The spiritual life is spectacularly ordinary. What I mean is that the spiritual life is life. There is no real difference between our spiritual life and the rest of our life. The ordinary things of daily living are the makings of the spiritual life. Some might ask how changing a diaper can be spiritual or how paying bills can be spiritual. They are spiritual because God is present.
Changing diapers is a chance to learn love and care for the least among us. Paying bills is a change to think on stewardship and to realize that God is in the ordinary. God is not "out there somewhere" or confined to Sundays and the occasional church meeting. The incarnation of Christ shows us that God is in the daily stuff of the world.
The fact that God is in the ordinary does not necessarily mean that we are aware of God in the ordinary, in fact it seems that the opposite is true: we look for God in the extraordinary and long for great signs and wonders. In doing this we miss what is right in front our eyes: Presence in all things.
Our first step is to realize that God is in the everyday stuff of life and those things are the materials for the spiritual life. They are a gift and each moment is an opportunity to receive grace...
If God is in the regular stuff of life then the tools of the spiritual life are the tools of life. They are not luxuries but necessities. They are gifts from God, pure grace....
Things like divine reading, prayer, silence, solitude are necessary to life. They are the places of refreshment, formation and grace that helps us be formed for life...The ordinary is quite beautiful simply because of God's Presence.
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