In St. Panteleimon’s Monastery, it happened that once I had up to fourteen functions at the same time. I spoke about it to my spiritual father. I told him: ‘I don’t manage to carry out my work; I have fourteen jobs!’ He answered me: ‘You are wrong; you’ve only got one job’. ‘But no, Father’, I replied, ‘I have fourteen!’ Again he said, ‘No, you are only doing one thing at a time. So, do that well, and then go on to the next one’.
The aim that we give to our life permeates all our activities. If, for example, we are seeking first of all to gain money, everything that we do will be determined by that aim.
Someone’s job or social position should not have any importance in relations between people. The most real privilege is not exterior, but interior: the one who loves God the most, who prays the most, who makes the greatest effort to keep the commandments, will be closest to the Lord. This is very important. Free your mind from any thought of a career. In spiritual life there is no ‘career’.
If salvation in Christ is the unique aim of our life, everything we do becomes liturgical, an act of prayer.
Everything you do, all your work, can contribute towards your salvation. It depends on you, on the way you do it. History is replete with monks who became great saints while working in the kitchen or washing sheets. The way of salvation consists in working without passion, in prayer.
Perhaps you know about that monk who was cook throughout his entire monastic life in Kiev. When he looked at the fire of his stove, he continually saw himself in the flames of hell. He became a saint. His work did not prevent him from being always with God.
Do not waste your time by living without prayer, thoughtlessly.
Everything in our life has spiritual meaning. Let us seek first of all how we can keep our heart, our mind, and our understanding in God while we work.
May God give you the strength to keep your spirit, your mind, and your heart in the spirit of Christ. Then everything that happens to you can very quickly be radically transformed. What was tiresome and discouraging will disappear, transfigured by your desire to be there where Christ your God is.
To keep our mind and heart at peace with regard to the judgment of God, we must allow ourselves nothing that could trouble someone else. We must earn our living by ourselves, by our own work.
What we must avoid at all costs is that the cares of everyday life prevent us from dwelling in spirit with Christ, who is at the right hand of the Father and with the Holy Spirit.
The Fathers of the Church sometimes had recourse to the following metaphor: if we are somewhere with an emperor, his presence influences everything we do. Why should it not be the same with our eternal King? Since He is present, let us do everything under His gaze. All the time.
~Adapted from Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), Words of Life, translated from the French by Sister Magdalen (Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Essex)
