Pope Leo’s ambitious encyclical on “Magnificent Humanity” discusses work and its importance. I, of course, took up the same topic in my book, The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time, where I applied the four paths of creation spirituality to our work worlds and employed deep ecumenism as a method, drawing on what spiritual traditions, world over, say about work.
That book became the foundation of our unique D.Min program in Spirituality and Work at the University of Creation Spirituality. So many professionals, including therapists, social workers, business people, artists, doctors, and activists, attended graduate schools that never connected their professions to spirituality.
For this reason, we drew many people from varied professions who sought to ground their work in spirituality. The results were substantive, judging from the excellent work many have done and continue to do since their graduation.
One lesson I learned from writing the book was that a consensus exists among world religions about the spiritual importance of work in our lives and communities. And how much a role joy plays as well as justice and service in our work. For example:
Thomas Aquinas: “To live well is to work well, or display a good activity….God works at the heart of all activity.”
Hildegard of Bingen: A person becomes a flowering orchard. The person who does good work is indeed this orchard bearing good fruit….Whatever humanity does with its deeds in the right or left hand permeates the universe.
Bhagavad Gita: What is work? What is beyond work? Even some seers see this not aright. I will teach thee the truth of pure work, and this truth shall make thee free…all actions take place in time by the interweaving of the forces of Nature; but the person lost in selfish delusion thinks that he himself is the actor.
The Tao Te Ching: “In work, do what you enjoy.”
Thomas Aquinas: “Always rejoice in the good work that you do.”
Bhagavad Gita: “They all attain perfection when they find joy in their work.”
Meister Eckhart: “Our work draws all its being from nowhere else but from and in the heart of God.”
Rilke: For somewhere there is an ancient enmity
between our daily life and the great work.
Help me in saying it to understand it.
What joy does our work bring to others? I pointed out that archetypally, a priest is a “midwife of grace,” and if so, then all who participate in good work are priests. There is a priesthood of all workers, therefore.
Years ago, I received a letter from a businessman who was ecstatic about my book and said it should be required reading in all business colleges around the country. We taught some workshops together; however, he unfortunately died suddenly.
I participated in Zoom last week in GG’s Sardinia retreat, and two people spoke of how it was affecting their understanding of their professions. One, a recently retired/re-fired doctor, sought to reinvent her profession, and an educator is trying to do the same in his field.
I heard recently from a UCS student who was inspired by our program to found Engineers Without Borders. It now has over 18,000 members doing great work in such countries as Afghanistan, several African nations, Haiti, and Brazil. Bernard Amadei shared with me the outline of his new book on Engineering with Soul: Inner and Outer Dimensions of Earth-Centered Engineering. I will share some of his vision for reinventing his profession in tomorrow’s DM.
We all need to be busy bringing spirituality to our work, for that is how one remakes a dying culture.
To be continued.
Banner Image: “Texas Farm,” by Julius Woeltz, 1940, oil on canvas. Located in the United States Post Office, Elgin, Texas, United States. Photo by Larry D. Moore, on Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How do you invigorate your work? How do you bring spirituality to your work and derive meaning and energy from your work?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Citations are from The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time, pp. 1, 58, 43, 91, 66, 61, 309
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision For a New Generation
Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson and Jen Listug: Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen
.JPG){kind=link}
4 thoughts on “On Work and Spirituality”
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” Rabindranath Tagore
These infographics are an interesting visualization of the Magnificent Humanity – https://contemplativeinterbeing.org/up_content/InfoG/
I belong to a group that provides quilts and other items to The Native Connection.this is a Navajo group caring for homeless in downtown Phoenix.
Quilting brings me joy! I love to create something beautiful from scraps of fabric, to be given away. I feel it brings joy to others.
I have mentioned before that I was intuitively drawn to my previous career as a psychotherapist by the spiritual foundation of the archetypes, especially the Wholeness of the Self, in the depth psychology of Carl Jung. The need of service towards others and deepening my own self understanding on my spiritual journey was also met by this career as well as marriage and family/communal life. Now in my retirement my spiritual journey continues deepening with meeting those same spiritual needs by my Faith, contemplative prayer, offering spiritual guidance, the love of my family, being a member of a few Contemplative~
Creation~Incarnational (lorian.org) Spiritual support groups on the internet, and continue studying our inner mystical spiritual traditions, especially experientially with the subtle spiritual realms/beings of Sacred Mother Nature of Our evolving Humanity and Living Sacred Cosmos in the Sacred Process of the Eternal Present Moment….