Each
of the articles mentioned seeks to respond to those questions . . . which in my
opinion have much to say to our Labor Day celebration … and musings! Catherine
herself says: “It never occurs to me that I can possibly separate anything from
love. For example, I will speak of washing dishes. If I have the attitude that
this is a beautiful thing that I can give to God, then washing a cup becomes an
adventure.”
Teresa
Davis couches her response within a question. “And what is our Father’s
business? To live the Gospel without compromise. To do the duty of the moment.
To do little things well out of love. … Love raises everything from the natural
order to the divine order.”
And
finally Pope John Paul II, who addressed Italian workers in 1980, challenging
them to let the famous Benedictine dual concept of ora et labora (work and prayer) be for them an inexhaustible source
of true wisdom, of sure equilibrium, and of human perfection. He pleaded with
them to respect human beings and not to allow technical progress to diminish or
impoverish humanity’s spiritual interior lives. John Paul II ended his address
to laborers—and to us, I’d say--with the words: “May prayer give wings to your work, purify
your intentions, and defend you from the perils of boredom and carelessness;
and may your work, after your exertions, allow you to re-discover the
invigorating force of the encounter with God, in whom we once more recover our
true, great stature. Ora et Labora!”
A
refreshing Labor Day consideration for each of us!
Renée Domeier, OSB
Photo: S. Elaine Schroeder, Director of Liturgy and one of our gardeners. For our sister-gardeners, tending the earth and growing produce is a way to pray.
Photo: S. Elaine Schroeder, Director of Liturgy and one of our gardeners. For our sister-gardeners, tending the earth and growing produce is a way to pray.
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