Taking God to Work with You
During these first few weeks of Advent I’ve been pretty busy at work. In a season that usually leaves me wishing I had more, I have been blessed with an abundance of work on my plate. Thank God. This has been both a good and a bad thing. The difficult part of spending so much time at work is that I often find myself absorbed in my work, shutting out the world—including my family and even God. This is not healthy.
It isn’t that I don’t pray, because I do. Each morning I offer my day to God and it seems to set me off on the right foot. I’m in a good mood, full of joy, ready for the day. Then come early afternoon I’ve lost that peace and joy that I had in the morning. My hypothesis: I need to spend more time with God throughout the day.
“Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”
Pray without ceasing. Pray continually. If prayer is to be in conversation with God, then why not talk to Him more often, throughout the day? I know that when I’m right with God everything else seems to be alright. So what I’ve committed to do is to find some time in the middle of my day to spend with God. On a good day I’ll make it to a mid-day Mass or perhaps spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. But not everyday affords me this opportunity. So this Advent I’m challenging myself, and you my friend, to give your lunch break to God.
Giving Your Lunch Break to God
Your lunch break is designed not just for you to eat, which is obviously important to your physiology, but also to rest from your work, whether it is physically, mentally, or emotionally. So why not take advantage of that time and rest in God.
“Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee?”
~ St. Augustine of Hippo
Not to say that a quick game of Angry Birds on your smart phone won’t help you to relax, but time with God will always be more rewarding. Utilize your break and allow God to give you a recharge. Jesus did it all the time. After hours and days of active ministry—healing, preaching, and performing miracles—He would go away to a quiet place and rest awhile (Mk 6:31) communing with God in prayer, often times throughout the night (Mk 1:35; Lk 5:16).
Online Prayer Resources
Going off into the mountains to pray like Jesus did might not be an option for you in the middle of your work day. But perhaps you could find a quiet place around the office to pray. You can even stay at your desk—those of you desk jockies like myself—or use your smart phone, laptop, or tablet to visit one of these three online prayer resources.
Infinitum
Put together by the good folks at Family Rosary, Infinitum is an interactive online prayer space, complete with audio, video, prayers, readings, petitions, and more. It is truly the only thing like it I have seen. A beautiful use of multimedia to invite people into prayer amidst the busyness and noise of our modern world. You have got to check out Infinitum for yourself!
The Daily Disconnect
If “prayer is a conversation with a friend” as St. Teresa of Avila said, then the Carmelites’ Daily Disconnect is the perfect tool to help you enter into that conversation. Each day there is a new topic and conversation starter to help guide you into prayer. The best feature is that it lets you select how long you want to pray: 3, 5, or 10 minutes. Great to use for a quick disconnect from work.
3-Minute Retreats
These micro-retreats put together by Loyola Press allow you to stop what you are doing and enter into a brief, three-minute retreat including a meditation on the scriptures with a guided reflection. The retreats include melodic music and photos to aid contemplation so make sure you are wearing headphones if you’re in the office.
The Word Among Us
If you can’t make it to Mass during your lunch break, then I’d suggest a visit to the Word Among Us website. There you will find a brief meditation on the readings from the Mass. It’s a great way to immerse yourself in scripture, since we go through the entire Bible in the three liturgical cycle. You can also subscribe to the print or digital version. I read it on my Kindle.
What do you do to stay in touch with God during your work day? Do you know of any other resources that you could share with the readers of this blog?