Tag: Work

Guest Post: 7 Things I learned as a Neophyte

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A friend of my posted the following text on her Facebook wall today. I thought it was so good I asked her if I could publish it here on the blog. One year since what she calls “the best day of my life”, here is her reflection on the seven things she learned as a Neophyte…

Neophite Group

To put it in simple terms, a Neophyte is a new convert to a religion. New Advent describes Neophyte as originating from the word neophytoi meaning the newly planted and incorporated with the mystic Body of Christ. I converted to the Catholic Church from Protestantism last Easter, and have decided to do a bit of reflection on my last year. It has been filled with revelation after revelation but here are the top seven that have had the most impact on me.

1. Hungering for the Eucharist

To put it simply, hungering for the Eucharist is a real thing. To some that may sound crazy or impossible and to others, you may know exactly what I mean. For those reading this who aren’t Catholic, the Eucharist is what we call the transformation of the communion bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Early Church Father, St. Justin Martyr, writes in A.D. 151:

“For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and has both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food that has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.” [First Apology 66]

For further reference, read John 6 and watch “The Hour That Will Change Your Life.”

After partaking in my First Holy Communion at the Easter Vigil and the weeks following, I was somewhat stunned to find that I hungered for more of the Eucharist. I yearned for His Body and Blood, the peace that it brought, my human weaknesses obliterated by His strength, His divine life inside of me. This surreal and transcendent feeling is one I could never fully describe but pray all will come to experience.

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Prayer before starting work

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One of the books I read during my sabbatical was Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, a lay Carmelite who inspired so many people by his simple, practical approach to spirituality, which focuses on always being mindful of God, even throughout everyday tasks, such as doing the washing up.

brother-lawrence

Yesterday my sabbatical ended and I start back at work. Inspired by this Carmelite’s book, I’ve decided that I’m going to begin each workday with the prayer which Brother Lawrence mentions in the book:

Before beginning any task I would say to God, with childlike trust:

“O God, since You are with me, and it is Your will that I must now apply myself to these outward duties, I beg You, assist me with Your grace that I may continue in Your Presence; and to this end, O Lord, be with me in this my work, accept the labour of my hands, and dwell within my heart with all Your Fullness”

– Brother Lawrence, Practice of the Presence of God

Pray without ceasing

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prayer

Some monks called Euchites, or ‘men of prayer’, once came to Lucius in the ninth region of Alexandria.

He asked them, “What manual work do you do?” They said, “We do not work with out hands. We obey St. Paul’s command and pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). He said to them, “Don’t you eat?” They said, “Yes, we do.” He said to them: “When you are eating who prays for you?” Then he asked them, “Don’t you sleep?” They said “Yes, we do.” He said, “Who prays for you while you are asleep?” and they could not answer him.

Then he said to them, “I may be wrong, brothers, but it seems to me that you don’t do what you say. I will show you how I pray without ceasing although I work with my hands. With God’s help, I sit down with a few palm leaves, and plait them, and say, “Have mercy upon me, O God, after they great mercy: and according to the multitude of they mercies do away with mine iniquity” (Ps 51:1). He asked them, “Is that prayer, or not” They said, “It’s prayer all right.”

He said, “When I spend all day working and praying in my heart, I make about sixteen pence. Two of these I put outside the door, and with the rest I buy flood. Whoever finds the two pennies outside the door prays for me while I am eating and sleeping: and so by God’s grace I fulfil the text, “Pray without ceasing”.

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V