I found this prayer on the archdiocese of Detroit’s website I thought that it was beautiful:
On this weekend, when we rest from our usual labors, loving Father, we pray for all who shoulder the tasks of human labor—in the marketplace, in factories and offices, in the professions, and in family living. We thank you, Lord, for the gift and opportunity of work; may our efforts always be pure of heart, for the good of others and the glory of your name. We lift up to you all who long for just employment and those who work to defend the rights and needs of workers everywhere. May those of us who are now retired always remember that we still make a valuable contribution to our Church and our world by our prayers and deeds of charity. May our working and our resting all give praise to you until the day we share together in eternal rest with all our departed in your Kingdom as you live and reign Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. In the creation story it doesn’t take God long before dealing our humanity with responsibility (a job). 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”Gen 1:28 (NRSV)
We are to be the care takers of creation. There is something that is innately human about work. We have a desire to be wanted. Even children work as they go throughout their day playing and learning how to live in the world. Even on our days off we tend to spend it working and doing things around the house, making our selves useful. We all have jobs (weather payed or unpayed) and we are able to do them with a certain amount of pride even though to friends we complain 😉 One of my favorite times in youth ministry is listening to students tell me about their first real job. Surely they have had the job of learning for years (“but Chris that just doesn’t count”). They are not always glamorous jobs, but truth be told they are all jobs that the young people and find ownership in. Perhaps this is why God gave us a job, the desire to work, so that we may claim ownership of creation with the creator. This opens up the relational ebb and flow between us and God.
The hard part is taking time to stop and breath. God took sabbath and so should we. Iake some time for just yourself on this day. Put down the spade or Spackle and just be. Enjoy creation that you have tended to, and spend time with family and friends. Just enjoy and live it up. You have earned it.
