The Mission Central Blog

When we work through our own concerns about the Bible with intellectual integrity and emotional honesty, we will be better equipped to serve our friends when such passages raise questions for them on their journey toward faith. We can do this work with a posture of reverence—receiving the Bible as God’s Word written, with both our mind and our heart, both charitably and faithfully.

This spongy quality of work raises an interesting question: Is there something that work is meant to absorb and release? Something we can immerse our work in that works better than anything else? The pure water and fresh dish soap that will run through the sponge and leave everything it touches better off? To conclude our Monastic Wisdom for the Marketplace series, I’d like to reflect on how the Benedictine tradition helps us answer this question. We’ve explored the classic Benedictine motto Ora et Labora—Pray and Work—before. But at some point along the way, another iteration of this phrase cropped up: Laborare est Orare—to Work is to Pray. Or, more simply: Work is Prayer. This turn of phrase points us to the deepest meaning of working life. Prayer and work are not just a good pair, like milk and cookies or PB&J, distinct but complementary experiences. Prayer intertwines with and completes our work, crowning it with beauty in a way that nothing else can. That’s no accident; it’s the way God intended our work to function. At its simplest, prayer is welcoming the presence of God. That’s why it is so necessary to our labors. Work only becomes what it was always meant to be when it overflows with the presence of God to the world around us.

We’re often forgetful of death. Each year, we need the help of Lent to remind us. The works of twentieth-century Benedictine priest and painter Dom Gregory de Wit, OSB can also help us face our death. Even in the middle of our busy jobs and obligations, we can find time to let meditation on death do its work in us—and help us cling more closely to the life that only Jesus brings.

Our self-estimation often turns on how much money we make, how we spend and save and give it away (or don’t), and what the consequences are for us and for our loved ones. Is there some way to disentangle that knotted mess of money, ego, fear, and ambition? What would genuine spiritual freedom look like when it comes to our belongings? Answering that question is a lifelong process for each of us. But the Benedictines, with their unusual take on monastic “poverty,” can help us along the way. Even if we don’t take vows like theirs, we see in them a model of freedom from possessiveness that we can imitate.

Abraham's unexpected interruption in the middle of a normal day makes a particularly good theme for us to meditate on as we consider faith in the workplace. Today, Br. Claude Lane, OSB of Mount Angel Abbey in Marion County, Oregon, will help us receive this story as we practice Visio Divina: sacred seeing.

Why do we do anything? We do it because God wants to have a relationship with us. So we look to see: Where is he working? What's he doing? We pray for eyes to be able to see it and ears to hear his voice. If we do that and join him where he's at, there's relationship rather than, “I'm praying for him to bless my plans.” God has his plans. God is God. I'm not. He's not a genie that I can rub in the bottle. He's God. So my plans are nothing. His plans are perfect. If I can trust him, I can have that blessing of relationship with him. That's cruciform life.

If you're familiar with Lectio Divina: that rhythm of prayer of just hearing, of receiving, internalizing, responding, and then resting in the Word. From my military background, and some of the wounds that I suffered, you know, emotional wounds—I found great healing through that process. But between the trail, which is another very soulful experience, and contemplative prayer, I found great healing. And in that, I wanted to share with others: to give a place, a space for others, whether they desire to be vocational, or as we talked about earlier, being an Oblate. There's great benefit to contemplative prayer.

The lesson that the Benedictines teach us is not to join a religious order (although some of us may). What these wise sisters and brothers in the faith teach us is to “bet the farm” like they do, but in our own circumstances. We, too, can risk everything for the chance to draw close to God. We commit to the way of Jesus in our whole life, no holds barred.

Seeing our work as part of God’s mission in the world leads us to deeply care about it, and about the success of the endeavors in which we are employed. It leads us to consider not just our own accumulation of income, but also the social goods that may inhere in our current job. It’s not just about the money; it’s about what God is doing in our communities and in our world. So now let’s return to the Benedictine way. What would the monastic virtue of stability look like in our working lives? What reasons do we have to stay where we are at work?