Today's Word
"Ora et Labora."
("Pray and Work.")
The Rule of Saint Benedict
Today's Reflection
Benedict of Nursia was born in 480 AD into a world falling apart.
The Roman Empire was collapsing.
The old certainties were gone.
He went into the wilderness to pray.
He did not stay there.
He came back, gathered a community, and wrote a rule.
It was not complicated.
Pray together at fixed hours of the day.
Work together.
Welcome strangers.
Listen.
Begin again when you fall.
That rule shaped the Western world.
The monasteries that followed it preserved learning, medicine, agriculture, and the faith itself through centuries of chaos.
Two words did most of the work: ora et labora.
Pray and work.
Not prayer instead of work.
Not work instead of prayer.
Both. Together. Every day.
Whatever your work is today, it can be prayer.
Whatever your prayer is today, it can be work.
Benedict saw no difference.
Today's Prayer
Lord, like Benedict, I want to find you in both prayer and work.
Help me not to separate them.
Let what I do today be an offering.
Let what I pray today shape what I do.
And when I fall short, as I will,
help me to simply begin again.
Amen.
Today's Call
Before you start work today, say one sentence to God about what you are about to do.
Offer it to him.
That is enough.