A Well-ordered Life

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Joan Chittister, monastery, monastic life, prayer, spiritual life, St. Benedict, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, work

St. Benedict (c. 480 – c. 547) is credited with bringing monasticism to the West. After more than 1500 years, his influence is still felt around the world in monasteries and over the past half-century it has been growing as well in “monasteries without walls.” This movement is a resurgence of the desire in “ordinary people” for a deeper spiritual life and is characterized by attention practices and balanced living, not only for monastics but for lay people as well.

At the heart of Benedictine life is mindfulness and a spirit of hospitality. It has been described with a simple daily formula of four quadrants: prayer alone and prayer together, work alone and work together. Someone once asked where leisure comes in that description and the answer was that if one divides the circle of the day and writes in all that has taken place, the entire circle should be a leisurely and peaceful walk through the hours.

Many authors have written on this topic – none better than Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, especially in her book, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today. This feast reminds me to return, not only to Sr. Joan’s book but also to the practice of drawing that circle each day, where I can assess the balance of my life’s activities and get back to a mindful way of being. Simple? Yes, but not always easy. Worthwhile? Always…as a lifelong daily practice…Oh, yes!

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Creation Speaks

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climate change, Earth, listen, psalm 19, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, work

I clicked on my phone this morning to see what time it was and was greeted with a Washington Post article on climate change, the result of a wide-ranging study with dire predictions. If I had harbored any hesitations about the legitimacy of such news, they would certainly have been quelled by the scholarship of the report. For me, however, it was just more evidence of what has been patently obvious over several years of watching what is happening to Earth, our Mother. The clearest conclusion in the study is that humans are responsible for the underlying causes of much of what is happening and it is up to us to work toward reform in our use and abuse of the goods of the earth.

As I read, I heard Psalm 19 echoing in my head and heart and I was struck by a question forming in response. Listen, please!

The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of God’s hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech; they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world…(vs. 1-4)

Are we listening?

God’s Handiwork

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being, blessing, doing, God's handiwork, lesson, love, psalm 100, reality, sing joyfully, Sisters of St. Joseph, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, work

People often ask me these days if I am retired. I’m no longer shocked at the question, especially since I am now 70 years old (an amazing statistic that still surprises me sometimes!). I have been blessed thus far with good health and am grateful for meaningful and creative work that continues to present itself.

This morning I was reminded in two of the lectionary readings of this blessing. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul is talking about faith and says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” Psalm 100 follows this theme, opening with a call to “Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness; come before God with joyful song!”

On Saturday, I spent the day with over a hundred Sisters of St. Joseph – a few younger and many older than myself. Many of these women are retired from active ministry but virtually all of them continue to understand the truth that we are God’s handiwork. This, then, becomes for all of us the most important “work,” calling us daily to love as God has loved us. It is about our being rather than about our doing. For some of us that is a difficult lesson but once learned, it makes all the difference. It is my hope to have totally accepted that reality when all I have left for others is love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Benedict

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Hebrews, hospitality, Joan Chittister, monasteries without walls, monasticism, prayer, St. Benedict, the Benedictine Way, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Keating, Thomas Merton, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, work

There is much to say about St. Benedict, whose feast is today, known the world over as the man who brought monasticism to the western world. Although Benedict lived 1,500 years ago his influence is still felt and one might say is being proliferated more broadly than ever before because of a movement called “monasteries without walls.” Lay people who are interested in deepening their spiritual life often turn to The Rule of St. Benedict for guidance and a way to live his principles in secular society.

Most prominent in “the Benedictine Way” is ora et labora. That phrase, meaning “prayer and work” speaks of the balanced way in which the day is designed in his Rule. It includes work alone and work with others as well as prayer alone and prayer with others, experienced in a rhythm that gives not only form but meaning to each day and thus to all of life. (See Joan Chittister, OSB: Wisdom Distilled From the Daily, chapter 6 for a brilliant explanation of this concept.) In this world of excess for some and lack for others as well as in the use of time, we could do well to reflect on how we spend our days.

In tandem with this concept of balance is the call to hospitality. Based on Hebrews 13:2 that says “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares,” St. Benedict preached the necessity of welcoming everyone that we meet. How our world would change today if we took that advice to heart!

As we think of the influence of well-known people in our own day like Joan Chittister, Thomas Merton and Thomas Keating who have followed the rule of Benedict and shared it with the world, let us pray in thanksgiving also for the countless Benedictine monks and nuns through the centuries who have lived the life and carried the legacy of Benedict faithfully into the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going to Work

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essential, Joan Chittister, mantra, office, penance, service, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, work

I can’t say that I am excited about going to work this morning. My list of homegrown tasks is long enough to fill the whole week, but an office day will bring me back to focus on the part of life that is more difficult to celebrate on lovely summer days.

Joan Chittister says in her book, Wisdom Distilled From the Daily, that in the monastic tradition “work is not a punishment or a penance. Work is a privilege.” She is certainly right about that in my life. I’m so grateful for all the different positions I have held and every kind of work I have been called to in all my years. My work has put me in touch with a huge number of people – some tangentially and some directly – all of whom have added to my growth as a person.

I think today of all the people who work in monotonous situations, as in factories where there work consists of one repeated task all day, every day. My prayer for them would be the knowledge of how their work is essential to whatever is being created by the collective work of all the employees, and perhaps that they might consider their part as a mantra, repeated for the good of all. And for those who work in sanitation departments, I pray in thanksgiving for their service to the rest of us as they take away all the things that clutter our lives so that we can come to see more clearly.

I could go on but I need to get ready to leave for work. I do, however, want to continue thinking about those who offer essential services to the public and to pray in gratitude for them. And my hope is that they can find satisfaction in their service, especially in relationships with those who share in their work. And for the unemployed, I pray that work will soon be offered to them and that they will be taken care of by the generosity of others until that day comes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday Morning

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action, contemplation, Contemplation in a World of Action, contemplative life, creative work, dedicated love, inner, inner discipline, integration, meditation, outer, positive attitude, prayer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, work

Although there are many people now in our country whose work lives do not fit the traditional Monday through Friday schedule, the majority still head to work this morning, hopefully somewhat refreshed from the weekend. The challenge for many is to bring a positive attitude into the workplace. It sometimes takes conscious effort to put one’s best foot forward, so to speak, depending on the work itself, our fitness for it and the companions we encounter there. It helps if we can take God along on the bus or the highway, especially on Mondays, with the understanding that our spiritual/inner life is not separate from the outer/busy life in the world.

Thomas Merton wrote a book whose title I find an instructive and helpful reminder today. It is entitled Contemplation in a World of Action and still sits on the bookshelf to my left after 45 years. I found the rather lengthly paragraph that I want to share this morning quoted elsewhere but I believe it speaks well of a good attitude for this Monday morning.

When I speak of the contemplative life I do not mean the institutional cloistered life, the organized life of prayer. I am talking about a special dimension of inner discipline and experience, a certain integrity and fullness of personal development, which are not compatible with a purely external, alienated, busy-busy existence. This does not mean that they are incompatible with action, with creative work, with dedicated love. On the contrary, these all go together. A certain depth of disciplined experience is a necessary ground for fruitful action. Without a more profound human understanding derived from exploration of the inner ground of human existence, love will tend to be superficial and deceptive. Traditionally, the ideas of prayer, meditation and contemplation have been associated with this deepening of one’s personal life and this expansion of the capacity to understand and serve others. (Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours, p.73)

Today, then, let us seek the integration of outer and inner, of work and intention, that we may lift up our “little corner of the world” in love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of Work and Workers

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acceptance, attitude, character, dignity, fulfillment, Good Shepherd, happiness, John, love, pay, rich inner life, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, work, workers

There’s a passage in the “Good Shepherd” gospel from today’s lectionary (JN 10: 12-13) that has me thinking about the power of intention. It says the following: “A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.”

I have always been blessed with fulfilling work that I have, therefore, done motivated by love – of the people I encounter and the work itself. In that way, I understand the shepherd who “knows” his sheep, able to tell one from another and willing to do whatever it takes to keep them safe. But I am thinking this morning about people who work in jobs that are onerous, yet necessary to allow even a subsistence lifestyle. I presume it would take a very strong will to be able to be happy in such a situation. It would necessitate digging deep to find a purpose for getting up in the morning. It has been said that “Happiness is an inside job.” Thus, there must be something deeper than the work itself to motivate the worker.

As I write, I recognize that this truth is universal and is definitely an aspect of one’s character and attitude. Think about the clerks in a store that you frequent. Two people who are paid the same salary may be quite different in the way they greet you or work the checkout counter. It’s the same for heads of large corporations. So while I would like to see a more equitable pay scale and better conditions for workers, I come to the conclusion that if one has a rich inner life anything can be a blessing if it moves us toward acceptance and even love.

Let us pray today for an appreciation of the dignity of work and all workers as we examine our own attitudes toward what is our own work in the world. Let our intention be the building up of community in whatever we do and what we achieve, not for our own glory but for the good of all and the praise of God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back To Work

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choosing, creation, creative freedom, destiny, God, identity, life, participate, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth, vocation, work

I took a vacation from the news over the long weekend just concluded. I think we have a responsibility to stay informed but sometimes we just need a break. Consequently, I just spent almost a half-hour reading all sorts of headlines from internet news services to see what I had missed. There weren’t many surprises and I surmise that’s because many groups and individuals were sitting things out, just as I did. It’s interesting surfing like that, however – a good way to have a birds-eye view of what we see as important as a culture. There are still threats from North Korea and the White House (which I do not mean to dismiss!) as well as legislative issues and stories – serious ones – about the weather. I found nothing about the deeper concerns of our spiritual well-being, however, so my “two cents” this morning as we get back to the routine of life in this new year will be what I think is a very important point for reflection from Thomas Merton.

Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny. This means to say that we should not passively exist, but actively participate in God’s creative freedom, in our own lives, and in the lives of others, by choosing the truth. (New Seeds of Contemplation, 32-33, excerpted)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slow Work

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gratitude, impatient, instability, Letters to a Young Poet, new spirit, patience, progress, Rainer Maria Rilke, Teilhard de Chardin, the slow work of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust, work

Today as I sit in my chair waiting for light to come I have a sense of urgency because there is a lot to achieve before my head hits the pillow again, so to speak. The days are getting shorter now. I was dismayed to know that when my alarm woke me a while ago it wasn’t a mistake. It was 6:30 and still dark outside. And yesterday we needed lights on in our living room by 6:00PM. I wonder why I was so astonished; the solstice was almost two weeks ago! I guess it is true that the older I get, the faster time seems to go.

Lest this devolve into a lament about old age which I refuse to allow because of my reverence for the wisdom of my elders, I remind myself of the advice of the great Jesuit paleontologist and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who is often quoted as saying: “Trust in the slow work of God.” I’ve known that line for a long time but this morning I came across the text from which that line originates.

Above all, he writes, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability – and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually – let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

As I was copying Teilhard’s words, they seemed similar to Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet” wherein similar advice about patience in life was given. I smile as I consider the necessity of hearing about the ongoing need for patience with myself and with the flow of life at my age. It is perhaps never totally achieved but maybe that is a good thing as it calls us to always reach for “the more” while accepting what is at this very moment. So on I go, slowly enough to notice the birdsong and the emerging color in the maple leaves that have now come into view, but ready as well to tackle the tasks of this day in patience and gratitude for life in this world in this time.

 

 

 

 

 

Labor Day

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Adam, connectedness, creation, Genesis, God, human, Joan Chittister, just, Labor Day, labor movement, meaningful work, minimum wage, privilege, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, work, worker

I often think that “Labor Day” must be a confusing holiday for people who are not native to our country or anywhere else that it is celebrated at some point in the year. Some of us have taken to calling it “Non-labor Day” since it is, after all, a day when everyone but essential workers stay home or go on picnics or celebrate in other such ways a “day off” from work.

In the United States, Labor Day is always the first Monday in September. It is, the internet says, a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country. It became a federal holiday in 1894.

The ideal of “a good day’s work for a good day’s pay” has become rather skewed in many quarters in our country as we see inequity in many places where CEOs of big companies are paid exorbitant salaries while people like health aides are paid little more than minimum wage for their caring service to the sick and elderly members of our society. We need to work continually for just wages in every sphere and celebrate new initiatives where we see young executives sharing their wealth with their employees and many of the richest people establishing foundations with specific projects that seek the betterment of our world.

I took a look at Joan Chittister’s chapter entitled “Work: Participation in Creation” in her book, Wisdom Distilled From the Daily, just to get another, maybe more spiritual, perspective on the topic. Here are some tidbits that might be helpful as we attempt to balance our view on things.

Work in the monastic tradition is not something to be avoided. Work is not a punishment or a penance. Work is a privilege.

In monastic spirituality…work is not a private enterprise. Work is not to enable me to get ahead; the purpose of work is to enable me to get more human and to make my world more just. (I like that one!)

Genesis is very clear on the subject. “Then God took Adam,” Scripture says, “and put him in the garden to cultivate and care for it.” (GEN. 2:15). Adam was put in the garden to till it and to keep it, not to contemplate it; not to live off of it; not to lounge. Even in an ideal world, it seems, God expected us to participate in the co-creation of the world.

So here’s to those who provide meaningful work and good environments for their workers! Here’s to those who give of themselves for the good of society and their own growth and well-being! And here’s to those whose work is for justice for all, especially the under-served among us. May we all come to understand the connectedness that we share in the building up of the world, God’s sacred creation.