How to live out your Christian faith at work
Sometimes we hear that it is not possible to talk about faith at work or that it can be difficult to reconcile your Christian faith with your work. Yet, work is a place where it is possible to testify. Several testimonies show this, and this subject is brought up every year during the Mission Congress, the result being that testifying to one's faith is possible in a work context. Let’s dive deeper in this article on how to reconcile your Christian faith with work, looking at a few examples, and from the perspective of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Reconcile faith with work by exercising your priestly office
By praying
Prayer is a way to reconcile your Christian faith with work. Of course, this doesn't mean praying ostentatiously out loud at work in front of colleagues. Here, prayer can be said:
Before you go to work
During work: have a thought for God, or silently recite the Our Father, Hail Mary, or make some jaculatory prayers, which are very brief prayers. Here are some very short prayers that can be said during work: “Jesus, I trust in You!” “Jesus, help me to sanctify myself in this new day of work,” etc.
After work
Praying for your colleagues, your supervisor, or your clients are also good ways to reconcile your faith with your work.
In short, all these means make it possible to exercise the office of priest you receive through baptism, which consists of offering a sacrifice pleasing to God.
Number 941 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church adds: “Lay people share in Christ's priesthood: ever more united with him, they exhibit the grace of Baptism and Confirmation in all dimensions of their personal family, social and ecclesial lives, and so fulfill the call to holiness addressed to all the baptized.” (No. 941).
Number 2460 adds: “Work united to Christ can be redemptive.” (No. 2460).
By sanctifying yourself
Sanctifying yourself in your work, that is to say, offering your work to God (making it an offering pleasing to God) and doing it in the most professional way possible, surpassing yourself, is a way of living your faith at work.
“Our sanctification depends, not on changing our works, but on doing for God what we usually do for ourselves,” Brother Lorenzo of the Resurrection explains. Number 2427 of the Catechism shows that “work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.” (No. 2427).
Reconcile faith with work by exercising your prophetic office
As we saw in our article on the triple office of priest, prophet and king, baptism commits us to being a prophet to witness, which can be realized in deeds or words.
Witnessing through action
Living out your faith at work can involve actions, such as:
Attitude: a way of being or a way of doing things, joy, enthusiasm, the ability to welcome and listen, kindness, forgiveness, etc.
Solidarity: Showing solidarity with a work colleague, for example by showing compassion (in a professional or family difficulty), or by supporting them and showing kindness in their work.
Witnessing through words
Authentic: Living out your faith at work can involve giving an authentic witness in words. For example, if you experienced a spiritual retreat last weekend, and you are asked on Monday morning what you did during this weekend, why not mention it? This authentic testimony can challenge your colleague to ask questions about God and faith.
Invite: Witnessing one's faith can take the form of an invitation: inviting one's colleague to question God, inviting them to a parish course, reading a book on faith, watching a video, etc.
Number 905 of the Catechism emphasizes: “Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, “that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life.” For lay people, “this evangelization. . . acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world.” (No. 905).
Reconcile faith with work by exercising your kingly office
Baptism commits us to our office of king in service. One way to reconcile your Christian faith with work is service: serving the interests of the company by serving your supervisor, customers, suppliers, partners, etc.
Since Christ came to serve, a Christian professional is called to put himself in a dynamic of service in his professional life.
For example, there are many situations in the workplace where a work colleague may be stuck on a task, or has a question. Of course, it's not about doing their job for them, but 2–3 minutes’ help should not interfere with the other tasks you have to do that day.
Here are several example situations:
Helping a work colleague who had difficulties with software and who benefited from the help of a colleague in his department.
Participating in the training of a new employee by putting them at ease, giving them as much information as possible about the company, and being available to answer their questions during their integration into the company.
Number 943 of the Catechism emphasizes: “By virtue of their kingly mission, lay people have the power to uproot the rule of sin within themselves and in the world, by their self-denial and holiness of life.” (No. 943).
With Hozana, let us pray that we can live our faith well at work
Let us pray that all Christian professionals may best reconcile their faith in work by exercising their triple office of priest, prophet and king.
By having a solid life of prayer, a Christian will certainly be able to more easily live his faith in this context. Hozana offers several communities toward this end, for example:
Read the annotated Gospel of the day, or receive a daily prayer
Or, discover this community to become more holy in life.
