Vigils Reading

ON WORK AND PRAYER

From “The Divine Milieu” by Fr Teilhard de Chardin

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Our work appears to us, in the main, as a way of earning our daily bread.

But its essential virtue is of a higher order: through it we complete in ourselves

the subject of the divine union; and through it again we augment in some sense,

in relation to ourselves, the divine end of that union, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hence whatever our human function may be…we can, if we are Christians,

speed towards the object of our work as though towards an outlet open on the

supreme fulfillment of our beings.

We ought to accustom ourselves to this basic truth till we are steeped in it,

until it becomes as familiar to us as the perception of relief or the reading of

words. God…is waiting for us at every moment in our action, in our work of the

moment…

I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that nine out of ten practicing

Christians feel that work is always at the level of a ‘spiritual encumbrance.’ In

spite of the practice of right intentions, and the day offered every morning to

God, the general run of the faithful dimly feel that time spent at the office or the

studio, in the fields or in the factory, is time diverted from prayer and adoration.

On the contrary, try, with God’s help, to perceive the connection even

physical and natural which binds your labor with the building of the Kingdom of

Heaven; try to realize that heaven itself smiles upon you and, through your

works, draws you to itself; then…you will remain with only one feeling, that of

continuing to immerse yourself in God. If your work is dull or exhausting, take

refuge in the inexhaustible and becalming interest of progressing in the divine

life. If your work enthralls you, then allow the spiritual impulse which matter

communicates to you to enter into your taste for God whom you know better

and desire more under the veil of His works. Never, at any time, “whether eating

or drinking,” consent to do anything without first of all realizing its significance

and constructive value in Christ Jesus, and pursuing it with all your might… For

what is sanctity in a creature if not to cleave to God with the maximum of his

strength?…

May the time come when men, having been awakened to a sense of the

close bond linking all the movements of this world in the unique work of the

Incarnation, shall be unable to give themselves to a single one of their tasks

without illuminating it with the clear vision that their work – however

elementary it may be – is received and made use of by a Center of the universe.