MAY 2013
VOL. XVIII, NO. 4
Speakers to discuss Spirituality of Work on June 8 hen Father Anthony Shonis became a pastor for the first time at age 55 after a lifetime as a teacher, he wasn’t sure what a pastor did. So 13 years ago he began an activity to visit his parishioners in their workplace. “This has been a wonderfully enlightening experience for me,” he said. “When people come to Mass they come from somewhere; namely, their home and their workplace. For me this is the beginning of the Sunday/Monday connection. After all, outside of their family, where do most people spend their time? At work. And isn’t this where they meet the people whose values are often most different from theirs?” Father Shonis, an Ursuline Associate and former chaplain at Mount Saint Joseph, will be one of the speakers at Associates and Sisters Day on June 8, discussing “The Spirituality of Work.” He is now the parochial vicar at Holy Name of Jesus Church in Henderson, Ky. The other speaker that morning will be Ursuline Sister Amelia Stenger, who quoted her father, John Stenger, as saying, “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.” “He may have heard this somewhere else but that is what the spirituality of work really means,” Sister Amelia said. “Kahlil Gibran says it this way: ‘Work is love made visible.’” Sister Amelia is the director of development for the Ursuline Sisters, former director of the Mount Saint Joseph Conference and Retreat Center and a Catholic school superintendent in both Owensboro and Louisville, Ky. “Work is holy,” she said. “When we work with our hands or our minds, the work is consecrated to the service of God. When we plant a seed in the ground to grow vegetables for ourselves or for others we are sharing in the act of creation. When someone takes an old wood floor up and sands the pieces and puts it
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Sister Amelia Stenger, left, and Father Anthony Shonis, right, will present a workshop on Associates and Sisters Day 2013.
down again in another house, the person is saving creation by their work. When we take care of the things we touch, share what we have with others, build a skyscraper or a dog house, we use the spirit of work and creativity that is within us. A spirituality of work helps make everything we do an act of creativity.” Sharing spirituality in the workplace or where someone volunteers can be tricky, but both speakers will utilize their experience in explaining how to create a person’s particular spirituality depending on their job. “The author Joe Holland has written that the spiritual energy of our institutions comes no longer from priests and nuns, but from dedicated lay people,” Father Shonis said. “Practicing the spirituality of work and helping people understand that work is not simply an economic activity, but rather a way for us to cooperate in God’s plan for a better world, is exactly what Pope John Paul II had in mind when he talked about a ‘new evangelization.’ And besides, where else could a priest meet so many of his parishioners in so short a period of time?” Sister Amelia said Jesus gave us an example of work. “When He was growing up, He was the son of a carpenter. Can you imagine some of the beautiful things He must have made before He began His real work of teaching and healing?” she said. “He gave us an example of consecrating all to God. He worked.” After lunch on Associates and Sisters Day, a panel
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Please join us for Associates and Sisters Day on Saturday, June 8 A registration form can be found on the back page. A schedule for the day is on page 2.