Category Archives: ordinariness
Small things
Small Things Anna Kamieńska It usually starts taking shape from one word reveals itself in one smile sometimes in the blue glint of eyeglasses in a trampled daisy in a splash of light on a path in quivering carrot leaves in a bunch of parsley It comes from laundry hung on a balcony from hands …
Just around the corner
I know it’s Ordinary Time, but our house still has one foot in the Christmas season. As most of you know, we started following the Vatican custom of leaving our lights and crèche up until February 2, the Feast of the Presentation (which is 40 days after Christmas). (Check out the webcam at St. Peter’s if …
On littleness
Cardinal Dolan on littleness, click here.
First step towards holiness
“The recognition of God’s overwhelming love for you, completely unmerited, totally undeserved, is a great first step towards holiness.” (Cardinal Timothy Dolan)
“He lived in God’s favorite place.”
That title caught my eye as I was leafing through the November 2011 edition of Restoration (published by Madonna House). The article is a homily given by one priest at Madonna House at the funeral of another priest. He speaks of the deceased as often being in “the right place for the wrong reason.” A …
“Love your helplessness”
This is why I love Thérèse . . . when I come across these kinds of things she said: “Agree to stumble at every step, even fall, to carry your crosses weakly; love your helplessness, your soul will benefit more from it than if sustained by grace you accomplished with enthusiasm heroic actions which would …
Dull weather
Is it “one of those days”? Here is a little encouragement from Amy Carmichael: Ps. 76.4 LXX Thou dost wonderfully shine forth from the everlasting mountains. Sometimes it is dull weather in our soul. Here is a word for such days. Often when it is misty on the plains it is bright on the mountains. …
Extraordinary ordinariness
If you have a spare 18 minutes and you didn’t get to hear Fr. Dennis Brown’s homily on “the still small voice” Sunday at Christ the King, you can find it here. Well worth listening to . . .
Great victories won by ordinary people
A word of encouragement from Philip Yancey for those of you who wonder what difference your everyday life is making for the Kingdom of God: I once watched a public television series based on interviews with survivors from World War II. The soldiers recalled how they spent a particular day. One sat in a foxhole …
One of those days
I’m continuing to read and be inspired by the lives of protestant missionaries. My current favorite is a book by Isobel Kuhn, a missionary to the Lisu people in China in the 1940′s. The book is entitled In the Arena and basically recounts the challenges she faced in her daily life as a married woman …
