Thomas Merton

"It is interesting to consider Adam at work in the garden of Eden, and find out that even his activity had an essentially contemplative character, since it was entirely impregnated with light and significance by his union with God. St Augustine, who seems to have been very fond of farming and gardening and of all the forms of manual labor traditionally assigned to monks, is quick to point out that if Adam worked even in paradise, work is by no means to be regarded by us as evil, nor is it, by its nature a penance for sin. ...
Adam's whole attitude about work was disinterested. He did not need to work in order to live but worked because 'his soul desired it.' His reason for working was in using a power God had given him, and in serving God by his own intelligence and skill, he praised God more perfectly and by that very fact raised his own existence to a higher level of reality and of value. Adam's work was an important aspect of his existential communion with the reality of nature and of the supernatural by which he was surrounded. It was a conversation with God. The key to this whole conception is found in the spiritual liberty enjoyed by Adam, in the tranquility of soul which made him able to work 'as much as his soul desired.' The work men do because they are driven by ambition or love of money is quite another thing. They may like it, but it is, nevertheless, a slavery. Its orientation is exactly the opposite to the one we are considering here. Adam's work was worship. If our work is to become contemplative, we must work with a sense of responsibility towards living and growing things and towards the people we live with. We must work with some consciousness of the value of human society, which is the beneficiary of our labors. In a word, our work ought to be a dialogue with reality, and therefore a conversation with God."

Thomas Merton