A story of three brick masons illustrates the great difference our attitude toward our work makes:
The first person, when asked what he was building, replied gruffly, without even looking up, "I'm laying bricks."
The second person answered, "I'm building a wall."
But the third person said enthusiastically and with obvious pride and wonder, "I'm building a cathedral."
TO WORK IS TO PRAY
The work you do out of love without a thought of reward is the work of God.
"YHWH."It is the Name that by tradition we are forbidden to pronounce. Free yourself, I thought. Pronounce it. With no vowels, it came out: "Yyyyhhhhwwwwhhh." It sounded like breath. God's Name: the breath of life! No words, just the whispering, murmuring sound of a deep-drawn breath. For years I took delight in this discovery It hanged the way I prayed.Yet the hart of what had moved me I still had not discovered. I did not know it was my mother's breath I yearned for. For my mother to breathe easy once again, to draw once more a deep and even breath – that would be God for me. For each of us I realized, the deepest Name of God arises from the depths of our own life.