As the due date for this article rapidly approached, and I still lacked a topic, I suddenly realized that this was because I had been “go, go, going” with school work and had not stopped to sit with Our Lord and reflect on what to write. But I had not been busy with bad things — or even with good but slightly worldlier things. My time had been spent in my apostolate — the Sisters’ work of preaching and teaching for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Is it possible to allow even our work for God to distract us from Him? Of course, balancing teaching and writing this article is essentially balancing two aspects of the apostolate of a Dominican Sister, and I did not neglect my prayer life for the sake of either of these. But this moment of realization still caused me to step back and perceive that it is possible to focus so single-mindedly on the work — wonderful as it may be — that we forget the reason we are doing it in the first place. And what is the reason that I am here doing this? Jesus Christ.

St. Josemaria Escriva once taught his followers in the Opus Dei movement, “What a pity if in the end you had carried out ‘your’ apostolate and not ‘his’ apostolate.” What a pity it would be indeed to have our “work for God” actually be work for ourselves. But that is exactly what can happen if we allow ourselves to be caught up only with a to-do list.

Our Christian life in the Spirit is not a matter of checking off a “to-do list” of responsibilities. “I went to Mass this weekend, check … I prayed my rosary today, check … I did my private devotions today, check … I gave money to the poor this month, check.” Or to return to my personal example, “I wrote my lesson plans for the week, check … I prepared for the meeting about confirmation, check … I graded the fifth-graders’ test, check … I wrote the article for The Michigan Catholic, check …”  While all those things are good, it is not enough to live our spiritual life like a checklist. God has so much more in mind for us!

The Lord does not just want to share His work with us; He wants to share His very life with us! In fact, He intends the work we do for Him to become an occasion for us to receive His grace, to deepen our living relationship of love with Him. May we never let our apostolic work be more about our busy-ness for God than about God Himself. May all that we do ultimately lead us to be more His.

Sr. Mary Martha Becnel is a member of the Ann Arbor-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.