Examples of Good Spiritual Works Giving Solid Pracitical Tips at Work - 4

We continue with our discussion about how good spiritual works can give us solid practical tips at work. 

To be clear, the primary purpose of reading good spiritual works remains helping us to live holy lives, specifically to grow closer to God. Nothing we'll discuss changes that. But if spiritual works can simultaneously provide a gem here or there that we can apply to the practical work we do, all the better. It helps us in offering our work for the greater glory of God, while enhancing the quality of the work we produce not only in God's eyes, but in the eyes of our boss, our clients, our customers. 

An unbeatable combination, don't you think?

With that in mind, here's more from our current guide, Father Joseph Schryvers. (You can find the full passage in our previous post.)

"...our enervating love of ease, so diligent in justifying little comforts and frequent relaxations! It is not a small thing to deny our eyes the sight of an innocent and licit object; it is not a trifling matter, after all, to lay aside an interesting book. Oh! There are a thousand things we can do, besides indulging in awful maceration. And these little things, like little gnats, can really test the temper of one’s soul.
    “How beautiful and how divine before God it would be to deny our eyes the sight of an innocent and licit object; it is not a trifling matter, after all, to lay aside an interesting book. Oh! How sanctifying all this is!”

Now, comforts and relaxations aren't being condemned wholesale here. Note that we're talking about a love of ease that justifies comforts and relaxations. It's similar to the Bible verse: "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils." (1 Timothy 6:10). Some quote this saying that money is the root of all kinds of evils. That's wrong. It's the love of money.

Applying this to work, we might think of co-workers who constantly slack off their appointed tasks, or take lots of sick days, or talk of nothing but how they can't wait for the upcoming weekend or a vacation. Nothing wrong with any of these in their proper place. But when these become the main focus of our thinking, we're simply not fully present on the job we're being paid to do.

If we understand the love of ease to be the problem it is, we'll join the cohort of workers who perform their duties diligently, on time, even with fervor and exactness. Those who love ease likely can't manage this at all.

Let's now switch to what Father refers to as "innocent and licit" objects. These could be anything that's not sinful which come into our field of vision, or upon which we rest our eyes. There's nothing wrong with such gazing (unless it takes up time we should be spending on obligations). The point here is that averting our gaze can be source of merit for our souls. We're simply taking what could bring pleasure and turning away from it as a kind of simple offering to God.

On the job, we might - from time to time - skip an earned break from our labor (as long as it does not unduly exhaust us). Or perhaps we politely decline a pleasant conversation (as long as we're not being uncharitable). In my profession, where there's the need to read and research quite a bit, I've learned to identify when I'm just reading or listening to something as a kind of "break" rather than gaining knowledge or skills. So while I could "justify" the time spent, instead I'll offer up the few moments of legitimate respite and move on to the next item on my list.

And such licit reading includes some particularly fascinating book that I might at first blush think will expand my professional experience, but which really is more an historic drama with limited practical impact.

Now, to be sure, I do occasionally read such books. I enjoy them. But they remain fodder for mortification in some instances.

As we've seen in our last three posts, spiritual boosters - for example, mortification - will not only help us on the road to holiness, but also turn out to contain practical tips we can apply to our business. And we saw that there's no danger of mitigating the benefit to our soul if we expand on the purely spiritual and derive something of practical value.

We've seen Father Schryvers skill in parsing through and explaining the wide spectrum of thoughts, words, and deeds that we can turn into both spiritual boosts for our souls and practical boosts for our work. So why not continue with bit more of his work next time?

And so we shall.