Ken Pollitz: Pray, grow, mow as you go By Ken Pollitz - Guest Column Regardless of my performance on any essay, paper, exam, or assigned homework, the professor’s formal notation at the bottom of every student’s submission remained the same. Having briefly scanned my work, I’d eventually come to his scripted concluding mandate to “Ora et labora!” With already monumental deficiencies in the English language, my Latin vocabulary couldn’t even fill a thimble. Historically rooted in directives among monks of a monastic order, I learned the expression means to simply “pray and work!” Once more Doug, my good friend and pastoral colleague, and I, were prevented from taking our annual pilgrimage north of the border into Canada. Unable to enjoy the glorious sites and minimal sounds of a week-long silent retreat at the Loyola House Retreat Center in Guelph, Ontario, we set our sights south, instead.