{"id":436,"date":"2012-06-30T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-30T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/turning-work-into-prayer\/"},"modified":"2012-06-30T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-30T19:00:00","slug":"turning-work-into-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/06\/turning-work-into-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning work into prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Atlanta, Ga., Jun 30, 2012 \/ 01:00 pm (CNA<\/a>).- Mention the word \u201cwork\u201d and many people cringe. As for me, the moment I was old enough to wield a broom, I labored along with my mother and sister to get our Miami home into tiptop shape.<\/p>\n

\tWe scoured tubs, polished dressers, changed linens and tackled a pile of clothes waiting for the sizzle of the iron.<\/p>\n

\tIn high school I had simple jobs like babysitting and gift wrapping presents in a department store. In college, I waited tables, sold cosmetics door-to-door and tutored homebound children.<\/p>\n

\tNext was the \u201creal\u201d world of work, which first meant being a college teacher, and eventually moved on to becoming the assistant director of a university publications office.<\/p>\n

\tUnfortunately, as the years went on, the responsibilities increased, the stress levels became unbearable\u2014and I found myself cringing as I drove into work each day.<\/p>\n

\tI wish I had known then about a Spanish saint whose feast day is June 26. His name is Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1, and he was born in northern Spain in 1902. He became a priest in 1925, devoting attention to the poor, the incurably sick and the dying.<\/p>\n

\tA few years later, he had a vision of ordinary Christians doing everyday work and realized we can sanctify ourselves through our labor. He then founded the organization Opus Dei (the work of God) to help people find and love Christ in the context of everyday life. The author of seven books, he died in 1975.<\/p>\n

\tSt. Josemar\u00eda\u2019s insights can help anyone struggling to find meaning in their work. Perhaps you are at home teaching your children, a demanding job indeed. Perhaps you are an engineer, an architect, a doctor, a laborer, a salesperson, a cook.<\/p>\n

\tIf we keep our hearts set on Christ while we work, says St. Josemar\u00eda, we can turn ordinary jobs into saintly accomplishments. This doesn\u2019t mean winning gigantic honors but rather just doing the task well\u2014and doing it for the love of God.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAnything done out of love is important however small it might appear,\u201d he says in his book \u201cThe Way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tSo many workers\u2014and I was among them\u2014while away their hours pining for the weekend. But St. Josemar\u00eda underscores that work is part of being human. After all, in Genesis we read that<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Lord God took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tSo even in paradise, Adam and Eve had jobs to do. They weren\u2019t just lolling about in lawn chairs staring at the horizon!<\/p>\n

\tSadly, though, work that is done with little thought of God can be debilitating, demoralizing and depressing. It can lead to someone sitting in a lonely cubicle wondering, \u201cIs this all there is?\u201d That was a question I often asked myself at my high-stress publications job.<\/p>\n

\tHow I wish someone had answered, \u201cNo, there is much more!\u201d You just have to realize that Christ is there in the cubicle with you. As St. Josemar\u00eda notes, God \u201cwaits for us every day,\u201d whether we are in the shop, the classroom, the factory, the fields or the home.<\/p>\n

\tIn another book \u201cFriends of God,\u201d he writes,<\/p>\n

\t\u201cOur Lord wants you to be holy in the place where you are, in the job you have chosen for whatever reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe emphasizes the importance of meeting our responsibilities and avoiding the temptation to do a shoddy job. As he puts it,<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWhat use is it of telling me that so and so is a \u2026 good Christian but a bad shoemaker?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tWe really are not alone. God is watching us as we fold the laundry, fix the computer or fax the report.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSince we are convinced that God is to be found everywhere,\u201d St. Josemar\u00eda writes, \u201cwe plough our fields praising the Lord, we sail the seas and ply all other trades singing his mercies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAnd by offering the Lord our efforts, however mundane and menial, we can turn our cubicle into a chapel\u2014and our work into a prayer.<\/p>\n

\tLorraine Murray\u2019s recent books include \u201cThe Abbess of Andalusia,\u201d a biography of Flannery O\u2019Connor, and \u201cDeath of a Liturgist,\u201d a mystery set at a fictional church in Decatur.<\/em><\/p>\n

\tPosted with permission from the Georgia Bulletin<\/a>, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Georgia.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlanta, Ga., Jun 30, 2012 \/ 01:00 pm (CNA).- Mention the word “work” and many people cringe. As for me, the moment I was old enough to wield a broom, I labored along with my mother and sister to get our Miami home into tiptop shape.<\/p>\n

\tWe s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nTurning work into prayer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Atlanta, Ga., Jun 30, 2012 \/ 01:00 pm (CNA).- Mention the word “work” and many people cringe. As for me, the moment I was old enough to wield a broom, I labored along with my mother and sister to get our Miami home into tiptop shape. 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