prayer which pushes us to do good - 27th week tuesday

Traditionally in the church Martha who was busy preparing the needs of the Lord represent the active life. Mary, who sat listening to Jesus represents the contemplative life.  Both are good and both are needed by the church.  But for Christians who are called to live in the world, the active life and the contemplative life cannot be separated.  Both are needed.  An active life which forgets union with the Lord in prayer and contemplation is useless and will eventually become barren.  A contemplative life which concerns itself only in praying and shows no concern for what is happening around us, no concern for the apostolate of the church, is also not pleasing to God.  It is important that both are combined – there is always an allotted time for prayer and this allotted time for prayer pushes us to do good in the world beginning in our homes and in our places of work.  

And so our daily eucharist should transform our day, aiding us in our discernment, in our decisions and guiding our actions throughout the day.    This is what we refer to as an integrated life.  We do not separate our prayer with our work, rather we allow our prayer to transform our work, and also we bring the concerns of our work to prayer.