The Contemporary Monastic, Week 3: Work (Manual Labor and More): Participating in Creation

For this week’s online-only worship, Pastor Michelle continued her lenten series “The Contemporary Monastic” with Work

Read Genesis 1: 1-31 (the first creation story) and consider the questions below as you hear the message.

Questions for Reflection:

1. What was the best job/task you ever had and what made it so? What makes work meaningful? Describe your philosophy or work and/or your work ethic.
2. Contemplate work as a co-creative act with both humanity and God? When and where do you feel most creative? How can you harness that power for the good of others?
3. What does the first creation story (Genesis 1) teach us about God and work? Reflect on Genesis 2: 15. Why did Jesus curse the fig tree in the Gospels? Reflect on Paul’s work ethic and his teaching about it in view of Acts 20: 34-35 and II Thessalonians 3: 6-12.
4. Consider an exaggerated Puritan work expressed in such things as recognition, success, elitism, efficiency and power. What is workaholism about? Talk about work as dissociative and unjust workplaces. Conversely, reflect on laziness, idleness and irresponsibility “as forms or injustice and thievery.”
5. Think about work as redemptive for the individual and for the world and how work can have its own aesthetic or value? Ponder work as the sacrament of the present moment, an invitation to conscious living and to “ora et labora.”

For Reflection:

“In Benedictine spirituality, work is purposeful, perfecting and valuable. It is not a time-filler, money-maker or necessary evil. We work because the world is unfinished and is ours to develop.” ~Chittister
“Work develops the worker. The fact of the matter is that work is the one exercise in gift-giving that always comes back to the giver. The more I work at anything, the better I get at it. And the better I get at something, the better I feel about myself. It is the fear of being good for nothing that destroys people…” ~Chittister
~Idleness is the enemy of the soul, therefore the brothers should have specified periods for manual labor as well as prayerful reading. The Rule of Saint Benedict
~Whoever fails to keep the things belonging the monastery clean or keeps them carelessly should be reproved. The Rule of Saint Benedict

Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today, by Joan Chittister

Heart Whispers: Benedictine Wisdom for Today, by Elizabeth J. Canham

The Rule of Saint Benedict