This is the table where we pray, where we’ve prayed at Guideposts’ editorial offices for more than 40 years.
I love the table’s gracious curves, its nicks and dents, the dark rim where chairs have banged against it for generations, its stack of coasters for coffee cups and water bottles, the grained surface that has welcomed drumming fingers and sweaty palms, the light reflecting off its polished teak. It all feels like holy ground.
Every Monday morning at 9:45 we gather around this table to pray for the needs of readers and those who have sent us prayer requests through OurPrayer. We read through stacks of requests to ourselves, many of them heartbreaking and urgent, then pick a few to read aloud. After we have gone around the table, we pray for those who have written in, for our needs and for the needs of the organization we work for.
After that the table is ready for work. It hosts editorial meetings, marketing meetings, art concept meetings, board meetings, finance committee meetings. Company strategy is weighed, goals are honed, budgets are formed, photos are vetted, stories are discussed, book ideas chosen, documents thumbed through. But the table starts out its week by hearing our prayers.
In the decades I’ve known this table it’s had two conference rooms to call its own. It’s now got a third, in our new offices at 110 William St. New York, NY 10038. The view is different, the sound of the room is different, the video screen hasn’t gone up yet, the bookshelves need to be assembled, the coasters haven’t been unpacked. But it’s ready for prayer. And for work.
The motto often associated with the Benedictines is “ora et labora,” or “pray and work.” We’re hardly an office of monks, but I love that phrase and it seems just right for this table. When you pray, you work better. When you have meaningful work, you pray well. May the table know many more years of meaningful, prayerful labor that serves, helps and inspires. Important things happen around a table.
