Finding God on the Job

This article appeared in the Feb. 2, 2001, issue of the National Catholic Reporter. It is adapted with permission.

For most of his adult life, Greg Pierce has been wrestling with the issue of a spirituality of work. A 53-year-old co-publisher of the Catholic book firm ACTA, husband, father of three, and active member of his church, Pierce's personal mission has been to find practices that function inside the myriad entanglements of his life and do not require a lot of time.

"The traditional approach is based on plucking yourself out of the world, at least for a time," he said, "developing an inner world of contemplation, gaining insights through retreats, engaging in pious practices like the labyrinth. I have nothing against all this, but it doesn't work for me, and I don't think it works for most people. Like a lot of folks I know, I am piety-impaired."

In his new book, "Spirituality @ Work: Ten Ways to Balance Your Life On-the-Job," Pierce proposes a spirituality that can flourish within the nitty-gritty of the workplace, one that recognizes "the intrinsically spiritual nature of work," and sees God's presence in life, "whether bidden or unbidden." Moreover, he has sought to devise practices that can be done by anyone from a CEO to the person in the tollbooth on the expressway. "They had to be things you could do regularly, that would not disrupt the flow of the workplace and would not offend or annoy other people."

To that end, Pierce has been the power behind the National Center for the Laity, a Chicago-based group that publishes a newsletter and sponsors conferences on probing the spiritual dimensions of the secular work world.