Some Inspiration For Our Work Day from St. Catherine of Siena

When it comes to inspiration to spark our work day, we've got a bucketful from St. Catherine of Siena. Her words should give a powerful boost to those of us who know that work can fulfill both the demands of our natural life as well as the aspirations of our spiritual life. With that...

Heading off for work today. Another busy day on tap. The Task List tells me it'll be - as usual - full of much to do, most of which will be rather ordinary, hum-drum activities that - of themselves - don't fire me up much. 

Perhaps you've got a day like this on tap.

Then again, there are days driven by one or more urgent items. We feel the pressure from the moment we begin our day's labor.

Oh, and let's not forget when things go awfully wrong either with the work we're performing, our employer, or perhaps a co-worker who treats us badly, even tries to undermine our standing on the job.

From the ordinary struggle with ordinary tasks to the almost heroic struggle to face especially challenging circumstances, our work will always call on us to step up and not only do our best, but be courageous at times.

And in all, we work, of course, for the greater glory of God, no matter the current situation.

Now for some holy assistance from St. Catherine of Siena:

On finding God in the midst of a busy life: 

Build an inner cell in your soul and never leave it.

Faithfulness to duty:

Let all do the work which God has given them, and not bury their talent, for that is also a sin deserving severe punishment. It is necessary to work always and everywhere for all God’s creatures.

To Pope Gregory XI, who was weak and indecisive:

You can do what he (Pope Gregory the Great) did, for he was a man as you are, and God is always the same as he was. The only thing we lack is hunger for the salvation of our neighbour, and courage.

To a cardinal, on the need for courage:

A soul which is full of slavish fear cannot achieve anything which is right, whatever the circumstances may be, whether it concern small or great things. It will always be shipwrecked and never complete what it has begun. How dangerous this fear is! It makes holy desire powerless, it blinds a man so that he can neither see not understand the truth. This fear is born of the blindness of self-love, for as soon as a man loves himself with the self-love of the senses he learns fear, and the reason for this fear is that it has given its hope and love to fragile things which have neither substance or being and vanish like the wind.

To her spiritual director Blessed Raymond of Capua, on courage:

(I long) to see you grow out of your childhood and become a grown man…For an infant who lives on milk is not able to fight on the battlefield; he only wants to play with other children. So a man who is wrapped in love for himself only wishes to taste the milk of spiritual and temporal consolation; like a child he wants to be with others of its kind. But when he becomes a grown man he leaves behind this sensitive self love…He has become strong, he is firm, serious and thoughtful, he hastens to the battlefield and his only wish is to fight for the truth.

To those who think the Church’s day has come to an end:

If you reply that it looks as though the Church must surrender, for it is impossible for it to save itself and its children, I say to you that it is not so. The outward appearance deceives, but look at the inward, and you will find that it possesses a power that its enemies can never possess.

To us all:

If you are what you are meant to be, you will set the world on fire.