...(Pray and work) is a Benedictinian rule. By looking closer we touch again the sensible point of unifying opposites (coincidentia oppositorum).
Isn`t praying and working a set of opposite happenings? Benedict saw the need of unifying both.
Now systematically different streams forming capitalism, especiallyEnglish utiliarism (good is what is beneficial) and US led positive - thought movement had heavy impacts on western thinking including spiritual approaches. In the 18th and 19th century there appeared in Egland and the US preacher persons having good news for all those refusing dialectical thinking: praying is simple, you need only to align your subconscience with strong affirmations and steady imaginations, and you will get what you want.
Later some smart asses called it law of attraction, which seems indeed somehow working, but not without obstacles. Actually, it strongly serves egoistic intentions tempting people in developing an Almighty Complex I discribed in another post.
So praying became a main action of religious and spiritual people wanting to change their lives and the world.
And the results can be seen in a wide range. Most conservative followers of right political wings are those people. Their prayer emphasis has led them to support zionist Israel (because it has to do with the bible), to fight violently abortion, to distribute places in heaven by attacking people being not in line with them. There can be a whole story to be told.
One deep reason is without any doubt the separation of prayer and work as Benedict believed they belong together. I have experienced services with minute long prayers on the knees while people found it important not to fall asleep. Hold on, brother, they said, praying is the most important thing in life!
No, it is not! It is praying and working. A unification is leading us to tremendous depths.
You must pray, as if there is no work, and you must work, as if there is no prayer - then you will discover what ora et labora really means.
It is mirroring our human being in this world. We are both, finite and infinite (finitum capax infiniti). We undergo processes in which opposite happenings falling together (coincidentia oppositorum). We - symbolically speaking - belong to both, earth and heaven. We shall pray and work, as if they belong together.
Praying is the reference to our infinite essence of existence. It is the hologram exposing life a part of God.
Working is ther reference to blood, swest and tears on mother earth. It is the hologramm exposing life as going through obstacles by love and patience.
Heaven is opening horizons, and earth is showing us ways and unfoldings of love and patience.
And both belong together - by praying, as if there is no work, and by working, as if there is no prayer. Undergoing such process will make partakers of heaven lovers of the earth, and partakers of the earth lovers of wide horizons.
Thus ora et labora is referring to our comprehensive human existence, actually being incomprehensible...
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