Friday, January 18, 2008

Ordinary, Not Common

I've been thinking lately about what it means to be ordinary. Minus the dog and the .4 child, my family seemingly fits the definition. No outstanding warrants, no E! True Hollywood Story fodder--heck--my husband and I even have jobs so ordinary they are spaces on the board game, Life (Remember that one? Where a travel agent could win the Nobel Peace Prize with the right spin of the wheel?). I've been thinking how easy it is to get pulled down by being ordinary in a culture that seems to value more: more money, more stuff, more fame, more friends, more everything. It is easy to forget the blessedness in being ordinary. The holiness of an ordinary day. The graces present in household tasks than are back on the to do list as soon as they are crossed off. I'm certain Mary sighed and shook her head when Christ came in from playing in the snow--er sand--and tracked it all over the house. I've been reminded that Mary did the laundry of the Son of Man, after all. In writing about St. Therese, Michael Novak (one of my favorite Catholic writers)puts it most succinctly: "To be a saint, it is not necessary to do great things. It suffices to do all the daily tasks we face with all the love God suffuses into us, even when we do not feel its presence." St Therese is known as the "Saint of Little Ways" and her life teaches us to live with humility, to do ordinary deeds with "God's intensity". Something to think about as we mop floors and wait in carpool lanes.

For those of you who missed the January meeting, Shawna Davidson of MOMS (Ministry of Mothers Sharing) came and talked to us about many things. She recommended several books that I'll list below. If you have other spiritual reading you'd like to recommend, please let us know!

Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Jacques Philippe, George Driscoll, and Jannie Driscoll

Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
by Saint Maria Faustina Kowalaska

Revelations of Divine Mercy: Daily Readings from the Diary of Blessed Faustina Kowalska by Faustyna and George W. Kosicki

Have a blessed week!
Jennie

Works Cited
Novak, Michael. “St. Thérèse, Doctor of the Church.” Crisis (December 1997).

2 comments:

EmEaster said...

I just returned from San Diego and I will have to say being ordinary is just fine with me. We were visiting with a friend from LA and discussing the differences between LA and KC. WOW! How ordinary are we, but to me I agree that is okay. I came home to a house full of dirty clothes, half well, half sick kids just in time to make dinner. As I was exhausted from traveling all day I was glad to pick my regular tasks of tending house and loving my kids. It is so easy to get caught up in all the other stuff. I am so glad to be where I am today.

Saint Gerard's Circle said...

Right on, sister!