Sharpening Our Spiritual Tool Box To Meet The Coming Storm - 7

By now you know we're expecting some sort of storm to hit before this year is over. Even if the powers that be manage to steer it away for a spell, what we outlined recently is a ticking time bomb that won't stop ticking. Considering the impact it will have on both our personal and work lives, we've launched into a mini stability project. As opposed to a comprehensive review of the Rule of Saint Benedict as our reference point, we'll focus on a small section our beloved wise saint refers to as "The Tools of Good Works." 

Recall that, in his Rule, St. Benedict provides us with "tools" that can help us foster stability in the workplace. Today we look at some of these tools. Let's see how we can apply these in the workplace. We'll see how St. Benedict's remarks can help us produce our best work in an atmosphere of stability, despite any problems and distractions we face, especially those coming at us these days.

We might remind ourselves that in addition to the "storm" that may hit us in the coming months, our days likely bring various and sundry distractions as a matter of course. For example, writing now in the bowels of a July stretch of hot and humid - tropical really - such conditions always put a damper on my energy, mental and physical. Sure, I'm in my office working, and it's cool here; but I do have to get out from time to time. And while I don't mean to whine about this, the fact is Brother Ass (St. Francis's affectionate term for his body) has always rebelled against heat and heavy humidity, ever since I can remember. 

Add to this the particulate matter from the Canadian wildfires that have blanketed us on and off for many weeks, and the the usual drain gets ratched up a notch.

With that in mind, we pick up today where we left off last time with "The Tools of Good Works."

• To listen gladly to holy reading. 
• To apply oneself frequently to prayer.
• Daily in one's prayer, with tears and sighs, to confess one's past sins to God.
• To amend those sins for the future.

Here's a combination of powerful practices that can, with practice and discipline, provide some barrier and even respite from the hot and too often bad air out there. Prayer and holy reading will supplant the time-wasting habits of paying attention to what the world purports to "offer" us. We're not talking about being oblivious to what's going on around us. We're talking about closing the door to that which at best wastes our time, but worse causes us mental, emotional, and - at worst - spiritual harm. 

In addition to weather - something unavoidable when you're out in it - there's the slop that spills from the mouths of the media's chatterboxes that manage to poke their faces and voices into our lives simply because we try to keep up with what's going on around us. If we're not discriminating in what we allow our ears to hear and our eyes to see, our emotions can be manipulated, dragged this way and that. You've likely seen this in those who get all worked up over virtually nothing. A good friend who reads and listens to far too much political "news" frequently gets into a froth when the conversation turns to current events. Sometimes there's substance behind his rising blood pressure. Too often, though, the danger of stroke has been stoked by some writer or talking head who uses their platform to generate controversy in order to assure a steady stream of - what to call them - political thrill-seekers(?).

So we spend our time instead in holy reading and prayer. And, yes, you can take a few minutes during the work day for such holy reading. Right now, I've been taking 10-15 minutes here and there to read through the Catechism. It's a good reinforcement of what I already know about our Holy Religion; but it also inevitably produces gems I've missed in the past.

And if, in our humility, we add into the mix a consciousness of our sinfulness, our having offended God in so many ways over the years, our reading and prayer can be done in a penitential spirit. Such a spirit creates a desire to make recompense for our past failings. This can only reinforce the stability we find in our reading and prayer. Distractions will find no welcome mat when they come knocking.