英文灵修文章-Prayerfulness at Work

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Prayerfulness at Work -Part1 by Gerald May

And let the delight of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish the works of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands, establish it!  -Psalm 90:17

愿主我们神的荣美，归与我们身上。愿你坚立我们手所作的工。我们手所作的工，愿你坚立。(诗篇 90 : 17)

Recently several people have asked me for suggestions about cultivating prayerfulness in the workplace. Here is a collection of suggestions from my previous writings and current inspirations:

I think people have two main reasons for wanting to enhance their prayer in the workplace. First, they desire their work, and everything else in life, to be inspired and guided by God. They do not want to take things into their own hands and forget the Living
Presence of the Holy. Trusting that there is no place from which God is absent, they long to join God's dance in the workplace as well as in all the other places of their lives.

Second, sooner or later, people often become aware of a desire to nurture a contemplative attitude in work and in life. True contemplative presence always comes
as a gift; there are no techniques or methods we can use to make it happen. But cultivating a contemplative attitude can enhance our appreciation of the gift-and perhaps even our receptivity for it.

A contemplative attitude is an open, receptive kind of prayerfulness that is willing to be present and responsive to things just as they are in the immediate moment-seeing and accepting the situation fully without blinders or prejudice. It includes a willingness-even a longing-to be in mystery, trusting and praying for God to guide one's action even if there is no understanding or sense of direction. And it involves a deep radical trust that allows people to refrain from acting on their own initiative. It is like joining God's dance without having to know what the next step is.

Your desire may be something like what I have described, or you may experience it quite differently. Regardless, I think the most important thing you can do is to identify your desire, claim it, and make it your prayer. In other words, if you want to be more prayerful in your work, pray for it.

(To be continued...)

[此贴子已经被作者于2007-6-20 3:29:49编辑过]

127a6

看的眼晕

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Prayerfulness at Work(2)

There is a rhythm to every workweek, regardless of what the jobs may be and where the workplace is: home office, farm, construction site, on the road. In all places there are times of activity and times of repose, pressured moments and spacious moments. One of the major risks we human beings encounter is to miss the times of spaciousness and rest. We are likely to see them as useless, and to fill them up with other activities. Here the ancient rhythm of Sabbath can help release us from such compulsions. Find your Sabbaths and claim them. Sabbath is normally seen as a day of rest, recapitulating the creation story in which God rested on the seventh day. Practice that Sabbath day as much as you can. Sabbath, however, can be found not only in days, but also in certain hours of a day, and in certain precious minutes within the hours. Pray to be aware of such moments and times when they are given, and savor them.

During your personal prayer/meditation times at home, or at other prayer times during the day, try experimenting with letting your eyes be open. If you're used to closing your eyes for prayer and meditation, go gently. At first, just let your eyes be partially open, not focused on anything. See if this seems to interfere with your inner sense of presence and openness. If it does, keep gently experimenting with eyes closed, eyes open. See if you can recover your prayerfulness with your eyes open. Remember times in the past when you've felt very prayerful with eyes open: in nature perhaps, or in worship, looking at a loved one, gazing at the sky, etc.

Keep experimenting with this until it becomes more comfortable. Then let your eyes come naturally open, looking around and at different things in your environ-ment. If you lose your sense of presence, close your eyes again and Keep experimenting with the transition until it feels more natural to have your eyes open. The idea is to let yourself be free to be prayerful regardless of whether your eyes are closed or open. Prayerfulness with eyes open becomes important, of course, if you want to be prayerful as you're working on different tasks. And if this is indeed what you want, don't forget to pray for it!

At the end of your more formal times of prayer and meditation, be very careful to make gentle, soft transitions into the next activities: no abrupt changes, no jerking yourself around. Instead, think of how painters "feather out" their brush strokes so they blend with one another. You can feather out your prayerful awareness in the same way. Let it flow into the next moment, and the next. Give this the time it needs. Move slowly. Stretch. Breathe. Begin the next thing slowly.

At the places where you do your work-e.g. desk,counter, meeting room, factory station, laundry, kitchen, garden-set some kind of reminder to help you recall your desire. This might be a candle, incense, a fountain, music, an icon or other holy image, a post-it note with a favorite quote or word, or any of a host of other possibilities. You might even consider making a tiny temporary tattoo with a pen on the back of your hand so you see it as you work with your hands. But keep it simple. One or two such reminders are usually sufficient at any given time; too many and they will lose their significance. Change your reminders as soon as you become accustomed to them or whenever they lose their freshness. You can also consider setting a watch or clock to periodically signal you to pause and breathe and touch back into your prayerfulness.


(To be continued...)

[此贴子已经被作者于2007-6-15 5:44:14编辑过]

小天牛

looks good

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Prayerfulness at Work(3)

As you begin the work, or a new task, you can take another breath, say a little prayer, look around and open up to your immediate surroundings: sights, sounds, temperature, light, color, everything. In some settings it might seem right to sing a little chant or otherwise bless the area you'll be working in, with a brief prayer for yourself, your co-workers, the work and the workplace as a whole.

While you're working, try to remember to ease transitions from one task to another. Think "flow," and "smooth," and "gentle." If you notice that you're jerking yourself from one thing to another, it's time to pause and breathe and maybe pray for mercy. Let any change in the routine become another eminder; take a breath when someone comes in, when the phone or doorbell rings, when you hear someone talking or laughing, and when any sound, like traffic or air conditioning, starts or stops.

If you get a few minutes free, don't just rush into the next thing. Instead, take a little walk, say a little prayer, stretch your body, breathe deeply, then go back and gradually ease yourself into the next task.

Consider the possibilities of prayerful partnership. If there are one or more people around who share your desire, team up with them. You could consider meeting briefly at the beginning and the end of the day to touch in together and share your desires and reflections. Pray for each other. When you see each other during the day, ask how it's going.

Alone or with your partner(s), take a few minutes at the end of the day to reflect on how the day went: times when prayerfulness seemed especially graced, deep, or easy, and times when you felt you got kidnapped by something. A prayer will emerge quite naturally from this reflection.

And remember that we all have our thresholds. There are kinds and amounts of work, degrees of stress and conflict beyond which we simply cannot remain centered and open-at least not on our own. Because of this, we need to be especially gentle and compassionate with ourselves. Do not consider prayerfulness as something you succeed or fail at achieving. It is a gift, and all we can really do is claim our desire for it, pray for it, and seek to be as open as we can to the gift as it may be given. And when we do get caught up, realizing how far away we are from the way we desire to be, it's time for a prayer like Thomas Kelly's: "God, see, this is just how I am except it be for your grace."

                                     ~~~~~~~~~End~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(好长的文章，终于贴完了）

[此贴子已经被作者于2007-6-20 3:31:32编辑过]