| Dear Friends, Labor Day weekend is before us. This federal holiday, instituted in 1894 honors the achievements of the American worker. This is the day of picnics, get-aways, and cookouts. The 19th century saw agricultural work give way to industrialized work. Regularly, 12 hours/day and seven-days a week, the poor and new immigrants worked to sustain a minimum standard of living. Things are different now. Mostly. In the 1800s, in the cities, children as young as five or six worked in mills, factories and mines earning a fraction of the adults laboring beside them. Workers faced extremely unsafe working conditions. They worked without sufficient access to fresh air, clean workspaces, or regular breaks. Today, we enjoy not only infinitely better work conditions, but a rest made to honor our work and efforts. Let us remember and give thanks for those who struggled to elevate and give dignity to the worker. Let us also remember there are areas still today where work conditions need improving and workers need their human dignity honored. And, there are people who are still overworked, underemployed, or who cannot find meaningful or sustaining work. While enjoying the holiday and considering the history and promise of Labor Day, why not also pray. For your praying pleasure: |
| Almighty God, you have so linked our lives one with another that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer, p.261) |
| In Peace, Dina+ |