Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Tag: work

The Sign of God Working in Souls

With this in mind, then, you understand how it is in the spiri­tual life that the first fruits of the Holy Spirit give joy to those whose hearts he sees to be pure, and yet after bestowing this joy and sweetness on them the Spirit holds aloof and forsakes them. The explanation is this: he… Read More ›

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Government programs/Janet/ and the KISS principle

Janet is always in financial trouble, even though she is receiving money from the government to help her to stay afloat.  Three years ago she was getting $600.00 a month for disability.  She is also on Medicaid, which helps with her medicines and doctor visits.  Janet made the mistake of letting her case worker know… Read More ›

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Labor Day: a spirituality of work

“Work,” the Persian poet Gibran writes, “is love made visible.” A spirituality of work is based on a heightened sense of sacramentality, of the idea that everything that is, is holy and that our hands consecrate it to the service of God. When we grow radishes in a small container in a city apartment, we… Read More ›

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St. Benedict: Human labor is not without dignity

29.. . .  the author and lawgiver of the Benedictine Order has another lesson for us, which is, indeed, freely and widely proclaimed today but far too often not properly reduced to practice as it should be. It is that human labor is not without dignity; is not a distasteful and burdensome thing, but rather… Read More ›

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What Child is This?

As we turn our eyes on Bethlehem and away from the rich and busy world, we recall the following lines: A little Child, A shining star, A stable rude, The door ajar. Yet in that place So crude, forlorn, The hope of all The world was born. If only the people of this world could… Read More ›

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How do we judge success?

Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the… Read More ›

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Prayer of Archbishop Oscar Romero

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying… Read More ›

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Catholic psychologists discuss implications of new study on jobs and divorce

Denver, Colo., Sep 28, 2010 / 05:57 am (CNA).- Earlier this year, a psychological journal published a groundbreaking study on possible links between divorce rates and various careers and occupations. The survey by professors Shawn McCoy and Michael Aamodt was among the first to break down divorce statistics in 449 different fields. Two notable Catholic… Read More ›

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I do not know the work of men

There was an anchorite who was gazing with the antelopes and who prayed to God, saying, “Lord, teach me something more.” And a voice came to him, saying, “Go into this monastery and do whatever they tell you.” He went there and remained in the monastery, but he did not know the work of the… Read More ›

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We have to Work, Sacrifice, and Cooperate

An ethic of barely disguised selfishness is no longer a Christian ethic. Nor can we afford to raise this to the national level and assume that the world will adjust itself if every nation seeks its own advantage before everything else. On the contrary, we are obliged to widen our horizons and to recognize our… Read More ›

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