The Jesuit Guide To (Almost) Everything - James Martin [161]
Time is a problem for those in the working world—or for any busy person. Here the examination of conscience can be extremely helpful. For those overwhelmed by time demands, the examen, requiring only ten to fifteen minutes a day, can be a spiritual lifesaver. One friend, a busy investment adviser with three children, does the examen at his desk in the morning, thinking back over the events of the previous day. If he’s too busy in the morning, he does lectio divina at lunch, closing his door for a few minutes to immerse himself in the readings for the day.
Balancing work and prayer, the active and contemplative, was essential to the early Jesuits. And still is. One of our recent General Congregations wrote that Jesuits need to be “undividedly apostolic and religious.” The connection between work and worship “needs to animate our whole way of living, praying and working.” Work without prayer becomes detached from God. Prayer without work becomes detached from human beings.
Overwork is a danger for Jesuits for the same reasons that it is for everyone. First, we grow distant from God, the foundation of our lives; second, we grow frustrated when things do not go as planned, since we can overlook our reliance on God; third, we spend less time with friends or families and begin feeling isolated; and fourth, we begin to believe that we are what we do, and so at the end of our lives when we have little “to do,” we feel worthless.
For those who find it absolutely impossible to carve out time— like parents of young children or those juggling two or three jobs—the goal of being a “contemplative in action” is especially relevant. Can you maintain an awareness of the presence of God around you?
Ignatius not only made time for prayer; he maintained a contemplative attitude throughout the day. One of his earliest companions, Jerónimo Nadal, wrote this about his friend: “In all things, actions and conversations he contemplated the presence of God and experienced the reality of spiritual things so that he was likewise in action contemplative (a thing which he used to express by saying: God must be found in everything).” Ignatius’s way is an invitation for those who feel that they are disappointing God if they cannot find time to pray during extremely stressful times in their lives.
As David Lonsdale notes, “Time set aside for contemplation is one way of being contemplative; but a full involvement in a busy life can also be another way, and people who are ‘contemplative in action’ learn to find God in both these different ways according to what they decide is needful and possible.”
Finding God Around You
In the first chapter I mentioned one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received. “You can’t put part of your life in a box,” said David Donovan, my spiritual director. In Ignatian spirituality nothing is hidden away; everything can be opened up as a way of finding God. “God must be found in everything,” as Nadal noted, summarizing Ignatius.
When you’re in a job you enjoy, that’s easy. The work itself becomes a way to find God: the emotional, mental, and sometimes physical satisfaction that comes with the labor is a way of experiencing God’s joy and God’s desire to create alongside you. One of the main characters in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire, about competitors in the 1924 Olympics, is a Scots minister who is also a runner. When asked why he runs, he says, “When I run, I feel [God’s] pleasure.” That’s as good a description as any about living out a vocation. The work itself is pleasurable.
Clearly some people are able to find God in their work. But what if you’re stuck in a career that feels stale, a job that doesn’t seem like a vocation, or