Ora Et Labora

Yesterday, I was on my way to covering another class when the bell rang.

As I made my way into the hallway crammed with students getting ready to walk about eight hundred feet to the next class, I heard the words "ora et labora".

I don't really know where those words came from, as the last time I heard words like that I was inspired to write A Seven Page Sunday back in Lent of this year.

So here I am writing again.

To give you some background, "ora et labora" is basically when,

In Christian mysticism, the phrase pray and work (or "pray and labor", in Latin ora et labora) refers to the monastic practice of working and praying, generally associated with its use in the Rule of St. Benedict.^[1]

Benedict viewed prayer and work as partners, and believed in combining contemplation with action.^[2] The phrase expresses the need to balance prayer and work in monastic settings and has been used in many religious communities from the Middle Ages onwards.

For years I've lived this disjointed life that my work is what I do Monday-Friday 8am-4pm and my prayer is what I do on Sundays from 11am-12pm.

The only exception to that rule is when things get really bad, then I'm praying non-stop during the day and the night.

Once that emergency prayer period was over, I usually went back to my old routine.

And now I see how problematic that lifestyle was.

I can't really handle the stress of a normal day at work without rooting myself in prayer. It's mostly because I'm a natural worrier.

I find things to worry about.

My brothers and sisters constantly tell me to focus on the fact that I worry too much about the future, on things that might go wrong, on ways things might not work out.

When I'm teaching, my worrying gives me a host of different problems to worry about from 7:30am-2:30pm.

The problem years ago was that I couldn't separate work from leisure. I took problems at work home with me all the time, and I couldn't see a marked difference between my two lives.

Nowadays though life has sorta showed me a different way.

Right as my car leaves the driveway of my school, I take out my Rosary and begin to pray about everything that happened that day, students I encountered, teachers I've become friends with, and normal everyday worries that crossed my mind.

And every time I do it, it relieves the weight off my shoulder to go back another day, stronger, filled with peace and courage knowing that my day is centered around prayer and not really centered on myself.

When I was in Mass last night, I went a little early to spend time alone in prayer.

I turned my iPhone on silent and just sat alone, staring in silence at the crucifix above the altar and the tabernacle below it.

I became emotional as I always do, but it was a conversation between the Lord and I, mostly about things that have been on my mind the past couple of months.

He feels my anxieties, my joys, and He's really got one helluva sense of humor. Most importantly He knows me intimately.

Those were things that I never knew about Him.

Recently after work I've gotten used to listening to Rachel Platten's new song "Stand by You" and Justin Bieber's "What Do You Mean?" as a way of getting me through the afternoon but after last night's experience in front of the Blessed Sacrament I have realized that music is just music, and Our Lord is Our Lord.

Nothing compares to Him.

He is eternal, He can't be downloaded on iTunes, and one word from Him to me can move my soul more than anything my iTunes library could do for me.

Those words "ora et labora" were like a little crumb of bread that led me to Mass last night, led me in deep prayer with Him, and led me to writing this post.

Jesus is definitely leading clues for me to find Him in the everyday normalcy of my routine, and day by day I'm getting better at finding Him.

Take care friends.