For this summer, Aleteia proposes five letters that will send you on a journey through the different stages of life. Today, we’ll dive into the second letter of the series, written to a young person who has just been hired at a first job. (The first letter can be viewed here.)
Dear friend,
After all those years of study and and sacrifice, you’ve just been hired. And it’s your dream job — congratulations! It is the beginning of many professional discoveries. You are on the cusp of a true life adventure! Do not forget to invite the Lord to be a part of all your activities, because all your hard work will be in vain if God is not by your side. To begin your career, I want you to discover Father Luc de Bellescize’s lovely prayer to the Holy Trinity so that you can ask for the grace of love for a job well done, in transforming creation according its proper order:
I praise you, O Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth, for having confided the work of creation to my hands. I bless You for my participation in the real mission of governing the world. You are the only King, the Master, and the Lord. You have put me in a garden so that I raise there the holy city, Jerusalem, the vision of peace. Not like Babylon, so dispersed and divided, but rather a city where “all congregate.” I want to transform the world according to my vocation, which is that of singing the glory of Your Name.
In transforming the world, I want to transform myself, eagerly offer myself to You, offering You the work of my hands. Grant me the grace to not be “lazy, doing nothing,” and keep me from idolizing my own work. Let me not fall into the idolatry of the golden calf, created by the industries of man, but rather through my labor be transformed so that with creation I may sing You a song of glory, because my work as the son of God awaits that glory and moans with the pains of birthing, in the desire of the Kingdom to come.
I praise you, O incarnate Word, Jesus, son of the Virgin and the carpenter from Nazareth, because You have sanctified my work by the work of your hands, in the silence of Your childhood, the years of Your youth, awaiting the day of Your manifestation in Israel. Drive away from me the spirit of apathy, teach me to be generous, to work valiantly, to be fully dedicated without expecting any other reward except knowing that I am fulfilling Your holy will.
Allow me to construct from down here the city of God, and at the end of my days receive me in heavenly Jerusalem, where You will dry all the tears in my eyes. You, by whom all was made, You who rested the seventh day in the silence of the finished Creation, in the peace of the tomb where Your body rested, teach me also to observe the day of Your resurrection, a prelude to the eternal rest that gives meaning to my daily work, with nothing more than keeping me in Your Presence to receive Your most holy Body.
I praise You, O Paraclete, Holy Spirit of God, You who from the beginning glide over the waters. Creator Spirit and organizer of the world, teach me to love a job well done, that transforms Creation according to its proper order. You, sweet and strong anointment, You that can make the cedars of Lebanon fall, you who whispers like a breath, grant me the true authority, that only hurts in order to bring calm, that only breaks in order to repair. Grant it to me so that I may exercise with the wisdom of Solomon and not with the violence of Saul.
Keep me from scorning any of the small tasks You trust me with and grant that, on cultivating the land, I never squelch the dignity of man and his intimate opening up to the adoration of the Most High, from whom comes all true paternity and before whom I must render accounts, like a good administrator of the gifts of God.
Amen.
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