SPIRITUALITY OF WORK is WORSHIP. never secular,
always sacred.
WORK is a component of our Humanity which is Body and Soul.
PRAYER is the Soul of our Apostolate.
SDB constitutions:.18, 41, 42, 78, 95
Four Dimensions of Work Spirituality:
*Theological – GOD is The Eternal WORKER./Creator.
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 and in partnership with Him as co-worker with the Eternal Worker. “When we grow radishes in a small container in a city apartment, we participate in creation. When we sweep the street in front of our house, we bring new order to the Universe. When we repair what has been broken or paint what is old or give away what we have earned that is above and beyond our own sustenance, we stoop down and scoop up the earth and breathe into it new life again. When we compost garbage and recycle cans, when we clean a room and put coasters under glasses, when we care for everything we touch and touch it reverently, we become the creators of a new universe. We sanctify our work and our work sanctifies us”.(Sr.Joan Chittister OSB).
*Christological – JESUS, The Carpenter’s Son – Incarnate Worker. like the Father. “,,,, I work”(Jn 5,17)
Jesus redeems Work. Not punishment for sins but pardon through love. "Work," the Persian poet Khalil Gibran writes, "is love made visible."
*Ecclesiological – Work builds Community. A spirituality of work immerses me in the search for human community. I begin to see that everything I do, everything, has some effect on someone somewhere. I begin to see my life tied up in theirs. I begin to see that the starving starve because someone is not working hard enough to feed them. And so I do. It becomes obvious, then, that the poor are poor because someone is not intent on the just distribution of goods of the earth.
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 -- work done with good intentions and good effects, work that builds up the human race rather than reduces it to the monstrous or risks its destruction. Work develops qualities of compassion and character in us. A spirituality of work puts us in touch with our own creativity. Work enables us to put our personal stamp of approval, our own watermark, the autograph of our souls on the development of the world. In fact, to do less is to do nothing at all. Work makes us accountable to God and Society.
*Eschatological – Finally, Work draws man into The eternal Kingdom of God. Work also develops everything around it and has an eschatological finality and purpose.. There is nothing we do that does not affect the world in which we 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. In that way, I benefit myself. Literally. I come into possession of a 'me' that is worthwhile, whose life has not been in vain, who has been a valuable member of the human race.
And so I am. I begin to realize that work is the lifelong process of personal sanctification. I finally come to know that my work is God's work, unfinished by God because God meant it to be finished by me.
Types of WORK : The Latins distinguished between OPUS - Work that is productive and effective, a realization of God’s Will; and LABOR - work that is non-productive, squirrel-like activity.
Models of OPUS were Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Don Bosco, every saint…… ourselves, when open and committed to God's Will.
Only WORK, the fruit of prayer, humility and obedience can lead to the OPUS (God’s Will)
WORK IN SALESIAN TRADITION.
Salesians Spirituality was action-orientated, Salesians took pride in being branded a 'workaholics' giving Don Bosco himself a bad name, with quotations such as these:
DB: “Work, work, work ….. bread and heaven.
“Tell the devil to stop working first”
“When a Salesian dies working, a gain for the Congregation”.
“Dream of the ten Diamonds” focussed on the Diamons of Work and Temperance position strategically on the shoulders of the personage.
“Do not admit Poltroni, easychair (lazy) , Mangioni hoggers (greedy) and Testoni, hardheaded (stubborn) ” persons.
The ideal Salesian model: Is a Salesian who is young, thin and always on the run.
Since Vat. II and SGC: The Salesians are experiencing a called to a a paradigm shift from Action to Contemplation spirituality.
A call to RETURN TO Don Bosco’s “spiritual depth and solid faith. Don Bosco was a mystic in his own times.
We have strayed on to the paths of efficiency, professionalism, secularism and individualism and given Evangelization a bad name.
Looking closely into the life of DB, we note that the success of his mission came not from hectic activity but a deeper relation and UNION WITH GOD.
WORK is a component of our Humanity which is Body and Soul.
PRAYER is the Soul of our Apostolate.
SDB constitutions:.18, 41, 42, 78, 95
Four Dimensions of Work Spirituality:
*Theological – GOD is The Eternal WORKER./Creator.
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 and in partnership with Him as co-worker with the Eternal Worker. “When we grow radishes in a small container in a city apartment, we participate in creation. When we sweep the street in front of our house, we bring new order to the Universe. When we repair what has been broken or paint what is old or give away what we have earned that is above and beyond our own sustenance, we stoop down and scoop up the earth and breathe into it new life again. When we compost garbage and recycle cans, when we clean a room and put coasters under glasses, when we care for everything we touch and touch it reverently, we become the creators of a new universe. We sanctify our work and our work sanctifies us”.(Sr.Joan Chittister OSB).
*Christological – JESUS, The Carpenter’s Son – Incarnate Worker. like the Father. “,,,, I work”(Jn 5,17)
Jesus redeems Work. Not punishment for sins but pardon through love. "Work," the Persian poet Khalil Gibran writes, "is love made visible."
*Ecclesiological – Work builds Community. A spirituality of work immerses me in the search for human community. I begin to see that everything I do, everything, has some effect on someone somewhere. I begin to see my life tied up in theirs. I begin to see that the starving starve because someone is not working hard enough to feed them. And so I do. It becomes obvious, then, that the poor are poor because someone is not intent on the just distribution of goods of the earth.
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 -- work done with good intentions and good effects, work that builds up the human race rather than reduces it to the monstrous or risks its destruction. Work develops qualities of compassion and character in us. A spirituality of work puts us in touch with our own creativity. Work enables us to put our personal stamp of approval, our own watermark, the autograph of our souls on the development of the world. In fact, to do less is to do nothing at all. Work makes us accountable to God and Society.
*Eschatological – Finally, Work draws man into The eternal Kingdom of God. Work also develops everything around it and has an eschatological finality and purpose.. There is nothing we do that does not affect the world in which we 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. In that way, I benefit myself. Literally. I come into possession of a 'me' that is worthwhile, whose life has not been in vain, who has been a valuable member of the human race.
And so I am. I begin to realize that work is the lifelong process of personal sanctification. I finally come to know that my work is God's work, unfinished by God because God meant it to be finished by me.
Types of WORK : The Latins distinguished between OPUS - Work that is productive and effective, a realization of God’s Will; and LABOR - work that is non-productive, squirrel-like activity.
Models of OPUS were Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Don Bosco, every saint…… ourselves, when open and committed to God's Will.
Only WORK, the fruit of prayer, humility and obedience can lead to the OPUS (God’s Will)
WORK IN SALESIAN TRADITION.
Salesians Spirituality was action-orientated, Salesians took pride in being branded a 'workaholics' giving Don Bosco himself a bad name, with quotations such as these:
DB: “Work, work, work ….. bread and heaven.
“Tell the devil to stop working first”
“When a Salesian dies working, a gain for the Congregation”.
“Dream of the ten Diamonds” focussed on the Diamons of Work and Temperance position strategically on the shoulders of the personage.
“Do not admit Poltroni, easychair (lazy) , Mangioni hoggers (greedy) and Testoni, hardheaded (stubborn) ” persons.
The ideal Salesian model: Is a Salesian who is young, thin and always on the run.
Since Vat. II and SGC: The Salesians are experiencing a called to a a paradigm shift from Action to Contemplation spirituality.
A call to RETURN TO Don Bosco’s “spiritual depth and solid faith. Don Bosco was a mystic in his own times.
We have strayed on to the paths of efficiency, professionalism, secularism and individualism and given Evangelization a bad name.
Looking closely into the life of DB, we note that the success of his mission came not from hectic activity but a deeper relation and UNION WITH GOD.
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