Offering the working day

For the start of a shift, a commute or a day at a desk.

Most of a life is spent working, and most of that work is unremarkable. The Christian tradition insists that it counts anyway — that a day’s work offered to God is a form of prayer, whether it is done in an office, a ward, a classroom or a kitchen.

The Prayer

Lord, I offer You this day's work:
what I choose to do and what I am obliged to do,
what I am good at and what I dread.

Give me attention for the task in front of me,
patience with the people I work beside,
and honesty in what I produce.

Keep me from cutting corners,
from taking credit that is not mine,
and from measuring my worth by what I achieve today.

Whatever I do, let me do it well enough to offer You. Amen.

A Prayer at the End of the Day

Lord, I am finished for today, and some of it went badly.
Take what was good and use it.
Forgive what was careless or unkind.
And let me leave the rest at the door. Amen.

About This Prayer

The Benedictine motto is ora et labora — pray and work — and the Rule treats manual labour as part of the spiritual life rather than an interruption to it. St. Josemaría Escrivá put the same idea more bluntly: sanctity is found not despite ordinary work but through it, or it is not found at all.