On Spiritual Disciplines at Work
by Erna Dennis, LPCC
Excerpted from Gregory F. Augustine Pierce address January 13, 1999 at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee. Pierce is co-publisher of ACTA Publications.
Living in a fast-paced society such as ours, sophisticated technology such as computers and gadgets are supposed to make life easier, giving us more family and leisure time. Instead, we are more overworked than ever. The presentation by George Pierce is a timely reminder to regroup.
Pierce defines spirituality as a serious, long-term, disciplined attempt to align oneself and one's environment with transcendental reality, the ultimate meaning of existence, the holy, the divine, in a word, with God, and he defines work as all the effort we exert (paid or unpaid) to make the world a little better place or more like the reign of God.
Pierce lists a few disciplines of the spirituality of work:
- The Discipline of Sacred Objects - surrounding oneself with anything from traditional religious art to photos of family and friends to items of personal deep spiritual meaning.
- The Discipline of Living with Imperfection - recognizing that human beings make mistakes. Also, it gives us perspective in our work, a realization that work is not the only important thing in our life, that we have other responsibilities to balance with our work.
- The Discipline of Giving Thanks and Congratulations - remembering to thank people - both others and self - regularly and often for their work.
- The Discipline of Deciding What is Enough . . . and Sticking to it. In our society, this is probably the most important discipline of all. How much of the pressure, the busyness, the competition, the unhappiness, the inability to see God in our work comes from our failure to practice this discipline?
It seems that in the workplace enough is never enough, whether it is on the assembly line, in business, in the professional arena or in churches. We are driven people. We must build into our own workday ways of reminding ourselves of what is enough, and then sticking to that.
There is a great line from a Goodman Theater production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens where the Ghost of Christmas says to Scrooge: Enough: What a glorious word!
Reprinted with permission from the Summer, 1999 edition of PPImprints, the Journal of The Professional Pastoral-Counseling Institute, Inc. To be notified when PPImprints is published, please register.
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