Before we begin any creative task we must centre our hearts and attention—to know the true task and Whom we are doing it for.
May the favour of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands.
Psalm 90: 17
Live and Pray …
One morning after Divine Liturgy, I went to the front to receive a piece of prosphora from the priest. He said something to me in Arabic. I looked at him … He said, “This is a well-known saying in Arabic—it is translated as ‘Live and pray’.”
This simple maxim has stuck with me since.
Live and pray.
To that end, before we sit down to do anything, especially creative, we must centre our hearts, align our selves to God.
Here’s a little prayer to post on the wall by your computer, or next to an icon on your desk.
All in the spirit of living and praying …
A Prayer Before Any Task
Lord Jesus Christ, my God,
You have said, “Apart from Me
You can do nothing.”
In faith I embrace Your
Words, Lord, and I entreat
Your Goodness.
Help me to carry out the work I am about to begin,
And bring it to completion.
To You I give glory
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen.
My Lord and Saviour, You
Became man and laboured
With Your hands until the time of Your ministry.
Bless me as I begin this work.
Help me bring it to completion.
Lord enlighten my mind and
Strengthen my body,
That I may accomplish my task
According to Your holy will.
Guid me to bring about works
Of Goodness to your service and glory,
Amen.
The Real Work is the Soul
And to remind us that the real work is secondarily about prose and painting and other forms of art, but indeed primarily the work of the heart to know and love God and all creation …
The real creative work is a synergy: our efforts and struggles and God’s grace and everlasting Love. The product—to become like God. The struggles humble us—we are on the way to becoming saints, but in no wise have we arrived.
I like what Saint Silouan says …
“The saints were people like all of us. Many of them came out of great sins, but by repentance they attained the Kingdom of Heaven. And everyone who comes there comes through repentance, which the merciful Lord has given us through His sufferings.”
And again …
“Understand two thoughts and fear them. One says, ‘You are a saint,’ the other, ‘You won’t be saved.’ Both of them are thoughts from the enemy and there is no truth in them. But think this way: I am a great sinner, but the Lord is merciful. He loves people very much, and will forgive my sins.”
To this end, more important than anything else we can do on this earth—even greater than writing the next great novel or discovering the next scientific breakthrough is to enter into loving union with God, and there find our true identity, our authentic selves, and our deepest transformation into His living Image …
This will be my solitude, to be separated from myself so that I am able to love You alone, to love You so much that I no longer realize I am loving anything. For such a realization implies a consciousness of a self that is separated from You. I no longer desire to be myself but to find myself transformed in You, so that there is no ‘myself’ but only Yourself. That is when I will be what you have willed to make me from all eternity: not myself but Love. This will be fulfilled in me, as You will it to be fulfilled. Your reason for the creation of the world, and me in it.
— Thomas Merton, Dialogues with Silence.
This is what we are created for from all eternity … to become Love Himself.
