A Strong Interior LIfe Will Help Us Keep God Present Throughout the Work Day

Let's continue with the subject of our Interior Life. Today, we'll see how a strong Interior Life will help us keep God present throughout the work day.

We've talked many times about our need to keep God present as we work. And we've seen how challenging that can be. For me, it's a never-ending challenge. So I welcome any advice that could assist me in my efforts.

Today's advice will be particularly helpful because it's simple, down-to-earth, and comes from the pen of someone who clearly understands what we Catholic men at work face daily in trying to sanctify our work. Obviously the author has experienced what we experience. He's not just spouting pious clichés.

What I particularly like is the comparison between prayer and our work. When we pray, we can have difficulty keeping our mind on our prayer. For many of us, public enemy #1 in our prayer life is distraction. That's certainly true for me. A quick test: Take a moment and try to pray the Our Father - or the Hail Mary, for that matter - straight through without some distracting thought seeking and grabbing your attention. 

...How'd it go?

But just as we must strive to keep our minds attentive to our prayer, so too we must at time keep our minds attentive to our work. I've struggled - with some modest success - to develop the power of concentration. All good. However, the thought sometimes pops up: Shouldn't I be thinking of God somewhere in all this work I'm so assiduously pumping out? That's especially the case on days where virtually the entire day passes without more than one or two glancing thoughts or feelings about God.

If you've had the same experience, take a few minutes to carefully read Fr. Raoul Plus's brief comments here. You may find them as helpful as I did:

“God does not ask me to make continual acts of prayer, but to be always in the state of prayer. To make acts of prayer only would mean to perform one exercise after another in which my sole occupation would be to think of God. There can be no question of that: I would fail in the duties of my state. When I am at prayer, I must exert myself to occupy my thoughts with God. At other times my essential duty is not to think of God, but to execute my work as well as possible for the glory of God. That is living in the state of prayer, in the state of elevation toward God. I am united to Him, not by my memory but by my will. And if to do well what I am doing I must force myself not to think of God I need not hesitate. At prayer, I must think of God as perfectly as possible for it is the thought of God that excites love of God. Outside of prayer, it is not as important to think of God but to act for God. To do this I must make the good intention and not be disturbed if, seeking God alone in everything, I do not think of Him for some time. As I become more accustomed to the invisible world, the thought of God will become more familiar to me.”

What do you think? This man understands on a practical level just what goes on between our work and our prayer life. Sometimes these can appear or feel in conflict. And it certainly may be the case that we're not doing all we can to keep God somehow present during the work day. 

But if we have indeed done all we can, we may still find that His Presence feels elusive. Fr. Raoul has tried to set us straight in such a circumstance. We can and must attend to our work. And doing so does not necessarily push God away. 

In fact, if we're faithfully keeping at our spiritual life with our prayer, meditation, reading, study, receiving the sacraments, etc. we should simply relax when our work demands strict and singular attention. Rather than fret, a relaxed state might even open up little shafts of light that remind us to say a quick aspiration or two, just to let God know that we love Him, despite our seeming indifference. Surely He knows when we sincerely come to Him for these fleeting seconds that we love Him. We just need to keep our mind on our work for now.

Working at our Interior Life will keep God present during our work even when we're not fully conscious of that presence. We do what we can, day after day. We'll know when we've done all we can. More importantly, God will know.