In order to continually re-imagine ourselves through our work lives, we must have a part of us that belongs to something beyond the status quo. Something over the horizon or, paradoxically, beneath us, in the ground of our life. Something as yet hidden, yet to be brought to light. Something which is governed by other laws than the ones we so assiduously obey every day. Something to do with the laws that govern the way we belong to this stubborn and beautiful world.
"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"
Peace and grace to you, dear friends! How we work, what we choose to do for our livelihood, what our service renders for our own well-being, for that of others and society, is deeply connected to our deep inner values: our very being. To spend time in silence and in prayer reflecting on our work in the world can bring insights, open the door to new possibilities, change our way of envisioning work. Ultimately, may our work be or become what we love and enable us to co-create in the great Plan of Love for Earth: our home.
If we add up all the time we have spent in our life getting things over with, it may turn out to be half our lives. The monastic attitude is to begin deliberately and to do anything we do with an even, stately pace and with wholehearted attention. This is how master artisans, weavers, experienced farmers, and other sage laborers work. That way even difficult tasks can be done leisurely ande with joy, for their own sake. And then they become life-giving.... We pray that God may guide our actions. When we do our work in this way, then everything becomes a prayer
So long as space remains, So long as sentient beings remain, I will remain, In order to help, in order to server, In order to make my own contribution.
A spirituality of work is based on a heightened sense of sacramentality, of the idea that everything that is, is holy and that our hands consecrate it to the service of God. A spirituality of work puts us in touch with our own creativity ... draws us out of ourselves and, at the same time, makes us more of what we are meant to be. A spirituality of work immerses me in the search for human community. I finally come to know that my work is God's work, unfinished by God because God meant it to be finished by me.
