You were not made for comfort - you were made for greatness!
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~ Welcome to the HolyWork Movement ~
Sometimes this life feels like being stuck on a boat too small
in a storm too big.
Few comforts of life are as necessary to our sense of "safety" as gainful employment. With the loss of a job comes a blow to our self-esteem, and sometimes, to our self identity.
We know that feeling first-hand. Having faced job-loss ourselves, we also know the importance of a prayer team for discerning, and ultimately finding, HolyWork.
When we faced layoffs, we turned to our network of holy folks who prayed for us and procured the grace we needed to find work.
Our holy network was vital in our finding new work. Which made us wonder, what about those people who don't have a team they can turn to in prayer?
That's why we founded the HolyWork Movement.
Mindset: What is HolyWork?
Swords into Plowshares
A Heavenly Mindset
We define HolyWork as:
Any endeavor that participates in the creative power of God.
In Genesis (1:28, 2:15), Adam and Eve are working in the Garden before the fall. Once they do fall, they get toil to go along with their labor, but work isn't the bad guy in the story, sin and suffering are. In fact, there is great reason to believe creative work will continue in the Kingdom!
The prophet Isaiah had a vision in Isaiah 2:4, that after the Messiah returns the world will be such that nations "will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." In other words, we won't need our instruments of war anymore, because we'll be using them for work instead!
The work we do now isn't just important for evangelization and holiness, it's also God's ordained practice for the life to come. As such, HolyWork Crusaders keep Heaven on the mind while we work.
We can't say it better than St. Paul in Philippians 4: 6-8
6 Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Prayer: Walk Like Mary
The HolyWork Movement is a distributist prayer cooperative that considers prayer our primary currency. If money was our exchange rate, then we would only be able to add up what we could all contribute, then distribute accordingly. But, with prayer for each other as our primary currency, we multiply our efforts for each other with each member we add instead!
This is the only business cooperative we know of that costs only what you can give for free, and returns what money cannot buy - Grace Multiplied!
We look to our Mother Mary as our guide to perfect prayer. She walked the path of holiness by relentlessly submitting to God's will. Fiat!
Service: Work Like Joseph
HolyWork Prayer Crusaders: Work for the Glory of God
The seed of HolyWork Movement was planted long ago by these words: "You have to work"
Those were the words my Papa said to me as he lay on what he thought was his death bed. I was 18 years old, about to start my adult life, and he knew I was going to marry the girl I loved. He lived another 4 months by the grace of God, but those will always be his last words to me. "You have to work." One special grace of his living longer is that I got to ask his meaning. He told me life on this earth is a preparation for Heaven and that Holiness is found ~IN~ the mess of your life, not around it. Work is vital to growing in holiness, he said. So if I wanted to marry my love and start the adventure of having a family, he wanted me to know I am going to have to work, and work hard.
His life was a testament to holy work, that is to say, he worked like Joseph. He feared God and was a humble listener to God's will, ignoring the ways of the world and focusing on glorifying God. He was devoted like Joseph, first to God, then to his family, then to his neighbor and finally to his work as a Mail Carrier. Many people were converted to The Way of Jesus by his holy work, even though he did not often speak his evangelization in words. He simply showed up consistently and worked hard with a joyful attitude because he didn't work for a paycheck, he worked for God. He had patience with his peers because they were not his coworkers,
they were his brothers and sisters.
I am lucky to have had examples in how to work holily. My grandparents, my parents, my aunts and uncles have all been examples in this endeavor. But not everyone has access to those examples, so HolyWork Prayer Crusaders strive to be the example of holy work in their workplace. We strive to bring the work ethic of St. Joseph to our vocations, with the added prayer that our work will bring more souls to Jesus.
