Dare Great Things For Christ

We often emphasize the difficulty of work.  Toil, labor, sweat, pain – difficulties in many forms.  But we don’t always take the time to emphasize the positive aspects, including work seen in the light of the Resurrection.

Work sometimes seems more like a rat race than anything else.  Putting in time everyday, dedicating our labor to things, we wonder what the real point is?  Many people even look for purpose outside of their work, saying that their work really is purposeless.  I wonder what Christ thinks about that?  In today’s talk I want to focus us in on the real meaning of progress – the real point of our work.

We all have to work but not all of know why in the world we should!  A lot of young people today prefer to stay in the basements of their parent’s homes rather than get a job.  A lot of parents prefer to wait until their child is out of college before getting their first job.  What does the church have to say about this?  What about God’s wisdom?  Let’s take a look and go deeper!

After six days of creation, God rested.  What does this mean?  How do I balance work and rest?  In today’s continuation on our series on the spirituality of work, we look at the importance of rest in the life of the worker. 

Rediscovering a Catholic imagination means rediscovering the possibility of seeing things in a new way. How do we view the day to day work that we do?  Do we look at it from below according to our perspective or from above according to God’s? In this series on the spirituality of work I want us to learn to look at things through God’s eyes. 

Most of us spend most of our time working.  And yet most of us have a hard time linking what we do when we work to the most important of tasks – namely, our relationship with God.  In this series I want to explore the deep foundations of the work that we do and its link to our spirituality.

Anyone who has ever tried something great knows the threat that comes from anxiety.  Fearing something that could be - it’s always around the corner and it’s always there to take our energy away.  But what if we were to take that anxiety and use it to further our hope?  This is what Christian faith teaches us to do.

The fact is living a Christian life in the world is exhausting.  Bringing our best to what God wants us to be in this world today is demanding.  How can we respond?  Where will we find the energy? 

What does a monk have to say to the Catholic worker?  What message could a religious have that would be of value to those who work in the world?  Today I would like to talk to you about the value of the integrated life and how on this question monks lead the charge.

It is no secret that many people today struggle to see the value of religion.  They fail to see the concrete ways that religion shapes our world. I’d like to explore the point that St. John Paul II makes in his letter on the dignity of work -  that the difference religion makes is in shaping the person who shapes the world.