Mina Franchesca Batungbacal 1-S Reflection on the play Ora et Labora

The play was about the life of the twins, St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, reminiscing about their childhood as well as to their individual experiences that led to the formation of the Benedictine order of monks and nuns. At their early age, they were separated from each other when Benedict was sent by their parents to Rome. At Rome, St. Benedict was confronted with a lot of temptations, but he did not give into any of those. Instead, he sought for a closer relationship with God. I admire St. Benedicts love and devotion to God. He never surrendered his faith to God in spite all the worldly pleasures surrounding him. He calls on to God and surrender himself to prayer every time temptation comes his way. In our everyday lives, we are confronted with a lot of temptations. We may not be aware of it most of the time, but each day we are put into situations wherein our faith and devotion to God are being tested. These are incidents wherein we are put to trial of whether we would succumb to the seven deadly sins of anger, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony. Defeating these temptations is never easy, but through the example of St. Benedict, overpowering temptations will not be hard if we will just pray to God for guidance and protection. St. Benedict and St. Scholastica were dedicated to the ideals of Ora et Labora prayer and work. I believe that these principles are what differentiate a Bedan to other people. We do not just indulge ourselves to work in order to get something we want. Neither do we just lift everything to God, and solely entrust in Him all our hardships. Instead, we labor to the best of our abilities since that is what God wants us to do, but more importantly, we put ourselves to prayer to ask for Gods guidance in whatever we do. I believe that this should be the ideals that every student must live up to. It is our responsibility to labor to the best of our capabilities by studying hard, most especially during exams. But more importantly, we must also seek for Gods guidance that He may help us come the day of the exams. Nonetheless, it is not only in the life of students that the principles of Ora et Labora can be applied. Christians, even the non-Bedans, must practice living the life of prayer and work. God gave us the talents and capabilities for us to use. We are entrusted by God to make the most out of his gifts to us. But nevertheless, He did not intend that we do things on our own without His help and guidance because in everything that we do, it should be God who must be put at the center. This is in line with the principle of faith without work is dead. Even if we seek Gods grace all the time but we do not act, we cannot be certain that we could reach whatever our goal is simply through Gods divine intervention. What God wants us to practice is to substantiate our labor with prayer, just like the life lived by St. Benedict and St. Scholastica.