Book 21
21 The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and "Women's Work" by Kathleen Norris
I read this book several years ago and just re-read it. It's quite small but dense with insight. Her point is that the ordinary rituals of our lives--laundry, dishes, kissing a spouse goodbye, an argument--are sacred. She says these things "ground us in the world, and they need not grind us down" [76]. Her thoughts move from watching a Catholic priest "do the dishes" after Mass to the power of a long-term intimate relationship to feminism to houseword and to the Incarnation. Everything we do, especially the seemingly little or meaningless things, celebrate Creation and the Incarnation of Christ. It is all holy.
A couple quotes:
"...human love is sanctified not in the height of attraction and enthusiasm but in the everyday struggles of living with another person. It is not in romance but in routine that the possibilities for transformation are made manifest. And that requires commitment" [63].
"God is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean that they should" [quoting St. Ignatius Loyola, 71].
I read this book several years ago and just re-read it. It's quite small but dense with insight. Her point is that the ordinary rituals of our lives--laundry, dishes, kissing a spouse goodbye, an argument--are sacred. She says these things "ground us in the world, and they need not grind us down" [76]. Her thoughts move from watching a Catholic priest "do the dishes" after Mass to the power of a long-term intimate relationship to feminism to houseword and to the Incarnation. Everything we do, especially the seemingly little or meaningless things, celebrate Creation and the Incarnation of Christ. It is all holy.
A couple quotes:
"...human love is sanctified not in the height of attraction and enthusiasm but in the everyday struggles of living with another person. It is not in romance but in routine that the possibilities for transformation are made manifest. And that requires commitment" [63].
"God is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean that they should" [quoting St. Ignatius Loyola, 71].