Theme
Witnesses on work
Hands busy, a workshop, an office, a field: those who prayed without leaving the work.
A few words
As he sows, true love's tears weepeth, In the sweat of his brow reapeth, But brings with him life's sheaf home.
Alone I am, and alone I wish to be.
I intend to order my life to the glory, the honour and the service of God, and to the salvation of my soul.
All in all the Mission is making progress, though in many places the fruit is still only hoped for, and in others barely visible. But what does that matter to us, provided we are good sowers: God will make it grow in his own time.
I am not leaving as a worker, but as a missionary.
And first of all I began, with God's help, to acquire the books of the Fathers (those that teach obedience and sobriety, attention and prayer) with no small labour and expense, now copying them with my own hand, now buying them with the coins we earned by the work of our hands for our needs, choosing many a time to endure scarcity in food and clothing. And we accounted them a heavenly treasure, freely given us by God.
All 95 witnesses on work
- Adam de Saint-Victor Prayer sung, which puts faith in the mouth before it puts it in the head.
- Adolph Kolping Putting one's heart up as a pledge in order to win someone over.
- Albert le Grand Seeking God with the mind: the patient study of the world as a path to its Creator.
- Alberto Hurtado Asking what Christ would do, here, now, and doing it.
- Alcuin d'York Praying where one has been placed, while missing the silence one has left.
- Alfred le Grand Giving people back the words they need; wisdom sought by a man of action.
- Angélique Arnauld Wanting to be where you are, because God wants it.
- Anna Bartlett Warner The certainty of being loved, said in a child's words.
- Anna Julia Cooper Dignity held like a prayer, for a long time, with no one to acknowledge it.
- Antoni Gaudí Working for what one will not see finished; attention given to the forms God has already made.
- Armida Barelli The apostolic boldness of lay people, trusting God where everything seems impossible.
- Bède le Vénérable Long, obscure work carried through to the last day, and study that turns into prayer.
- Benoît le More Authority exercised without ever leaving the servant's place; a simplicity that disarms.
- Caroline Chisholm Hospitality organised; a charity that gives itself the practical means to keep its word.
- Chiara Gambacorta Prayer that is not ashamed to count what is missing.
- Christine de Pizan Holding up a whole household with the only work one knows how to do.
- Dorothy Day Holding together daily prayer and the open table.
- Dorothy Pattison Prayer held inside a working day that leaves no time for it.
- Enrique Shaw Answering for those who depend on us; other people's work carried as a charge before God.
- Étienne de Hongrie Responsibility lived out before God: governing, deciding, working while remaining a person of prayer.
- Eurosia Fabris The hidden holiness of a home, woven of work and patience.
- Fannie Lou Hamer Prayer that rises and sets out walking: believing that God acts through those who refuse to resign themselves.
- Flannery O'Connor Praying with what one is (ambition, dryness, doubt) and letting faith deepen there.
- Florence Nightingale Prayer that becomes work: to serve the sick as one would serve God, without display.
- Frédéric Ozanam Turning faith into concrete service, charity invented between equals.
- Frère Laurent de la Résurrection “Come to me, all you who are weary.” The rest he promises is not the end of work, but a presence within it. Brother Lawrence found it among the pots of his monastery kitchen: doing the smallest task for the love of God, and never doing it alone. The tiredness remains; the weight is shared.
- Gabriela Mistral Tenderness for those who are not one's own, and each day's work carried in prayer.
- Gabriele Allegra The long hidden labor in service of the Word, offered day after day without seeing its end.
- George Herbert Prayer woven into the humblest gestures of the everyday.
- George Washington Carver Science as prayer: seeking in creation the secrets patiently entrusted by God, and returning them to serve the poorest.
- Gérard Groote Ordering one's life not by a solemn vow, but by a resolution taken up again each day.
- Grégoire le Grand Holding together overflowing action and the desire for contemplation, sacrificing neither to the other.
- Guillaume de Saint-Thierry Love treated as an art, learned only from the one who gave it.
- Habib Guirguis Patient stubbornness in the service of beginners; handing on the faith as a whole life's work.
- Hanna Chrzanowska Serving Christ in the body of the sick, making care a prayer.
- Hannah More Prayer understood as desire rather than speech, and a piety proved in the use of one's days.
- Herrade de Landsberg Patiently gathering what you have received, in order to hand it on.
- Hilda de Whitby Governing by wisdom and peace, drawing out the gifts of each.
- Hunayn ibn Ishaq Doing one's work with exactness, and refusing to make a weapon of it.
- Ida Scudder Hearing God's call in the concrete distress that knocks at the door.
- Ignacia del Espíritu Santo Foundation against the current, patience under suspicion, dignity claimed for local women when the Church itself doubted them.
- Ini Kopuria Work shared rather than carried alone, and land given before words.
- Irmã Dulce Concrete love that begins with almost nothing, and the certainty that loving can change the world.
- Isidore de Péluse The prayer of someone who treats other people's ordinary business as serious business.
- Isidore le Laboureur Manual work held as continuous prayer; poverty that still gives.
- Jacques Berthieu The prayer of someone who sows without seeing anything come up.
- Jakob Böhme Inner stillness as the first place of listening, kept in the middle of a trade and a household.
- Jan Tyranowski The inner life of a man with no title; handing on faith through friendship rather than from a pulpit.
- Jean Bosco Joyful patience with beginners; authority exercised only through affection.
- Jean de Cronstadt Daily, stubborn prayer at the heart of the city and its misery, not far from the world, but within it.
- Jean de Rila The short prayer repeated in working hands, until it holds up on its own.
- Jean-Sébastien Bach Daily work offered as praise: turning one's craft, done well, into glory given to God.
- Jérôme de Stridon Prayer fed by Scripture: to seek Christ in the Word and to keep oneself busy there.
- John Woolman A conscience that moves one step at a time, without seeing the road, and the silence in which strength is renewed.
- Kaʻahumanu The prayer of someone carrying too heavy a load, who says so.
- Krupabai Satthianadhan Pioneering paths in education and medicine cut short by illness, honesty about the loneliness of belonging fully to no world, a short life converted into words that gave others a language for the same in-between.
- Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort The prayer of someone who has put nothing aside for tomorrow.
- Louise de Marillac Concrete service of the poor as a place of encounter with God, and gentleness toward oneself in times of anxiety.
- Madeleine Daniélou Uniting the love of God and the work of the mind, awakening souls.
- Madeleine-Sophie Barat The education of the heart, patient and humble, in the service of one as of all.
- Marcel Callo The faith of an ordinary young man held to the end; the friendship of Christ tested in exhaustion.
- Marguerite Bourgeoys To serve without withdrawing from the world, in the manner of the Virgin who goes out toward others: a prayer with hands and roads.
- Maria Restituta Kafka The quiet refusal to give way on what is essential, even to the gift of one's life.
- Marie-Dominique Mazzarello The work of one's hands turned into prayer, simple gladness as a path to God.
- Martin de Porres Loving without making distinctions, putting compassion before all.
- Matt Talbot Starting again one day at a time; a deliverance not told but held.
- Michi Kawai The work you begin small, with no guarantee, because no one else will begin it.
- Moïse Maïmonide Attention, without which the right words are still only words.
- Nicolas Cabasilas The interior life made possible without leaving one's trade or changing one's state.
- Niijima Jō (Joseph Neesima) The prayer of a man praying in a half-learned language, and the desire to teach his own people held through years of exile.
- Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini Faithfulness to the hour of prayer, kept without display, year after year.
- Onésime Nesib Giving his people the Word in their own tongue, turning slavery into gift.
- Origène d'Alexandrie Not separating what one does from what one asks for.
- Pacôme le Grand Common life as a way to God: serving one's brothers rather than saving oneself alone.
- Païssios du Mont-Athos Prayer woven into the work of the hands, and the compassion that prays by carrying another's pain.
- Païssy Velitchkovsky Handing on what you did not invent, cleaning it patiently as you go.
- Pierre Toussaint The quiet, stubborn charity of daily life, working in order to be able to give.
- Proba Making what you already know into the matter of praise.
- Rani Maria Vattalil Recognizing Christ in the poor, even to giving one's life, and the forgiveness that makes kin again.
- Rosalie Rendu Prayer that carries on into the service of the poorest, contemplation held in the middle of the street.
- Ruth Pfau A life decided by an unplanned stop, and held to the end.
- Samson Occom To serve without being repaid, and to say so without falling silent.
- Sára Salkaházi Offering in advance what you do not yet know you will have to give.
- Simone Weil Pure attention as the very form of prayer, and solidarity with the affliction of others.
- Suzanne Aubert Stubborn hope that lets God settle things in his own time.
- Théodore Stoudite Prayer held inside a timetable, like work that is not put off.
- Toribio de Mogrovejo Service that goes out to people itself, sparing none of its steps.
- Úrsula de Jesús What the one who serves can see, and was never once asked about.
- Vincent de Paul Loving God by the sweat of one's arms, seeing in the poor one's master.
- Vivian Redlich Holding one's post when nobody would know, and leaving the outcome to another.
- William Law The devotion that reaches all of ordinary life, down to work and the use of money.
- William Tyndale Receiving the words of prayer in one's own language, and discovering that God needs no interpreter.
- Xu Guangqi No truth is foreign to God: searching, calculating, translating can become a way of serving him.
- Zélie Martin Holiness in an overloaded daily life: work, children, bereavements, and a trust that holds everything together.
- Zita de Lucques Holiness in work nobody watches; service kept without bitterness.