Getting a Good Start With Lent at Work

We're just getting our bearings in this Holy Season of Lent. A change in routine - at least for me - always takes a bit of time and effort. And Lent does - at least should - cause a change in routine.

If we get this, let's not allow our work to be "exempt" from it. Let's not allow our time at work to be a "black hole" for our spiritual lives. Lent can serve us well here. Our special efforts at prayer, fasting, and almsgiving can provide a solid foundation upon which we can build a special wing of our Lenten discipline at work. But those Three Pillars of Lent should not be something new in our lives. They spring from our daily spiritual discipline. Thus our daily spiritual discipline spawns our Lenten discipline. What takes place ought not be a dramatic change. It's simply an augmentation of what we normally do.

We've talked about this "what we normally do" many times in the past. Here's some simple refreshment of our past discussions to help us ease into our now changed routine.

The change begins upon awakening. If we've developed the habit waking up with some sort of "recollection" we're already headed in the right direction. That recollection might consist, for example, of immediately praying the Morning Offering. We're immediately acknowledging God's Presence with this or any other prayer - personal or formal - with which we engage as we shake the sand from our brains and our eyes. If we begin our day reaching for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and establish our contact right off the bat, it means our sour has awakened along with our body.

After this, of course, we want to engage our other pious practices, whichever ones we've chosen to pursue on a regular, daily basis. As you'll recall, these include: prayer, meditation, prayerfully reading Scripture and good spiritual works, studying and thereby becoming familiar with the teachings of our Catholic Religion such that these inform all that we think and do throughout the day. While attending Mass and receiving Communion has become challenging for some of us due to our current C-Virus Mess, they remain staples along with daily recitation of the Holy Rosary. (The list is extensive but not exhaustive.)

If this all seems like a lot, join the club. Sometimes when I write all this down it seems a bit overwhelming for incorporation into a typical work day. But then I remind myself that - depending on the day - I've managed to order and prioritize many of these into my daily routine. If I've been able to do that, I suspect you can too.

The point of all this is simply to illustrate what a typical foundation for daily spiritual activity might look like. 

As for applying all this at work, that's going to be specific to the individual. Some of us may be able to carve out slices of time for some of these practices during the work day. Others not so much. If we've been working from home due to the C-Virus Mess, this might be good time to incorporate some regular time for our spiritual lives during our working hours, if we haven't already done that.

So assess your foundation. If you haven't built one yet, allow Lent to motivate you to do that now. Wherever you are, its going to provide a good launching pad for incorporating your Lenten discipline into the work day.

For example, if you've developed a habit of mortification, you might increase it - prudently and temperately - during Lent. If I delay eating my meals by two minutes after saying grace on a normal basis, maybe I go to three during Lent. In my relationships with others, whether boss, co-worker, customer/client, business partners, vendors (if you run a business), there's likely room for increased patience, understanding, overall charity. I know this to be true for me. 

This C-Virus Mess has, overall, provided a great opportunity to be understanding of the challenges others are facing. That holds for our work relationships as well. And now that Lent has arrived, we've got an increased opportunity to be understanding of others' challenges.

A personal suggestion: Just don't try to pile too much Lent onto the work day. A small increase or intensification of your normal spiritually driven activities will do just fine. I've done the "Big Dump" thing and it's never yielded good results. You'll know if you're doing too much if you feel anxiety creeping up, or, worse, become short-tempered - which would of course be the opposite of increased charity.

To sum up: We can leverage our already established spiritual discipline into a special Lenten discipline, and apply this to our work day as is prudent. If we've never bothered with establishing a regular spiritual discipline or never assiduously attempted to apply it to our work day, Lent presents us with the perfect opportunity to get with the program. Then next year, with an established base, we can ramp things up for Lent.

Whatever our situation, there's room for getting a good start with Lent at work.

We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee. Because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.