How to Find Little Treasures During the Work Day
Last time we focused on stepping up our game - both at work and in our spiritual lives. We closed with a reference to the "little treasures" of grace we may have received as a result of our Lenten discipline. Let's dig into this idea today. First, though, some context provided by Fr. Bertrand Weaver, C.P.
"That some members of the Church do not keep the Passion and the Resurrection in context is evident from their attitude toward Lent and the Easter season. We cannot but rejoice that a multitude of Catholics enter wholeheartedly into the spirit of Lent, attending Mass daily, and performing acts of penance and charity. This is what the Church desires and urges us to do during Lent. She is, however, far from wanting us to make Good Friday the climax of this outpouring of devotion."
These words provide another way to consider a theme we've explored many times in these posts: that we do not cease our spiritual discipline when Lent ends; that Easter is not a time to sit back and put our spiritual heels up and relax. Father Weaver makes this same point citing Holy Mother Church's liturgy.
"The Easter liturgy, which begins with the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night, and which continues for the eight weeks following Easter, is the true climax of the Lenten liturgy. It should not escape our attention that Eastertide, the season of joy and fulfillment, is longer than Lent, the season of sorrow and penance."
Key point: Eastertide is longer than Lent. We would do well to take advantage of this enormous opportunity to accept and cooperate with the special graces that will flow to us during this glorious season.
How do we do that? As you might imagine, it's certainly not by jettisoning our acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Just because we don't concentrate our efforts to the same degree, and with the same intensity on these key spiritual tools doesn't mean we don't use them at all. In fact, our Lenten experience should have bolstered our skills here. If we faithfully practiced during Lent, we should have gained an easy facility in their use that remains with us now.
Here's an example from my own work that might help here.
A client was involved in a lawsuit. In the course of this legal action, the lawyer who represented her opponent subpoenaed me. He wanted to ask me a lot of questions. It's what's known as a deposition. I had never been deposed before. Frankly, the prospect was a bit unsettling. But with some help from my client's attorney, I prepped and, despite it lasting 3 hours (!) the deposition went rather well. I was also asked to provide some information in my professional capacity, as an "expert." I had never been an expert witness in a legal proceeding before. That went well too. Since then, I have been approached to provide expert witness testimony in a case unrelated to any of my clients. I will earn extra money doing this.
What's the point? Well, in order to serve my client, I had to step way outside my personal comfort zone and stretch my professional skills into unfamiliar territory. As a result, I gained a degree of facility with some legal matters that didn't exist before. That facility grew naturally from existing skills and talents that had to be tapped into and expanded.
In the same way, if we took on the challenge of a serious practice of prayer, penance, and almsgiving during Lent, we likely weren't praying, fasting, and being charitable out of the blue. We likely tapped into practices we had already pursued. But we probably had to expand on what we did in the normal course of a day. And now we've gained a greater facility with these precious commodities of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
The skill and experience I gained in being pushed to give a deposition and provide expert witness testimony has now become another set of tools I might use in the future to the benefit of my professional practice. The same applies to whatever skill and experience I might have gained in my Lenten discipline. Now that the Easter Season has arrived, I can apply these spiritual tools with greater facility.
I'm sure you can find similar instances of being called on at work to step out of your comfort zone, and stretch and expand your job skills to tackle a new challenge. And I hope you have been blessed to similarly stretch and expand spiritual tools of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Circling back to those "little treasures" we mentioned when we began, you could say my expanded professional knowledge and experience might be categorized as little treasures that have provided additional revenue to my business. In the same way, we say that our expanded facility with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving will serve us as little treasures that - if we treat them as such - will provide us with spiritual revenue in the form of additional graces flowing from our continued use of these spiritual tools.
Which brings us to today, a few weeks into Eastertide. With a few weeks of the Easter Season under our belts, we might be tempted to let our initially enthusiastic triumphant "Alleluias" become just another word we repeat during our praying of the liturgy - whether that of Holy Mass or - for some of us - the Divine Office. "Alleluia!" must not ever be allowed to become just another word.
In that spirit, take these words of Father Weaver to heart:
“If we do not keep our Lord’s Resurrection in view, we are not going to keep the whole mystery of Christ in focus."
It's Easter. Keep our Lord's Resurrection in view. Good advice, yes? More next time...
"That some members of the Church do not keep the Passion and the Resurrection in context is evident from their attitude toward Lent and the Easter season. We cannot but rejoice that a multitude of Catholics enter wholeheartedly into the spirit of Lent, attending Mass daily, and performing acts of penance and charity. This is what the Church desires and urges us to do during Lent. She is, however, far from wanting us to make Good Friday the climax of this outpouring of devotion."
These words provide another way to consider a theme we've explored many times in these posts: that we do not cease our spiritual discipline when Lent ends; that Easter is not a time to sit back and put our spiritual heels up and relax. Father Weaver makes this same point citing Holy Mother Church's liturgy.
"The Easter liturgy, which begins with the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night, and which continues for the eight weeks following Easter, is the true climax of the Lenten liturgy. It should not escape our attention that Eastertide, the season of joy and fulfillment, is longer than Lent, the season of sorrow and penance."
Key point: Eastertide is longer than Lent. We would do well to take advantage of this enormous opportunity to accept and cooperate with the special graces that will flow to us during this glorious season.
How do we do that? As you might imagine, it's certainly not by jettisoning our acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Just because we don't concentrate our efforts to the same degree, and with the same intensity on these key spiritual tools doesn't mean we don't use them at all. In fact, our Lenten experience should have bolstered our skills here. If we faithfully practiced during Lent, we should have gained an easy facility in their use that remains with us now.
Here's an example from my own work that might help here.
A client was involved in a lawsuit. In the course of this legal action, the lawyer who represented her opponent subpoenaed me. He wanted to ask me a lot of questions. It's what's known as a deposition. I had never been deposed before. Frankly, the prospect was a bit unsettling. But with some help from my client's attorney, I prepped and, despite it lasting 3 hours (!) the deposition went rather well. I was also asked to provide some information in my professional capacity, as an "expert." I had never been an expert witness in a legal proceeding before. That went well too. Since then, I have been approached to provide expert witness testimony in a case unrelated to any of my clients. I will earn extra money doing this.
What's the point? Well, in order to serve my client, I had to step way outside my personal comfort zone and stretch my professional skills into unfamiliar territory. As a result, I gained a degree of facility with some legal matters that didn't exist before. That facility grew naturally from existing skills and talents that had to be tapped into and expanded.
In the same way, if we took on the challenge of a serious practice of prayer, penance, and almsgiving during Lent, we likely weren't praying, fasting, and being charitable out of the blue. We likely tapped into practices we had already pursued. But we probably had to expand on what we did in the normal course of a day. And now we've gained a greater facility with these precious commodities of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
The skill and experience I gained in being pushed to give a deposition and provide expert witness testimony has now become another set of tools I might use in the future to the benefit of my professional practice. The same applies to whatever skill and experience I might have gained in my Lenten discipline. Now that the Easter Season has arrived, I can apply these spiritual tools with greater facility.
I'm sure you can find similar instances of being called on at work to step out of your comfort zone, and stretch and expand your job skills to tackle a new challenge. And I hope you have been blessed to similarly stretch and expand spiritual tools of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Circling back to those "little treasures" we mentioned when we began, you could say my expanded professional knowledge and experience might be categorized as little treasures that have provided additional revenue to my business. In the same way, we say that our expanded facility with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving will serve us as little treasures that - if we treat them as such - will provide us with spiritual revenue in the form of additional graces flowing from our continued use of these spiritual tools.
Which brings us to today, a few weeks into Eastertide. With a few weeks of the Easter Season under our belts, we might be tempted to let our initially enthusiastic triumphant "Alleluias" become just another word we repeat during our praying of the liturgy - whether that of Holy Mass or - for some of us - the Divine Office. "Alleluia!" must not ever be allowed to become just another word.
In that spirit, take these words of Father Weaver to heart:
“If we do not keep our Lord’s Resurrection in view, we are not going to keep the whole mystery of Christ in focus."
It's Easter. Keep our Lord's Resurrection in view. Good advice, yes? More next time...
Happy Easter!
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