Happy Birthday Mary!

As it has for the last three days, it was pouring rain this morning, so I scurried quickly beneath the overhang.

I hopped over a few puddles, then went into the Dunkin' Donuts in the shopping center next to my office, and I bought a box of 25 munchkins.

Just before 9 AM, I arrived at my office and put the donuts in the room where everyone goes to pick up the papers that they've printed. Everyone knows that food left here has been offered to everyone.

By 11 AM, the donuts were gone.

Happy birthday Blessed Mother!

Labor Day!

Some may point out that one of the main points of weekday work is to point to the leisure of Sunday, the day of the Resurrection. We work during the week in order to better celebrate Sunday.

Therein, a day to commemorate labor and its productivity may be too much, may misplace the spotlight, and may miss the point.

But I think that celebrating Labor Day actually is quite in line and has a very good point. By not going to work today - instead, I'm at home with my family in Pennsylvania - I indeed hoped to point towards the intrinsic value of my weekday labor, which is importantly linked and points to Sunday.

Indirectly but also uniquely, Labor Day has pointed me to Sunday and therein has helped to point me to the full importance of my work.

Hosting a meeting, with a servant's heart

When several collaborators from Peru came to our laboratory this week to find out more about what we were doing with their data, some folks on our project seemed a little irritated to have to devote so much time to the meetings. But "Bill" took it in stride.

As the meetings began, Bill made sure to ask our visitors, "We are very grateful that you have come so far and we want to make sure that your visit is as worthwhile as possible. What do you hope to take away from these meetings?" Attentively and deliberately, he was giving them control. He was positioning us as "servants" to their needs.

Earlier, the question had arose about what we should do at lunchtime. Should we all pay for ourselves? Should we try to charge the lunch to our project budget? Bill was emphatic. "They are our guests. We will treat them." Ultimately, he treated all of us from his own money. Again, his actions bespoke a servanthood towards our collaborators.

On a technical level, the meetings were very helpful. But perhaps the most important things that I learned were from Bill's example. If I am ever in his position, towards the front a meeting with international visitors, I will try to follow his example.

Sharing well what I know

In a 2009 encyclical on love and truth, Pope Benedict XVI wrote

Knowing is not simply a material act, since the object that is known always conceals something beyond the empirical datum. All our knowledge, even the most simple, is always a minor miracle, since it can never be fully explained by the material instruments that we apply to it. In every truth there is something more than we would have expected, in the love that we receive there is always an element that surprises us. We should never cease to marvel at these things (Caritas in Veritate, #77).

I have the opportunity to learn a lot of things and gain a lot of knowledge during my work. What lies beyond my empirical data? In what ways to I acknowledge the "minor miracles" of my knowledge? In what ways do I "marvel" at the things that I learn in my job?

To do my job well, I must share much of what I know, openly and effectively. But, beyond this responsibility, how do I share a sense of wonder with my colleagues? How can I do it in humility?

My birthday!

Today is my 28th birthday, and I took the day off from work, as an act of celebration.

Claire and I went to Mass this morning, then on a hike along the Potomac River in Virginia. On the way home, we had burgers at Fuddruckers on H Street and made a quick trip to the Portrait Gallery. Tonight, I will return to Chinatown for a Holy Hour of Adoration for young adults ("Christ in the City"). In a few minutes, I might go for a jog. I have also been writing postcards and listening to bluegrass music. Today is a festival of all of the things that I enjoy and are important to me!

It is not as though I have a surplus of free time right now in my job. I might go into the office on Saturday to keep pace on a few projects.

But the Lord has showered me with many blessings and I would like to do a good job acknowledging them. Being able to work is one of those blessings, and in some indirect but definitive way, not going to work today is a way for me to acknowledge it.

"Thank You, Lord, for the gift of my life, the gift of another year past (and the hope of another year to come), and the gift of a birthday."

A holiness witness

Earlier this week, at morning Mass, Fr. Tappe spoke of our opportunity "to give witness to the holiness of Christ by the holiness of our lives."

"Yes!" I thought "I am called to be Christ's witness in my office place," and there I must be holy.

The power of a voice mail prompt

This morning, a colleague began his phone message by thanking me for me "wonderfully pleasant" voice mail prompt. He said that it even made him want to change his own voice mail prompt.

To be honest, I don't even remember how my voice mail prompt sounds. I probably haven't changed it since I began working at my current job nearly four years ago. But I'm glad that at that time I took the time to make the prompt something positive.

Having a cheerful voice mail seems to have been a simple way to make a difference.

An office missionary "convention"

I was recently forwarded the details about an upcoming retreat at the "Laity Lodge" in rural Texas. Here is a description:

Our retreat will draw together a group of 50 people from across the country who are committed to vocations in the marketplace. Ten will be senior members, like the CEO, and 40 will be junior members, like the young entrepreneur. For four days we will talk and think, pray and eat, by God's grace forming a community of practice that will work to recast the Church's understanding of vocations in the marketplace-deepening visions, developing apprenticeships, all with the vision of transformation. Not a small task.

It is very encouraging to me to see this acknowledgment of the potential spark within an office or a "marketplace" brought forth by people seeking to be holy amidst and through their "ordinary" vocations and professions.

I am grateful for those who are taking the time to think more deeply about it.

To be an office worker of mercy

After teaching my 8th grade CCD students about the corporal and spiritual works of mercy a few weeks ago, I have been trying to incorporate them in my own life.

I wrote them out and taped the list to the inside of my closet door. At the end of the day, I try to check the list and ask myself, "How have I been able to be a man of mercy today?"

In my job, I think that there is often the need to "bear wrongs patiently," one of the spiritual works of mercy.

One situation, in particular, that comes to mind is my colleague "Jake" who has repeatedly attributed an idea to me that isn't actually mine but is his.

Albeit, it might be more offensive it he were to do to the opposite, but at the same time I don't particularly like this idea and would have preferred for him to have kept the ownership.

From one angle, I imagine that he is crediting the idea to me to spare himself of the responsibility. (I could be completely wrong.)

Nevertheless, to object or to initiate a discussion over who contrived the idea seems to not be the right move. It would be an unnecessary challenge to his perspective and would not seem to bring Jake any benefit. Instead, each time he (wrongly) cites me for this idea, I am seeking to patiently bear it.

A "Catholic difference"? (Part 3)

My uncle recently sent me an article about Jack Griffin. He was the CEO of Time Incorporated (publisher of Sports Illustrated, Time, and People magazines). Then he was fired. Among other possible causes of Mr. Griffin's dismissal, one article mentioned his Catholic faith:

Griffin, who is a Roman Catholic, made some in the company uncomfortable by referring to his faith during meetings and interactions with subordinates, two execs told The New York Times.

In previous posts, I have mentioned the difference that being Catholic might make in an office. In this case, did being Catholic make the wrong kind of "difference"?

Or was it the case of something separate? In the article from my uncle, the phrase "unable to gain the faith of his employees" caught my attention. On one hand, perhaps Mr. Griffin courageously gave witness to his faith even at the expense of his professional standing.

Indeed, I take encouragement from the example of someone unafraid to share their faith, even explicitly, within their office.

But on the other hand, perhaps it was this inability to build a rapport with his colleagues that made the witness of his faith more "distant" to them.

With this possibility in mind, I also take heed of the importance of building genuine relationships with others who ultimately be encouraged by another's faith.

In any case, I again pray for the grace to balance courage and prudence within my mission field.