The Connection Between an Orderly Prayer Life and Our Work

Having taken the plunge back into the Rule of St. Benedict with a view to increase stability in our workplace, we've encountered what may seem like a string of irrelevant entries. St. Benedict lays out in great detail exactly how the Divine Office must be prayed each day. What can us Catholic men at work do with this?

For example, take the first sentence of his instructions:

"In winter, that is from the first of November until Easter, prudence dictates that the brethren shall rise a the the eighth hour of the night, so that their sleep may extend for a moderate space beyond midnight, and they may rise with digestion completed."

What's that about?

Well, he's waking his monks up at 2 AM to pray Matins. And when Matins concludes, what then?

"Those brethren, now need a better knowledge of them, should devote the time that remains after Matins to the study of the psalms and lessons."

I don't know about you, but I need to get a good night's sleep if I'm going to get down to my work bright and early. If I got up at 2 AM to pray or study, my work would likely suffer. Even now that I'm not commuting to an outside office, that would be the case. Combine this with the fact that I wasn't praying the Divine Office throughout the day, it's understandable that for the longest time I either skipped over or barely paid attention to all the instruction and advice St. Benedict provides in this string of entries. But slowly, over time, that began to change.

The initial reason for the change wasn't that I started praying the Office. I just started seeing connections simply because I forced myself to read these entries in order as they came up. I suppose I could have skipped over them. But because I had decided to read the Rule in the order presented by St. Benedict I didn't. That's just me. When I decide to go ahead with something, even if the going gets tough, I'll just slog through it if I have to until I'm convinced I'm heading down the wrong road. 

Having stuck with my typical discipline here, the result was that -after slogging for a spell - a little spark of humility combined with dab of intelligence. While I realized St. Benedict was writing for his monks, I reminded myself that I had already derived great benefits over time from so many other passages. Since that had happened in other parts of the Rule, so why not here?

So as I kept reading these passages outlining the orderly praying/chanting of the Divine Office, what had been hidden gems began to sparkle. First and foremost: the definitive ordering of the day. I had always been pretty disciplined in my rising from sleep, morning routine, organizing and scheduling work hours, etc. But St. Benedict's clear and definite laying out of daily communal prayer reinforced the importance of order.

It also occurred to me that if I was scheduling my work in an organized fashion, I could add in regular prayer time - over and above the occasional moments of recollection and brief aspirations to keep God present during the day. And so I was able to more formally organize prayer time during work time. It's a work in progress, but it's gotten better over time.

And over time, the ordering of daily prayer during working hours helped me to more effectively stick with my work schedule. Knowing that prayer time is coming keeps my mind better concentrated on my work. My mind wanders less. Heck, I've got a commitment to God coming up. Better get this task done.

The typical yawning crevices of dead time during the work day dwindled to thin cracks. God's presence grew. Better ordering and execution of work time, more time for formal prayer day after day melds together to form a stable core of activity. Stability builds upon habit. The habit of establishing a stable environment becomes second nature.

What first appeared as instruction for monks only, useful for monks only, became an inspired source of instruction. I pushed myself to an even better organized day of work that opened up time throughout for prayer. And time for prayer means my chronic habit of putting God off to the side during the work day dwindled. I could do better, but the difference between then and now has been a boon both for my work and my spiritual life.

Not too shabby. 

We'll continue with this special connection between an orderly prayer life and work next time.