Newspaper Page Text
Supplement To The Southern Cross, September 6,1984
Faith Toda
A supplement to Catholic newspapers,
published with grant assistance from Cath
olic Church Extension Society, by the Na
tional Catholic News Setvice, 1312 Massa
chusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C.
20005. All contents copyright ® 1964 by
NC News Seivice.
Finding God in the whirl of the world
By Dolores Leckey
NC News Service
You, the reader of this article,
very likely are an expert in the
fine art of balancing work life,
home life and leisure time.
Or perhaps you have refined
your skills as a juggler — keeping
tasks as a spouse, parent, parish
minister, school aide and neighbor
hood representative going at once.
You probably are a busy person
And the truth is, if you
sometimes experience your life as
a complex maze you’re not alone.
You’re not alone either if, as a
Christian, this complex maze
sometimes poses a perplexing
dilemma.
Inevitably, a point arises when
conscientious Christians begin to
examine the use of precious
resources like time and energy.
Can God really be found in the
whirl of all these daily activities?
Instead, should we be on our
knees somewhere in solitary
prayer?
This dilemma is not new. Ap
parently in the late Middle Ages,
serious and devout lay people
thought that the love of God
would naturally lead to the life of
a monastery The Dominican,
Father Johann Tauler, one of the
German mystics known as “The
Friends of God," preached many
stirring sermons
about this
farmer, someone who enjoyed a
deep and steady relationship with
Christ. But the farmer began to
think that he should abandon his
lay life and go to a monastery.
Then Christ spoke to him and
assured him that his love and ser
vice in the world were God’s will
for him.
Another time Father Tauler said
that if he were not a priest but in
stead a shoemaker he would try to
make shoes as best he could and
he would count it a great privilege
to earn his bread by the work of
his hands.
Father Tauler, like others before
and after him, pointed to the
sacredness of all our work. The
late Jesuit Father Pierre Teilhard de
Chardin put it this way in his
book “The Divine Milieu”: “God
is at the tip of my pen or at the
tip of my brush.” This is what
needs to be recognized.
Basically this recognition in
volves the kind of awareness we
associate with contemplation. For
the contemplative person is aware
that God is found in all the or
dinary events of daily life. In being
attentive to home or friends or
work, one praises God.
Centuries ago Brother Lawrence,
a monastery cook, wrote about this
ordinary contemplation in a small
gem of a book, “The Practice of
the Presence of God.” The pots
and pans of kitchen work served as
reminders of God for him.
But, to say the least, most peo
ple don’t come to this steady kind
of awareness all at once. Like so
many other things in life, it is a
matter of practice. In learning over
time to give ourselves and our at
tention to whatever task is at
hand, we learn to give ourselves
and our attention to God.
For Simone Weil, a 20th-century
Time in the world. Time with God. Are these alien
concepts? Dolores Leckey thinks not. She writes that
we praise God by paying attention to our tasks in
the world. And that we find God in the ordinary,
sometimes hectic, days of our lives.
French philosopher, prayer was
defined by the word “attention.”
As we develop the capacity for
singleminded attention, we stretch
our capacity for God.
Contemporary Christians are
caught up in the demands placed
on them to give attention to their
work, their homes or civic com
mitments. However, there is
something else to consider: the
need for some form of outward
service in society. For it is quite
possible to become insulated from
the poor and the needy people of
our communities. This can mean
overlooking the genuine oppor
tunity for meeting Christ in others
who are poor or whose human
needs deserve attention.
This doesn’t mean that people
have no need to set time aside
solely for God. The rhythm pro
duced by movement from activity
to rest and back into activity again
are inherent in the world God has
created. We women and men,
residents of the earth, are meant to
live in this kind of balanced way.
There is a need to pull back
regularly from places of busy ac
tivity — whether in classrooms or
courtrooms or social-action pro
jects — in order to pray. This way
of spending some quiet time with
God energizes people.
Then they can move out again
into the world of work and human
relationships. They are more
alert to the possibility of
discovering God in the
world. And they are more
attentive to the voice
of God that may
speak to them
through the
world.
(Mrs. Leckey is
director of the
U.S. bishops’
Committee
on the
Laity.)