Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Listen for the call to your work as you do the job

Father Lou Guntzelman quotes Thomas Moore in this week’s column, "Are your job and your work the same?" for Cincinnati.com:
"Those who believe in God or a higher power recognize the draw of a personal call. But we may not know specifically what it is.

Author and spiritual counselor Thomas Moore responds to such a situation, "The problem may be that they put too much wishful-ness into their belief, expecting life to serve them their destiny in clear and concrete terms. They may want specific direction without the quest and search and sorting out that is also part of being human."

It is usually very difficult to intuit the exact direction we're being called. Trying to read the meaning of our fleeting thoughts and feelings, dreams and talents, is a process called discernment. This process requires a lot of sifting, sorting, honesty, time and humility."
He also mentions James Hollis in this piece,
"There are a few people who have had a hint of a particular calling for years. But because of other responsibilities have necessarily kept it hidden in their psychic closet. Or, busyness may have drowned it out. However, as Dr. James Hollis points out, "It may take years for that knowing to percolate upward through the resistant sediment, years for the ego to gain sufficient strength to act upon what it desires."
Father Lou’s conclusion quotes American poet Wallace Stevens,
"Life seems glorious for a while, then it seems poisonous. But you must never lose faith in it, it is glorious after all. Only you must find the glory for yourself. Do not look for it either, except in yourself; in the secret places of your spirit and in all your hidden senses."

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