St. Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing.” Now what this sounds like Paul is saying is to pray all the time. But how can we pray all the time? I got to eat, sleep, go to school, go to work, have a life, see my friends, see my family, and at some point find a little time to call my own! I have all that and Paul wants me to drop it all and just spend my life praying!?! It can seem confusing, but the Oblates of St. Francis DeSales gave an explanation of how to live this call out without having to spend your whole life in a chapel. Not that that is a bad thing…
Francis DeSales is quoted as saying something to the extent of: You can glorify God by doing the best you can in your current state of life. This is almost as simple as it sounds, whatever my current calling in life is I can glorify God best by living that call out the best I can. So if I’m a student, then by doing the best I can at school work, and studies I am there by glorifying God. If I’m a husband, then by doing everything I can to serve and love my wife I am glorifying God. The list can go on, but basically whatever title I am wearing in a particular moment, if I do my best at it, I am glorifying God. Then since we all wear a lot of different hats every day, there are a lot of different things we do which glorify God.
The first thing to notice about this call is that it says to do the best you can at your current call in life. Not to be the best. What this means is that if I’m a student and I do the best I can, and the best I can is a B, then I am still glorifying God. I do not necessarily have to get an A to be glorifying God in my current state of life. The call is to do your best, not to be the best. If those two happen to coincide that is fine, but it is certainly not necessary.
The second thing to know about this calling is that it is not meant to replace mass, prayer, and other devotions, but rather be a supplement to those things. Jesus didn’t give us the sacraments, and prayers so that we could forego them to work harder at our earthly vocation. Rather Adoration, prayer, and Mass are supposed to be the foundation of our spiritual life, the skeleton of the body if you will. Then doing the best we can at our current state of life is supposed to be the muscle, tissue, and flesh of the body.
But by letting our state of life be a means to glorifying God, it also becomes a form of prayer. This way when we eat a good breakfast so we can do well at work, or when we get a good night sleep so we can be kinder to our family the next day, these activities become activities of prayer, so that we truly and honestly can follow the words of St. Paul and Pray without ceasing.