Ora et labora: prayer and work

By Tyler Tankersley

At least once a year, I spend time at a Benedictine monastery. It's not the destination of choice for many Baptist pastors, but I find the rhythmic prayer and serene settings to be spiritual oxygen to my sometimes stifled soul. But one of the most life-giving aspects of the experience is always spending time with the monastic brothers who have devoted themselves to living completely sold-out for their faith.

The motto for the Benedictine order is ora et labora, which means "prayer and work" in Latin. I once was sharing lunch with a monk and I asked him about the meaning of ora et labora for his life. He thought for a moment and said, "It means that there are many ways to worship God. We can worship through our songs, rituals, and prayers. But we can also worship God through our everyday work. We worship God with a well-toiled garden bed, a carefully crafted ceramic bowl, an intentionally planned lesson plan, or even a lovingly made meal. We worship God with our prayers, but we also worship God with our work." Ora et labora.

As I continued to spend time at the monastery, I noticed how that monk's words were embodied by the brothers of the order. Each of them had an assigned vocation, from the abbot to the gardener. No matter what the work in front of them, the monks were taught to see their toil as an opportunity to utilize their excellence in service to God.

I asked the monk if they always felt that way about their work. He laughed and shook his head, "My Lord, no. Some days I think, 'Why am I doing this?' But when I see that phrase ora et labora, I am reminded that my work is an act of worship. That helps me to take a deep breath and do a good job."

Do you worship God with your work? Do you offer your labor as a loving, living sacrifice to the gracious God who gave you the skills and opportunity to perform your work? Being intentional about our vocation can serve as just as much an act of worship as any element you would find in an average church service.

That does not mean, however, that every work is holy. If we toil at work that leads to degradation of God's good earth, the dehumanization of other people, or feeds our negative tendencies, that work ceases to be worship. But if we can see what we do for our vocation as serving to bring about God's redemption and grace into our world, then we can glorify God with our work.

While this is not the original intent of Labor Day, these are the kinds of questions I am going to wrestle with this weekend: How do I worship God with my work? How would it change the way I work if I saw my labor not as a path to feed my own ego, but as an opportunity to bring glory to God?

Ora et labora.