work

The great work of life

The great work of life is not to save the world but to attain God Realization which, by being in the process of doing so, you have a tremendously powerful and positive effect on the world condition and consciousness.

The goal of work

The goal of singing a song is not to reach the end as quickly as possible. It is a state of creating harmony, beauty, growth and understanding. The goal of work, as a sacred art, is to use the need for a product or service to develop the greatest possible power on the object, and the users. Sacred work puts the mind on service to the heart as well.

Serving with a peace-filled heart

When we are willing to commit to 51% service to self and 48% to others, we have achieved a balance that allows us to be effective in life. Whether we have service-related jobs or volunteer makes no difference. The commitment to making our world a better place for everyone is the key to any job. On one level, we agree to be role models, and because of that devotion to being our personal best, we are forced to examine our personal integrity, our willingness to change and grow, and our commitment to doing what is needed when it is needed, serving with a peace-filled heart.

They're working

Dr. Torres had never seen teeth as bad as those he saw at La Mesa. "This stuff wasn't in any of my books." He noticed that the worst problems often belonged to the toughest men and women in the prison, and even the hardest cases cried when he showed them their new teeth in the mirror.

Some of the inmates he worked on still stay in touch with him. "They call me all the time and tell me, 'Hey, I'm working over here, I'm working over there,'" he says. "The jobs are no big deal, but they're working, which they couldn't do before, because people didn't accept them. Nobody except Mother Antonia cared for them."

September 2012 (Vol XXV, No. 8)

September Greetings, Dear Friends of Silence! The summer vacations and holidays are about over now, and after a relaxing and renewing time for all of us, it's time now to return to our regular routines. As Kahlil Gibran says in The Prophet, "Work is love made visible.” Our work is our service to the world, our gift to the world. We are thankful for opportunities to make our love visible in this manner, grateful for work to which to return; and our prayerful thoughts and concern are with those in our midst who are not so fortunate. May all of us find our right work in the world, and may we perform it with gladness and love!

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Tao does nothing at all, yet everything gets done

John Heider The Tao of Leadership

It puzzles people at first, to see how little the able leader actually does,
and yet how much gets done.
But the leader knows that is how things work.  After all, Tao does nothing at all,
yet everything gets done.
When the leader gets too busy,
the time has come to return to
selfless silence.

Selflessness gives one center.
Center creates order.
When there is order, there is little to do.

At every moment God awaits us in the activity

Teilhard de Chardin Hymn of the Universe

Let us ponder over this basic truth till we are steeped in it, till it becomes as familiar to us as our awareness of shapes or our reading of words: God, at the most vitally active and most incarnate, is not remote from us, wholly apart from the sphere of the tangible; on the contrary, at every moment God awaits us in the activity, the work to be done, which every moment brings. God is, in a sense, at the point of my pen, my pick, my paint-brush, my needle – and my heart and my thought. It is by carrying to its natural completion the stroke, the line, the stitch I am working on that I shall lay hold on that ultimate end towards which my will at its deepest levels tends. 

When you really enjoy the job you are doing

Anthony de Mello The Way to Love

Recall the kind of feeling you have when you succeed, when you have made it, when you get to the top, when you win a game or an argument.  And contrast it with the kind of feeling you get when you really enjoy the job you are doing, you are absorbed in, the action you are currently engaged in. . . .  Notice the qualitative difference between the worldly feeling and the soul feeling.  . . .  Now attempt to understand the true nature of worldly feelings—of self-promotion, self-glorification.  They are not natural, they were invented by your society and your culture to make you productive and to make you controllable.  These feelings do not produce the nourishment and happiness that is produced when one contemplates nature or enjoys the company of one's friends or one's work.  They were meant to produce thrills, excitement—and emptiness.

Serve was joy

Rabindranath Tagore

I slept and dreamt that life was joy
I woke and saw that life was service
I acted and behold! service was joy.

You can always love your work

Candido Bonvicini The Tenor's Son

Pavarotti retains a kind of religious, mystical, commitment to his "work.”  And he insists on referring to it as "work,” claiming: "You can always love your work; your profession, at best, you can exercise.”  Few people realize that the joyful tenor, the man who is always smiling, is almost a cloistered monk . . .

Follow your heart-song

Nan Merrill Lumen Christi . . . Holy Wisdom

Follow your heart-song: your work and life's joy will flow as one in the service of Love.

Doing what we are called to do

Henri Nouwen Can You Drink the Cup

It is not easy to distinguish between doing what we are called to do and doing what we want to do.  Our many wants can easily distract us from our true action.  True action leads us to the fulfillment of our vocation. . . . Actions that lead to overwork, exhaustion, and burnout can't praise and glory God.  What God calls us to do we can do and do well.  When we listen in silence to God's voice and speak with our friends in trust we will know what we are called to do.  We will do it with a grateful heart.

A spirituality of work

Joan Chittester Vision and Viewpoint

A spirituality of work is based on a heightened sense of sacramentality, of the idea that everything that is, is holy and that our hands consecrate it to the service of God. . . when we care for everything we touch and touch it reverently, we become the creators of a new universe. Then we sanctify our work and our work sanctifies us.

A spirituality of work puts us in touch with our own creativity. . . Work enables us to put our personal stamp of approval . . . the autograph of our souls on the development of the world. . .

A spirituality of work draws us out of ourselves and, at the same time, makes us more of what we are meant to be. Good work . . . develops qualities of compassion and character in me.

My work also develops everything around it. There is nothing I do that does not affect the world in which I live. In developing a spirituality of work, I learn to trust beyond reason that good work will gain good things for the world, even when I don't expect them and I can't see them.

Each of us has something within us that needs to be expressed

G. Jean Anderson

Each of us has something within us that needs to be expressed.  It may be the desire to play an instrument, paint landscapes, climb mountains, or grow prize-winning chrysanthemums.  Whatever that desire is, it comes from our heart and reflects our own unique gifts and abilities. . . .

Your job is something you will be happy doing

Peace Pilgrim

Your job in the scheme of things is unique and designed especially for you.  Your job is something you will be happy doing . . . You can begin to do your job in life by doing all the good things you feel motivated toward, even though they are just little things. . . .

You are not obligated to complete the work

The Talmud

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief.  Do justly, now.  Love mercy, now.  Walk humbly, now.  You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

The work to which we have been called

Harry T. Hamblin

We can truly be successful only in the work to which we have been called.  The work is not ours.  It is God's, and we are privileged to be worked through by God . . .  How foolish, then, for anyone to think and proclaim that he has a certain work to do for God.  God may have a certain work to do through him, that is if he is sufficiently humble, but that is quite a different thing . . .

When you really enjoy the job you are doing

Recall the kind of feeling you have when you succeed, when you have made it, when you get to the top, when you win a game or an argument.  And contrast it with the kind of feeling you get when you really enjoy the job you are doing, you are absorbed in, the action you are currently engaged in. . . .  Notice the qualitative difference between the worldly feeling and the soul feeling.  . . .  Now attempt to understand the true nature of worldly feelings—of self-promotion, self-glorification.  They are not natural, they were invented by your society and your culture to make you productive and to make you controllable.  These feelings do not produce the nourishment and happiness that is produced when one contemplates nature or enjoys the company of one's friends or one's work.  They were meant to produce thrills, excitement—and emptiness.

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