common sense suggestion: pray as you can pray and don't try to pray as you can't. This hits a point because too many people try to pray contrary to their attraction in prayer, in a manner they once prayed, have been unwisely advised to pray, or attempt a method they have read about in some book. The soul has to find its own way of holding converse with God.
The two signs to discover one's attraction are:
1. The Facility, in praying the way one likes to pray. 2. The Practical Effect on daily living.
In the first instance, Facility, it's a matter of following one's attraction. Do we find it easier to use formal prayers, or just speak to God in our own words? Perhaps a little of both. How about length of time? Are we inclined to take a few seconds here and there? Or do we prefer setting aside a chunk of time - let's say at lunchtime - to pray in a more concentrated fashion.
In the second instance, the Practical Effect has to do with the fruitfulness of the prayer. Does it beget fidelity to duties, carefulness in the practice of charity, greater patience in trials, etc.
Each of us can and should find his own answers. And how we answer today may change over time. At least that's been my experience.
Praying during work - however we can - may be challenging. And while it may seem self-evident that prayer during work will enhance our work lives, the opposite is true as well: Finding the best way to pray as we work inevitably enhances our prayer life.
Taking Abbot Chapman's advice as a guide - pray as you can pray and don't try to pray as you can't - find our what's best for you. Let your prayer enhance your work and your work enhance your prayer.
Many, if not most, of our posts focus on integrating our work life and our spiritual life. We want to create "one cloth", so to speak. No separation. It's not always easy.
For example, we wake up, say our prayers, read some Scripture, maybe some spiritual reading too. That's our spiritual life.
Then we leave all that behind as we head off to work and get on with the "secular" part of our life.
Uh-uh. That's compartmentalizing our lives. Not good. Here's an example of this compartmentalizing mentality:
A colleague looking to hire an assistant for his business once told me of a prospect he really liked. The colleague was Catholic and so was the prospect. The colleague said he liked the prospect because (however he knew this), the prospect took care of his spiritual life early in the day and then was "done," ready to get down to work.
This isn't what we're striving for. And yet, this is how so many of us view our work lives. Despite my awareness of this, I still slip into this from time to time. It's a real struggle to keep things integrated.
While we've made many suggestions over the years on just how we might integrate our work with our spiritual lives, at the end of the day it's really an individual choice. And each of us as individuals need to determine the best way to go about doing this. So much depends on our unique personality and temperament. Some of us can take quick mental breaks from our daily toil and mentally utter a prayer or two, no matter what's going on around us. Others get so caught up in their work, it's something they can manage only rarely, if at all.
We could fall back on the idea that, if done with the right intention, we can turn the work itself into a kind of prayer. And that's true. Yet it would be better if we could manage to refresh our hearts and minds and acknowledge God's Presence - at least from time to time - as we plow through the day's task list.
So today, instead of repeating all the various ways we might avoid compartmentalization and retain our spiritual focus in the midst of a busy day at work, let's take some advice from a master of the spiritual life.
The late Abbot Chapman of Downside, England, had a very common sense suggestion: pray as you can pray and don't try to pray as you can't. This hits a point because too many people try to pray contrary to their attraction in prayer, in a manner they once prayed, have been unwisely advised to pray, or attempt a method they have read about in some book. The soul has to find its own way of holding converse with God.
The two signs to discover one's attraction are:
1. The Facility, in praying the way one likes to pray. 2. The Practical Effect on daily living.
In the first instance, Facility, it's a matter of following one's attraction. Do we find it easier to use formal prayers, or just speak to God in our own words? Perhaps a little of both. How about length of time? Are we inclined to take a few seconds here and there? Or do we prefer setting aside a chunk of time - let's say at lunchtime - to pray in a more concentrated fashion.
In the second instance, the Practical Effect has to do with the fruitfulness of the prayer. Does it beget fidelity to duties, carefulness in the practice of charity, greater patience in trials, etc.
Each of us can and should find his own answers. And how we answer today may change over time. At least that's been my experience.
Praying during work - however we can - may be challenging. And while it may seem self-evident that prayer during work will enhance our work lives, the opposite is true as well: Finding the best way to pray as we work inevitably enhances our prayer life.
Taking Abbot Chapman's advice as a guide - pray as you can pray and don't try to pray as you can't - find our what's best for you. Let your prayer enhance your work and your work enhance your prayer.
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