On Being Watchful at Work

We all know Our Lord warned us many times to be watchful in our lives. (parable of the servants whose master is away, the ten virgins and the lamp oil, His description of end times, etc.) As we work our way through these first days of 2021, let's consider how we can best be watchful, even in the midst of a busy work day.

The pressing nature of work can take our hearts and minds away from God for long stretches of time. Ideally, that's not the case, but practically it's not an uncommon situation. I've struggled with this for what seems like forever. While I've made some progress over time, I'm far from that happy state of affairs where I not only work for the greater glory of God in all the particulars of my work, but find myself - in some way - in His Presence throughout the work day. Despite my lack of total success here, I'm grateful for the little progress I've made. And, as the old saying goes, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

But even as we may lack this sense of the Presence of God throughout our work day, we ought to nevertheless be watchful, as Our Lord has not only taught us but urged us to be. Our timing couldn't be better here. Lent approaches. Our lives, including the time we spend working, will soon reflect our Lenten discipline. At least that's the plan. Increasing our watchfulness will help us here.

In the traditional liturgical calendar, we Catholics have the benefit of three Sundays - Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sunday - to help us prepare ourselves for Lent. The priest already dons purple vestments. The Liturgy already eliminates all "Alleluias" from its prayers. Lent has not begun, but we're steadily priming ourselves before Ash Wednesday arrives. If you're only familiar with the newfangled (Novus Ordo) liturgical calendar, you may not be in preparation mode yet. That calendar dropped those three special Sundays. Why? Who knows? Frankly, we don't need to know right now. Let's just be grateful that we're aware of that tradition that has helped Catholics prepare for Lent - for centuries.

So today, in anticipation of the coming of Lent, we turn to The Soul of the Apostolate for some specific indicators that might remind us of our need to be more actively watchful. Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard has done the leg work here. His list is quite comprehensive. Let's simply go through these items, one by one. I suspect at least some (if not all) of them will ring a bell or two.

As we consider this list, Let's take our time rather than speed-read them. Read slowly, prayerfully. Think,  meditate on how each might apply to us individually. Doing so will awaken our souls, especially if they're in a state of spiritual slumber. While we never want to be in or remain in such a state, we certainly don't want to sleep our way through a season as holy and potentially life-changing as is Lent.

With that, let's begin.

From The Soul of the Apostolate, each item below will help us be watchful. First, we'll just list them all in one place. Then (beginning next time), we'll add some relevant comments to each as might be specific to our daily work. For now, why not take some time to consider each prayerfully, on your own, as they might apply in your situation:

• The failure through spiritual laziness, to raise up my soul to God
• An inordinate love of creatures
• A hasty temper and impatience
• Nursing a grudge 
• Being capricious and changeable
• Getting soft, loving whatever is easy and gives pleasure 
• Always talking without any cause about the faults of other people
• Dissipation, and a lot of curiosity about things that have nothing whatever to do with the glory of God
• Spreading scandal, gossiping, and making rash and stupid judgments of others
• Vain self-complacency
• Contempt of others, and constant criticism of their conduct
• Always looking for admiration and praise, and doing things with these in view
• Showing off anything that is to my credit
• Presumption
• Stubbornness
• Jealousy
• Lack of respect for superiors
• Murmuring
• No mortification in eating, drinking
  

More to come next time...