One of the most famous sayings, or mottoes, to arise from Benedictine spirituality is the phrase, “ora et labora,” meaning “prayer and work.” It’s a shorthand way of gathering up the insights about the value, both spiritual and physical, in achieving and maintaining a proper balance in one’s life between one’s vocations to serve God and the community.

One part of this discipline is to keep these two vocations in balance by allotting time for each. Then one also can focus on each vocation when its time is at hand. In a way, this is an application of the insight from the tradition of wisdom literature in the Old Testament, where Ecclesiastes notes that each part of life has its proper time.

The Rule of Benedict speaks to the ways that one works out this balance in daily life:

At the time for the Divine Office, as soon as he hears the signal the monk should drop whatever is in hand and rush there with the greatest haste. But he should do so with dignity so as not to provide an occasion for silliness. Therefore nothing should be put ahead of the Work of God (RB 43:1-3, Benedict’s Rule: A Translation and Commentary, Terrence G. Kardong.).

This passage gives me a sense both of comfort and of challenge. On the one hand, it helps me to see the virtue in focus. When it is time to work, give that task my attention. But when it is time to pray, then it’s alright—more than that, really!—to set aside the work and turn to prayer. This is the comfort, both that God intends for my life to be filled with purpose and balance and that he delights in a life lived in this fashion. The challenge comes in a subtle way. The best I can express it is to say ’balance of predisposition.” It is much easier for me set aside prayer for work or for play or for rest or…, than it is for me to set aside other tasks for prayer.

This, I believe, is not peculiar to me. That’s the wisdom in the monastic life of punctuating the expression of daily life with times of prayer. By having a routine for prayer as well as for work, the tendency of volition, of will, to slack off on prayer, is restrained by the ringing of the bell and the gathering for prayer.

This is a routine that works when one lives in a monastery. But what about those of us who are not monks, but who desire to live according to the spirit of the Rule? Finding some way to adapt is the key. I’ve found that when I pray either the Office of Readings or Morning Prayer first thing when I wake up, before I do anything else, including making a cup of coffee, this routine allows me to embrace the aspiration that “nothing should be put ahead of the Work of God.” It’s much more difficult for me to set aside the tasks of my day to turn to prayer, but it is something toward which I strive.

Ut in Omnibus Glorificetur.