Catholic Herald Parenting™

	Keeping Faith

"Do all for the glory of God."

That might have been easy enough for St. Benedict to say back in the 6th century.

But could it possibly mean much to a 21st century parent? And in a world where separation of church and state has come to mean separation of religion from just about everything else, is there any way -- or reason -- to bring your Catholic faith to your job?

More important, when it comes right down to it, does your daily work do anything at all for the glory of God?

That's an easier question for a Catholic school teacher to answer than, say, a cable television installer or corporate receptionist. And it's not nearly as touchy an issue for a parish accountant or diocesan secretary than it might be for a city police officer or corporate attorney.

But whether your work is adding numbers or putting together words or vacuuming floors and cleaning dirty dishes, there is a spiritual element waiting there for you to find it. And seeing the work of God in your daily jobs can enrich your work life and spiritual life in ways you may never have imagined.

To that end, work-related discussion groups have sprung up in parishes and cities across the country. Workshops and conferences help Catholics find ways to bring church-related social justice issues to the marketplace. And the Chicago-based National Center for the Laity is an organization devoted to helping workers find the spiritual dimensions of their work worlds.

One new book, "On-the-Job Spirituality: Finding God in Work" (published by St. Anthony Messenger Press) maintains that all human work is "our call to creation, incarnation and redemption in this world."

Author's profession left her spiritually empty

The book was written by Marianne Roche, a corporate attorney who struggled to find religious meaning in her work and blamed her profession for leaving her feeling empty spiritually. Her book is divided into four parts: one examining the ways all work is a form of prayer, another helping find ways to overcome personal barriers to bringing God to work, the third looking at the cultural opposition to any form of religion in the workplace, and a final section helping to create a personal spirituality of work. Each chapter ends with reflection questions and suggestions.

"Whether it is advising a client on the recent drop in the Dow Jones average or the folding of the family laundry, our actions are an opportunity to serve God's plan and to make our Christian values real and alive," she writes.

Because people often choose their careers in order to find some form of fulfillment -- personally or financially -- they often judge the "goodness" of their work from the perspective of whether it makes them happy or promotes their goals, she notes.

"(But) we can move from seeing our work as a means to please ourselves and receive personal reward. In time, we can learn to embrace our work as a means to serve God and to free ourselves to do God's work for the sake of the work itself, without regard to personal reward," Roche maintains.

Appreciate the godliness of work

In some of her reflection exercises, she recommends creating a "personal 10 commandments" for conducting job and chores, and writing a "mission statement" for meeting God in your work.

She also suggests using repetitive rituals and disciplines to help focus your attention on the "now," bringing yourself further into the present moment of an activity and learning to appreciate the godliness of it.

For instance, while cooking, focus on the actions it takes to convert food into a meal. Or when completing a task, pay attention to your breathing for even just 10 seconds before going on to the next task.

The book "Friend of the Soul: A Benedictine Spirituality of Work," published in 1996, takes a similar contemplative approach to merging job and religion. Its author, Norvene Vest, is an oblate of a Benedictine abbey in California who leads workshops and retreats on Benedictine spirituality throughout the country.

Work can be place to experience God

Her book considers how work becomes life-giving, a service to others and a place where people can experience the presence of God. She suggests using the spiritual approach of the Benedictine monks as a model for infusing everyday work with meaning and a connection to the sacred.

While it can be particularly difficult to find meaning in menial or repetitive work, Vest says that very tension can be spiritual.

"The notion that God has called or invited us to be where we are is a very important one," she notes. "I look at what I do very differently if I have a sense that God has brought me to this place."

Author Greg Pierce offers even more specific suggestions for bringing spirituality to the workplace in his book, "Spirituality @ Work: Ten Ways to Balance Your Life on the Job." Pierce says his suggestions apply equally to corporate CEOs and tollbooth operators.

He recommends:

• Surrounding yourself with "sacred" objects, including pictures or other items that recall your connections to family and community. They don't have to be explicitly religious, but should help you connect with the larger realities of your job and life.

• Learning to live with imperfection, and celebrating failures and shortcomings as well as successes. Pierce says this relieves you of the heresy that you can do God's work on your own.

• Giving thanks and congratulations, in order to develop a persistently thankful, spiritual attitude -- and provide a way to reflect on what you're doing with your life and why.

• Assuring quality, and becoming more prayerfully aware that the satisfaction you feel in the good work you do is a sign of God's pleasure and approval.

• Dealing with others as you would have them deal with you -- even though this seems to be a countercultural practice -- and valuing honesty in the workplace.

• Building support and community, by going out of your way to make new workers feel welcomed, or extending compassion to co-workers or refusing to participate in bad-mouthing others or spreading rumors.

• Deciding what is enough and sticking to it.

• Balancing work, personal, family, church and community responsibilities, even though each of these can feel overwhelming and distinct.

• Engaging in ongoing personal and professional development.

• Working to make "the system" work, or striving for social justice in your own profession or work situation.