Prayer Before Work: Start Your Day Off Right!

Got a case of the Monday blues?  Do you feel like you need strength and patience at work on every day that ends in a “y?” That’s me, too!  Even when I love what I do, I feel more equipped to take on the world when I say a prayer before work.  It’s short, simple, and powerful to ask God to help you get through your workday.  Keep reading for that motivation and prayer!

Let’s face it… we all need a prayer before work

I love my job.  But I don’t always love the day-to-day tasks and challenges that come with it.  After all, it’s work.  At risk of sounding cliche, there’s a reason it isn’t called “play.”  So whether or not you have a predictable job, it’s good to pray for strength, patience, and a good attitude for the day.  I pray that I may bless others with my work.  It can also be a great idea to pray when your job is mundane, asking God to give you peace in your heart while you are in this season.

Uniting Our Suffering with Christ

Maybe work feels like suffering to you.  Put bluntly, you’re miserable.  I recall a friend telling me that her daughter suffers from chronic illness.  When she asked her daughter if she ever asks Jesus to take her pain away, her daughter responded, “No.  I never do that.  I offer my suffering up to Jesus.”  And that hit me like a ton of bricks.  So when I am having a hard time at work, I thank God for the blessing of work and ask him to unite me closer to Christ through my suffering.

Service to Others

Work can be a wonderful thing!  Work affords us pleasures and opportunities to serve our families.  But our work is also service to our world.  We are serving the people in our community, great and small.  So praying for that work means that we are praying for the goodness to come from our work and we are praying for the people we are blessing with this work.

Working at Home

Hey you, homemaker!  I’m talking to you!  Maybe you work from home as a homemaker, a wife, and/or a mother.  Pray for that work too!  We all know that is TRUE WORK.  It is work that serves our home, the place where we rest, where we raise our families to know God, and more.  Pray for the work you do at home!  It’s “homework!”

Calling on St. Joseph the Worker in our Prayer Before Work

As you will read below, I wrote the “Prayer Before Work” to St. Joseph the Worker.  He’s our guy!  After all, he was one of the hardest workers that ever lived.  I think he could bless us with graces and call upon the Blessed Mother and Jesus to help us in whatever we need at work.

Setting up the Posture of our Hearts

What is one of the best requests we can make when we pray before work?  We should ask God to help us with the posture of our hearts (which, come to think of it, is a good prayer in any situation).  What do I mean?  Are we setting up our day with a good posture or a bad posture?  If we already have a stinky attitude, the rest of the day will not naturally improve.  Instead, we will find the negative in every tiny thing.  Conversely, if we have an optimistic outlook for the day, the day brings promise.  We end up finding blessings sprinkled throughout everything we touch.  This, of course, applies to work as well.

Our Spiritual Gifts

Have you heard of the charisms of the Holy Spirit?  These are our spiritual gifts!  From most sources, I have read that there are 24 and you can learn more about them here or here.  But in a nutshell, these are talents and gifts that we have been given, such as leadership, compassion, or music.

Why does this matter?  We don’t want to waste our gifts!  So when I pray before work, I pray that I may remember these gifts and how I am glorifying God through my work and by sharing these charisms.

Including our guardian angel

When praying before work, pray to your guardian angel!  Ask your guardian angel to protect you on your commutes and throughout your day.  Your guardian angel can also work alongside your colleagues’ and coworkers’ guardian angels to help create amicable working environments and minimize conflict.

No whining!

I’ll be frank: I often pray that I won’t whine and complain all day at work.  I know I already mentioned praying for a good posture of the heart, but I pray that I won’t then start letting the toxic thoughts of my mind become words I speak.  So pray that you may complain less.

Prayer to Do Honest and Noble Work

So much work out there is not in line with what God designed.  I always pray that I may do the most honest and noble work when it comes to my actual profession, but then I also pray that I may do all work honestly and with integrity.

Commuter-friendly prayer

Exciting news!  The prayer I have included below is commuter-friendly!  What does that mean?  You can bring this with you in the car and pray when you arrive at your workplace (safely and parked in the parking lot, of course!).  It takes a few seconds to pray!

Prayer Before Work

St. Joseph the Worker,

We thank you for modeling good and humble work, honoring and glorifying God by using our God-given skills and talents during our time here on earth. We ask that you intercede on our behalf and we ask the Holy Father to bless us in all that we do today. We ask the Holy Spirit to be with us in our work, wasting not a moment idly or wasting not a spiritual gift. We pray for strength of mind and body in our work. We pray to our guardian angel that we may have good and amicable interactions with all those in the workplace. Good St. Joseph, we also pray that we may work without complaining, just as you worked diligently in service to the Holy Family and to your community. May our work always be honest, noble, and in line with the Lord’s commandments.

Our Father…

Hail Mary…

Glory Be…

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Speaking of work…

Let’s work together!  Looking to collaborate?  Click here to find out how we can work together!  If you want to know more about how this type of work transformed me, click here!