"Ora et Labora"

“Ora et Labora” is a Latin phrase which literally means pray and work.  During the Middle Ages, ora et labora refers to the monastic practice of working and praying, and usually was associated with the Rule of St. Benedict.  St. Benedict viewed prayer and work as buddies and partners, and believed in combining contemplation with action and there should be a balance of prayer and work in the monasteries.

And so, let us reflect on the two poles of our Christian life:  Prayer and Action.

In the Gospel of Mark 6:30, Jesus’ Apostles had completed their first successful missionary work.  They preached repentance; they cast out many demons, and anointed sick with and healed them.  Now they returned enthusiastically and exhaustingly to report their progress.  And how does Christ respond when his missionaries return from their exciting and busy adventure?  He takes them aside to rest, to be with him again in the quiet intimacy of their small community.  To be with Jesus, means talking to Jesus and talking to Jesus means prayer.  The lesson is clear, we need to work and we also need to pray.

We who are energetically and enthusiastically occupied in evangelizing the world around us, need to balance our activity with contemplation, with time spent in personal conversation with the Lord.  After all HE is the master and WORK is not the master that should dictate us.

Sometimes we can wonder why we get so emotionally and spiritually exhausted by the busyness of our lives.  It’s because we aren’t recharging our spiritual batteries.  Stress, discouragement, and other crippling emotions can bring us down if we aren’t daily reinforcing our loving conversation with Jesus.  Only our friendship with Christ can supply us with the grace, wisdom and strength we need to be truly successful, successful not just in the roles we play, but in who we are beneath those roles.

But even though both are equally important for our spiritual maturity, in today’s world one of them is harder than the other.  “It is easier said than done” as they put it.  Today’s society is so focused on getting things done, on task lists and action points and bottom lines, that many people have actually lost sight of which things are really worthwhile doing and why.  The fast and superficial pace of life in the digital world makes prayer harder and harder, because prayer requires internal discipline and depth.

And God will certainly help us, if we just give him the chance.  And one way to do that is to make a commitment to a regular prayer life, not one that shifts with our moods.  We need to pray daily, to have a daily quiet time when we can speak to Christ, pray for our loved ones, reflect on the scriptures, or read some good, solid spiritual book.  That means carving out the time.  It doesn’t have to be a lot of time but it has to be consistent, and that means self-discipline.

We must remember that without prayer, study, and moments of being alone with God, our well will soon run dry, we will have nothing substantial to offer others.  On the other hand without action, without giving freely to others what we have freely received from God, our spiritual waters will become sluggish, dormant, stagnant, and lifeless like a salty lake with no outlet.  Contemplation and action, prayer and work, such was the way of Jesus, so every Christian’s should follow that way.

Balancing Work with Prayer

On Monday, we will celebrate Labor Day, a holiday originally intended to celebrate the dignity of the worker.  St. Joseph is, among other things, the patron saint of workers.  He made his living as a carpenter, engaged in manual labor, and he passed on his trade to Jesus.  Jesus took it a step further in his role as the Son of God.

Jesus engaged in the work of conversion through prayer.  He called his apostles from their daily work to a different calling, but one that is still work.  “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men,” He tells them in Matthew 4:19.  It is work to follow Jesus.  It is sacrifice.  The conversion of hearts takes effort, both on the part of the convert and the converter.

The idea that prayer and work go hand in hand has survived through the centuries.  Ora et labora (prayer and work) became the motto of many monasteries as a key component of the Rule of St. Benedict.  His Rule sought to ensure that there was balance in life rather than a tending toward one extreme or the other.

When prayer guides our work, we can be assured that God will have a hand in it somehow.  It may not be in the way we expect, but He is working in and through us.  As we celebrate Labor Day, let us call to mind all those who work with and for us to better our lives.