January 2023 – Musings

Just an Ordinary Day

1-16-2023

It’s Ordinary Time. If you are Catholic, you know what that means. The Christmas season is officially over, (sigh of relief!) but don’t get too excited, it’s almost Lent. “Always something” as we like to say. And so it is in the Church, and in life. As I get older, I appreciate the ordinary much more. I even prefer it. Just an ordinary day, what is more blessed than that? A day where nothing extraordinarily good, or bad, happens. I’ll take it!

Years ago, someone told me to be thankful for an ordinary day because she had just gotten word that a friend’s child was helicoptered to the hospital and it was no ordinary day for them. It was a reminder that we must count our blessings each day for we don’t know what tomorrow, or even the next minute, will bring. (This awareness riddles me with constant anxiety but that is another article.)

Ordinary doesn’t have to mean something negative, however. We often think ordinary is boring, nothing special, even worthless, but ordinary can mean life is good and as it should be. Often, getting through a regular day has enough adventure of its own. One statistic states that 60% of our day is composed of routine tasks so we need to make them count. We can notice the sun on our face while we’re outdoors running errands, we can do a random act of kindness for someone, or we can make it a point to be more conscious of the beauty around us. A few years ago there was a row of beautiful sunflowers in my neighborhood, so I walked over to take some photos. We can find extraordinary moments in each day if we but notice.

Our daily routines give us a rhythm and flow I have only come to appreciate the older I get. When I was young, I thought most old people were in a rut. I was looking to the ones that seemed more what psychologist Abraham Maslow referred to as self-actualized. Now I know that rhythm and flow can give us more peace and security, more contentment. Routines reduce our stress because we know what to expect. It’s nice not to have to face a crisis or big decision every day. That is the beauty of an ordinary day. Life is easier when we don’t have to think about our every move and we know our toothpaste will be there when we reach for it.

We do God’s will in the midst of ordinary. It is our earthly calling. Many saints of old and monks in monasteries today live simple lives offering their mundane tasks, such as routine cooking and cleaning, up to God. We need to learn to welcome the ordinary and seek God there because most of our moments really are quite ordinary. If we can’t find the meaning and magic in the mundane, we will miss so much of what life and God has for us.

So don’t curse the boring and the ordinary, it is often a good place to be! Don’t get wrapped up in always looking for something better or greater, because it is in the simple, regular moments of our lives that we can find meaning and God. So go embrace the ordinary! You will be richer for it.

Live to Seek God

Spirituality

Remember bookmarkers? Back in the day when Hallmark shops had a carousel with tasseled words of wisdom? As a child, I was mesmerized by them. What profound truths would jump out at me? I only have a small collection because it was a rare treat to be able to buy one. Nowadays, if anyone actually reads a physical book, they may use sticky tabs, random scraps of paper, or maybe even a crumpled Kleenex as a bookmark.

One day during my teen years, my dad happened to give me one of those tasseled bookmarkers. I was ecstatic! It said, “Live to seek God and life will not be without God.” Leo Tolstoy (tears) My father was not especially religious as far as I could tell, but it was one of the best presents he ever gave me. It was during the time when I was entertaining the thought of becoming a nun. I took it as a sign of encouragement, but maybe he was only trying to get out of paying for a daughter’s wedding, as was the custom back then, as well as one of his looming worries.

Live to seek God and life will not be without God, are good words that are just as applicable today as back then. As I ponder these words with the actual bookmark before me, it echoes the words found in scripture, “When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me…” (Jer. 29:13) We should never stop seeking God, but how often do we think about God seeking us, His beloved?

God continually calls us to Himself if we are sensitive enough to hear His voice. “Know that the Lord is God, He made us, we belong to Him.” (Psalm 100:3) Then there is the parable of the one lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7). Also, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house…” (Revelation 3:20) However, God is a gentleman and it is we who have to let Him in. The God of the universe shows us time and again that He actually wants a relationship with us because we are the creatures He made. We are His works of art.

God obviously and purposefully chooses people for various tasks and reasons. We see this throughout the Bible. Jesus chose the twelve disciples and they weren’t the most perfect guys on the planet, and one even turned out to be a traitor. Why would Jesus choose a traitor if He knew the future? I guess it goes back to free will and human weakness. Some choose money— the dark side, the devil and all his empty promises and lies. We never know what is in God’s plan. Jesus would also ask people if they were willing to give up everything to follow Him and sadly, many said no, so we do have to reciprocate. It’s a two-way street.

If Christ seeks us out and chooses us, does that make some of us more special or favored than others? What happens to everyone else? Isn’t God’s love for everyone? I finally began reading the book, Story of a Soul, The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux that has been collecting dust in my house for years. I am only as far as the first chapter, but she muses about some of the same things I do. She writes, “I wondered for a long time why God has preferences, why all souls don’t receive an equal amount of graces. I was surprised when I saw Him shower His extraordinary favors on saints who had offended Him, for instance, St. Paul and St. Augustine…….” “I wondered why poor savages died in great numbers without even having heard the name of God pronounced.” So what about those “savages” St. Therese speaks of? Did God really forget about them?

I think it comes down to being open to hearing God’s call and then seeking Him in return. It’s a sort of dance, a weaving back and forth between us seeking God, our creator, and Him desiring us. Like a bride and bridegroom. Christ refers to the church as His bride in the Bible. Another great saint, Teresa of Avila says, “Christ does not force our will, He takes only what we give him. But He does not give Himself entirely until He sees that we yield ourselves entirely to Him.” That’s quite a challenge!

Sometimes I also wonder if maybe God “edits” His work, like when we write or create art or music. Usually we edit for the purpose of making improvements. Obviously we all need growth and improvement. History has shown God often chooses the most unlikely characters to do his work, so being perfect or the best is not a prerequisite. “Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong…..so that no human being might boast before God.” (I Corin. 1:26-29) This should make us feel a bit better and less like we have to compete with the saints of old. God will mold all of us into something more beautiful over time and for His glory if we let Him. We are all saints in our own way.

I think St. Therese of Lisieux sums it up beautifully, “Just as the sun shines down simultaneously on the tall cedars and on each little flower as though it were alone on the earth, so Our Lord is occupied particularly with each soul as though there were no others like it.” We are all special in His sight if we heed the voice of our Beloved.

I am humbled and deeply grateful that I have heard God’s voice and consider myself among God’s chosen ones, even if I don’t always live up to His call. Let us seek God and be sensitive to when He is knocking at the door of our heart and say a resounding “yes” to Him as He pursues us. Even if no earthly person cared for us, our Creator and the Lover of our Soul will always be there, waiting for us and welcoming us to Himself. Live to seek God and your life will not be without God!

(All this from a bookmarker, truly they do impart words of wisdom!)

Take O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess You have given me. I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD, WHO IS GOOD, WHOSE LOVE ENDURES FOREVER

I Chronicles 16:34

HOPE

Spirituality

“My soul, be at rest in God alone, from whom comes my hope. God alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not fall.” Psalm 62:6

Welcome to 2023. (I still feel stuck in the 1980’s somewhere)

I don’t like beginning a new year. It makes me nervous. I worry about what could happen in the future. Will it be good? Bad? Surely there will be some of both. Worst case scenarios run through my mind like water out of a faucet, but even so, I am usually more than ready to let the previous year go. Why? Because I hope the new year will be better than the last. And that is the gist of it — hope.

We can hope for many things. Hope that America will start going in a better direction than it is now, with a real leader in charge……….not an improperly elected, dementia-stricken, corrupt puppet controlled by the deep state that wants to destroy this great country.

Hope that people realize the gift of freedom and not cooperate with pandemic lies, fear and tyranny ever again.

Hope that believers will rise up for what is right and not allow themselves to sit back or become intimidated by the opposition.

Hope that people come to their senses and choose human life as a priority and stop worrying about ridiculous things like global warming. (Yes, the original name proponents now look foolish using. Changing names and definitions doesn’t change reality, sorry.)

Hope that Christ’s church will have a revival like never seen before.

Hope that our loved ones stay safe and healthy and that we have enough food and shelter.

The list is endless…

And so we dare to hope, because the alternative is despair. Hope in light over darkness. Hope in right over wrong. Hope in good over evil. Hope in the unseen. Hope in eternity. But our hope must be rooted in Christ. For Jesus is the only one who can save us from the mess we have made. He is our only hope. So no matter what happens there is always hope; if not in this life, then in the life to come. We can’t go wrong with hope. Never give up hope!