Joy in Hard Work
“Every Dominican nun knows that work can be a source of joy because joy is an effect of love....”
Sister Cook
You won’t understand the work that goes on in a monastery unless you realize that a nun’s whole life is an offering to God. The work she does each day with mind and body forms a special part of her worship. Consecrated to God, human labor becomes a participation in God’s own work of creation and re-creation by grace.
Some tasks in the monastery image God’s creative act in tangible ways. Sisters may be asked to make candles, cards, or blankets for the gift shop. They may write and edit academic papers; teach classes to sisters in formation; practice instruments and prepare liturgical music; or learn the art of cooking for a crowd (ourselves!). All these tasks call on natural gifts and talents… and they draw on skills we did not know we had!
Other tasks in the monastery may be less glamorous, but are a privileged participation in redemption nonetheless. Mopping floors, doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms, bringing out the trash—any work for the common good that goes without notice or thanks—these tasks bring us into contact with the mystery of Christ’s hidden life at Nazareth. As we learn to forget ourselves, we train for the journey with him to Calvary.
Whatever work we have ahead of us in the day, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a beautiful opportunity to unite our “penitential” responsibilities to Christ’s love each morning, and draw strength for sacrifice from him. This is an important point. The monastery’s most important work is the liturgical life itself. Our Constitutions put it this way: “Appointed for the work of divine praise, the nuns, in union with Christ, glorify God for the eternal purpose of his will and the marvelous dispensation of grace.”
This “work of divine praise,” shared with Christ, Our Master, is sometimes the hardest work a nun has to do. It requires the supernatural help of a life of grace; it is the work of the Holy Spirit in us mediated by the sacraments. That’s why the daily schedule of a monastery is not dictated by standards of efficiency, but by the incomparable value of the Mass and the recitation of the Divine Office (psalter) that prolongs the worship of God throughout the day. Times of private prayer and doctrinal study are always ordered to prayer in common. All daily activities, work included, flow from this liturgical core.
As every Dominican nun knows, work can be a source of joy because joy is an effect of love. In love with God, the nun is happy to take part in his work, giving him her efforts and leaving to him whatever good effects her work and prayers may have on souls she does not see. In imitation of Christ whose every human act glorified the Father, the Dominican nun unites bodily work to spiritual labor, offering the whole of herself to God in a labor of love.
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