So, first and foremost, happy 4th of July, everyone!
There are several things this week that have pointed me toward the significance of a routine: I hopped into my car with one of my friends from work and we headed to the Cape Cod area for the day, a welcome break of routine; my Dad had opened the door for my Mom, and I said, "thanks, Dad," to which he replied, "you're welcome;" I'm beginning to feel a strong desire to continue the habits I have acquired in my daily prayer life, and even slight changes tend to negatively affect how I pray; etc. I think it's worth considering when routine affects so many of us every day, by definition. Let's delve a bit deeper into this, shall we?
This concept really strikes me, because, when you think about it, there are so many things we do, especially things we do for other people, and things that other people do for us, that get caught up into the "routine" of the everyday, and so many small things go unnoticed, or unappreciated, or, even worse, detested in a strange way. How many times have we heard people say, "it was so nice to break out of the routine, to do something DIFFERENT for a change!" Our minds get too comfortable with routine to appreciate the infinite graces and blessings that the routine provides, so instead, we prefer a lifestyle of inconstancy, forcing our environment to provide a God 2.0, to SHOW us all the dimensions of who God is rather than to actively SEEK Him, which involves a lot more attention on our part.
Think of the Mass: it is very comfortable, something most Catholics know very very well. Yet, many people (sadly) believe it to be something old-fashioned, outdated, something that is a waste of an hour on a Sunday rather than an amazing font of blessings and graces. People think it needs reform, that we have to change the Mass to reflect who WE are as a changing Catholic community. The routine of the Mass, while familiar, becomes the SCENERY rather than the PLAY ITSELF: scenery is something that falls to the background because you become comfortable in its familiarity, whereas the play itself can be endlessly analyzed, the characters endlessly reconsidered, the meaning endlessly changing according to the viewer.
A few days ago, I received an emailed article about the Vatican coming to visit female religious communities in the United States. These communities had developed their own rules about dress, practice, etc., and the New York Times portrayed these rebellious sisters as courageous individuals, standing up for reform and righteousness! But behind the loudness of these commentaries, behind the anti-love provided from these sources, there is a quiet sister, praying in Adoration in a small chapel, in her habit (her sign of poverty and simplicity), praying for missions abroad, for babies who are murdered while still in the comfort and security of their own mothers' wombs, for men and women who have suffered the hurt of abuse. THAT SISTER is the primary example of the divinity of routine, the quiet strength and holy daring to find God in hidden places! How sweet it is to know God in all of His many little forms, the forms that we understand the best, because we ourselves are too tiny to comprehend even the simplest of God's greater designs!
I suppose it's one thing to want variety in one's life: it makes things more exciting, makes life more interesting. Some people can't even stand the daily routine and feel a need to break free of it! But, if it were up to me, I would wish my life to be one endless routine: the comfort that we feel in the familiarity of a routine allows God to breathe new life into us EVERY DAY! Because we are so comfortable with what's around us, we are able to see new things - in people, in objects, in situations - and we gain new insights, new graces, new blessings each day. Rather than focusing on trying to gain balance in a constantly changing scenario with a number of factors that are unstable, we are blessed with a security that simultaneously is an endless mystery to continue analyzing!
I know that I had written an earlier post touching upon this, but since everything is essentially the continuation of some other idea (look at God!), I figure it can't hurt to expand on this idea. Something as simple as folding the laundry every day becomes prayer the more one meditates on it. It is a beautiful opportunity for love beyond that of creating a nonprofit, or traveling to Africa for foreign aid, or ANYTHING - look at the simplicity in it, the divinity of it!
One need only look to Mary to appreciate the divinity of routine, ESPECIALLY when that routine is humble and hidden. She was a real woman in the most routine sense in addition to the most divine sense, which a lot of us often forget! She did laundry, and cooked for her family, shared funny moments with her son, and did all the things of daily life. Was she not a mother and a wife? Was she not a woman?
In the Homily given on the 150th anniversary of the wedding of Louis and Zelie Martin, the blessed parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, Cardinal Saraiva Martins said that, "The Church is not interested in the exceptional but underlines how in their daily lives they were the salt of the earth and the light of the world [Matthew 5:13-14]. The servant of God, Pope John Paul II declared: 'It is necessary that the heroic becomes daily and that the daily becomes heroic.'" This quote has always been a comfort to me, knowing that even the smallest things of our lives are truly blessed by God, because He delights the most in hidden, small things - in Mary, in St. Therese of Lisieux, in her blessed parents!
But, this draws another element to the idea of routine, which is the idea of giving THANKS. It is one thing to find God in all the little ways He appears in our lives, but another thing entirely to actually appreciate and THANK Him. My Dad's service to my Mom earlier today, the simple act of opening the door, was such a routine thing - we often don't think to thank people for things that we have become accustomed to expect because of routine (think of the service industries: waiters, the man at the deli, ANY NUMBER of people that we see everyday!). Our parents are perhaps the best example of this: they do any countless number of things during the day for us, yet we never even bat an eyelash.
Our heavenly parents fit under that analysis, too. God provides us with so much every day, and we can't even see through the monotony of a routine to discover the many DIFFERENT ways God tells us He loves us in the repitition of any single task! Reflection on laundry folding offers almost as much opportunity for spiritual growth as reflection on ANYTHING ELSE deemed to be a better use of time for reflection!
Let us remember today and for the rest of our lives to delight in our routines, and to praise God for every second of blessings and graces that He has given to His little ones! :)
Caritas Christi,
Christina :)
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