Life has a definite balance to it.  There is an ebb and flow, a rhythm if you will, that God has ordained for us.  It is for our health and benefit, it is part of our journey to the father.  It is easy for us to get out of this pattern that God has given.  There is work, rest, prayer, solitude, and community all woven into this fabric that we call our lives.  As we find and live in this balance, work and prayer don’t have to be mutually exclusive, they can and do go hand in hand.

     We have examples of those who spend much time in prayer, much time at work, and who have been successful at being able to do both at the same time.  Brother Lawrence was able to maintain this attitude and posture seemingly in all that he did.  God asks us to do all to his glory both in word and in deed, and  the Apostle Paul encourages us to “pray without ceasing”.  So how is this possible? Does it matter what type of work that I am doing?

     Thomas Merton quotes St. Basil in regards to private prayer, he writes,

Private prayer for Basil is then prayer that is carried  on while the ascetic is at work or going about his ordinary duties:  For prayer and psalmody every hour is suitable, that while one’s hands are busy with their tasks we may praise God sometimes with our tongue, or if not, with the heart…. Thus in the midst of our work we can fulfill the duty of prayer, giving thanks to him who has granted strength to our hands for performing our tasks, and cleverness to our minds for acquiring knowledge…. Thus we acquire a recollected spirit, when in every action we beg from God the success of our labors and satisfy our debt of gratitude to him…. and when we keep before our minds  the aim of pleasing him.

     Based upon this, it is obvious that it is a combination of our hearts attitude and acknowledgement of the father and his gift of work to us.  It is about being vigilant to cast our dependence on him in all that we do.  Not to become so full of ourselves, our skill sets, or abilities, but to realize always and acknowledge daily whose we are and where these gifts com from.  It is staying in the place of doing all things as unto him that allows work and prayer to coexist.  And not only to coexist, but for work to be prayer.

     How often we forget to praise and acknowledge him in work.  Let us ask him to remind us throughout the day whose we are, and where the gift of work comes from.  Let us pray that whatever we do for work, becomes an act of worship and prayer to him.