A Special Prayer To Help Us Sancitfy All Our Work Today

As we begin to approach the last laps of 2024 in our work lives, here an offering to help us sanctify all our work today.

The endeavor to sanctify our work remains a full-bore thrust of this humble blog. Work, a necessity for most of us, can be one of our most powerful forms of prayer. It can help us to advance our cause to become saints. And, most important, it can help us grow closer to Christ.

We recall that Jesus worked. We all have images of the Holy Family in their little home in Nazareth. There we find Mary keeping the home tidy and holy, St. Joseph assists her in this as he plies his trade. They raise Jesus, the Son of God, in manner conducive to His being both man and God. 

As a man, Jesus would need to work. We see Him assisting His foster Father, Joseph, in their little shop. 

All of this is part of His hidden life, the time before He began His public ministry. And that ministry was His work as well. 

Jesus, like all of us, worked for His living.

And lest we think that we, in our various occupations, cannot make our own work holy as did Jesus, we need to sharpen our focus and attention on varying ways to do just this - in all humility.

Each thought, word, and deed we express during the work day should ultimately serve this purpose. 

Of course, we have practical purposes that accompany this spiritual endeavor. We must earn a living, one that provides a modest sufficiency for our family. We must put in an earnest effort to meet the goals and objectives of our business, whatever it may be. None of this opposes or waylays our spiritual efforts. We can learn to combine the two in something approaching a seamless fashion. 

We can develop the habit of always approaching the work day clothed not only in whatever our work clothes might be, but with full spiritual armor as well. As such, we carry ourselves into our workplace armed and dangerous - so to speak.

There are good spiritual works that can help us develop this habit. For some of us, this may come more naturally, more easily; for others not so much, But this passage seemed to fit the bill of a special prayer to help us to sanctify our work today - and every day.

Read it slowly and thoughtfully. It hits on so many interior and exterior goings-on in our daily life. And, of course, that includes our time at work. It will help us to keep ourselves under control, and focus our attention on the welfare of others and on the good work we set out to do, no matter what's going on around us, no matter how we might feel on any given day.

“Teach me, my Lord, to be kind and gentle in all the events of life: in disappointments, in the thoughtlessness of others, in the insincerity of those I trusted, in the unfaithfulness of those on whom I relied. Let me put myself aside: to think of the happiness of others, to hide my little pains and heartaches so that I may be the only one to suffer from them. Teach me to profit by the suffering that comes across my path. Let me so use it that it may mellow me, not harden nor embitter me; that it may make me broad in my forgiveness, not narrow, haughty, or overbearing. May no one be less good for having come within my influence; no one less pure, less true, less kind, less noble, for having been a fellow-traveler in our journey towards Eternal Life. As I go my rounds from one distraction to another, let me whisper from time to time a word of love to Thee. May my life be lived in the supernatural, full of power for good, and strong in its purpose of sanctity.” - Author Unknown