ORA ET LABORA

Ora et labora is a Latin expression used mostly among professed religious – the Benedictines, for example – that said (actually commanded) pray and work. The religious orders all had specific times during the day set aside for prayer. When the monks were not praying, they were working at jobs assigned to each. Yes, there were also times set aside for eating, resting and reflection. But their daily lives centered on prayer and work.

The truth is that prayer and work are really one entity. The monks took scheduled times to pray, usually eight different occasions. When the time came, they set down their tools, headed off to chapel and prayed part of the Daily Office: Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer (called Vespers), Compline (see The Book of Common Prayer). Their minds and hearts, their total being, when at prayer was to be focused on prayer.

The same is true when the monks were engaged in their daily labors. They were to be focused on the task at hand, whatever that task, that job, was. They were to give it their full attention so as not to be distracted by thoughts of what might be served at their next meal. The command was “Pray when at prayer and work when at work” … and rest when at rest and enjoy the meal when in the dining hall.

Again, work and prayer are almost, if not, one and the same. Prayer is work and work is prayer. When we pray, when we truly pray, it is work, often hard work. Yes, perhaps more often than not, when we pray, we have a routine. We rattle off a set formula of prayers, often hardly thinking about what we are saying. Yes, we are praying, but – and this is the point about the command to the monks to pray when they were praying – it is work to truly focus our hearts and minds, our whole being on our prayer.

It takes work not to be distracted by what is around us, by who might be nearby, by what we have just finished doing before we came to pray, by what we have left undone and what we will be need to attend to when our prayer is concluded. Prayer, focused prayer, is indeed hard work. Perhaps that is why we do not pray as often and as fully as we could and as we should. It just takes too much effort, too much work.

In the same way work is prayer. We are praying when we are working. Prayer is not simply about laying our wants and needs before God. Prayer is that but it is much more. Prayer is about giving thanks for blessings received, about asking forgiveness for what we have done or left undone, and more. In fact, when we are at work, what we are doing is God’s work here on earth. God created us, gave us life, to be God’s partner in bringing in God’s Kingdom in this world. God promises us that if we will do our part, meaning if we fulfill the vocation, the job, in which we are engaged, God will do God’s part.

Pray and work. Work and pray. In so many ways they are one and the same. Perhaps if we were more aware of that truth, perhaps if we lived more fully each day, perhaps our lives would be more fulfilling. Perhaps if we would, we might be much closer to bringing into its fullness the Kingdom of God on earth. In truth, there is no “perhaps” about it. We would. We would indeed.