When life gets busy there’s a way that we can doubt the integrity of our work and prayer — how they work together seamlessly. We can feel fragmented and doubt life’s essential unity, tempted to retreat from its challenge in favor of some sort of disincarnate contemplative ideal. But such an ideal seems foreign to the witness of Jesus, the Wisdom of God, who is the contemplative par excellence, and who teaches us that contemplative wisdom is neither detached from everyday life nor artificial. Being contemplative is being consciously connected to reality, all the while being mindful of the sacred presence that pervades each of our activities. From such a gospel perspective “action” and “contemplation” are not rivals, but facets of one reality. (NS)