Being Ordinary

I would like to propose the concept of ordinariness as the avenue to happiness, and I think Pope Francis would, too.

Ordinary life entails feeling happy and excited at some times and sad and frustrated at others. It means kicking a soccer ball, or gliding down a slide, or acting in a play. It means dancing around the room when no one else is watching (which is simultaneously a relief and also everyone else’s loss). It means biting into and savoring a crispy apple or a juicy burger or a soft piece of vanilla cake. Being ordinary means noticing the breeze as the trees start to look like fall, and taking great joy in holding someone’s hand, and belly-laughing so hard it hurts. Being ordinary is being grateful. And prayerful. And real.

Being ordinary is the simple act of wonder at being alive.

In Pope Francis’ homily at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia on Sunday, he spoke about “little gestures” that we learn in the home. These are “quiet things done by mothers and grandmothers, by fathers and grandfathers, by children. They are little signs of tenderness, affection and compassion.” Examples of these little gestures include “the warm supper we look forward to at night, the early lunch awaiting someone who gets up early to go to work…a blessing before we go to bed, or a hug after we return from a hard day’s work.”

Little gestures are, basically, ordinary things.

He practices what he preaches. Pope Francis kissing and blessing a baby in Philadelphia.
Photo from cdn.newsday.com

Faith shows us that happiness and holiness, Pope Francis says, are “always tied to little gestures,” like Jesus’ example in Sunday’s Gospel: “Whoever gives you a cup of water in my name will not go unrewarded” (cf. Mk 9:41).

“Love is shown by little things, by attention to small daily signs which make us feel at home. Faith grows when it is lived and shaped by love,” encouraged Pope Francis. Having a spirit of hospitality is an ordinary thing, and it is a simple thing. We are called to welcome others as their ordinary selves. As the selves we are created to be, we are tasked with welcoming the selves of others.

So, when we dare to be daughters and sons and sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers and classmates and friends and neighbors who love through gifting little gestures and through, in turn, experiencing joy in little gestures, we live and shape love in community. And happiness is always caught up in this dance between faith and love. So happiness always accompanies the ordinary life, when we live it in love.

In this way, in “tak[ing] part in the feast of the Gospel,” the good Word of love, as Pope Francis urges us to do, the ordinary life takes on the properties of the extraordinary. And the extraordinary can be mediated through something as ordinary as giving someone else a cup of cold water.

Eucharistic Adoration: It's for You!

During my freshman year at Notre Dame, I remember sitting next to a non-Catholic friend during a two-hour Eucharistic Adoration and Reconciliation service at a retreat. At the end of the two-hour period, he asked me to explain “what just happened.” I was surprised at his question, since this model of Adoration was fairly common at many high school retreats I had been on. But for him, it was the first time he had encountered such a service.

Looking back on that experience, I realize that Adoration could appear strange, intimidating, or confusing, especially if encountered out of context. But the concept behind Eucharistic Adoration is simple: it is the opportunity to spend time in the presence of Jesus in the form of the Eucharist. This is done by kneeling before or sitting in the presence of a consecrated host, contained in a cross-shaped vessel called a monstrance.

Attending Adoration does not replace receiving the Eucharist while celebrating Mass, but rather is one of many ways we are invited to enrich our faith lives. What better way to encounter Christ than to sit in a chapel with Him for a while?

Photo from stbrenansatl.com

Here are my five tips about Eucharistic Adoration:

1.  There are lots of different ways by which we are invited to participate in Adoration. These include: praying individually, reading the Bible, praying the Rosary, journaling, doing other kinds of spiritual reading, or simply embracing the peaceful silence of Christ’s presence and allowing God to do the talking. This last option is my personal favorite activity during Adoration.

2.  Adoration is a great way to find peace in the midst of busy schedules. I typically leave Adoration feeling clear-minded and re-centered. At the end of rehearsals, The Notre Dame Folk Choir prays “in thanksgiving for silence when the world is loud.” Adoration is a fantastic opportunity to enter into this silence.

3.  It can be done in community, or individually. My story about Adoration from freshman year occurred at a retreat, which was a communal Adoration setting. Sitting in the presence of Jesus with friends or family can be a very powerful way to encounter the Eucharist, as is going to Adoration as an individual.

4.  It does not matter how long you stay at Adoration. Whether you sit in the presence of Christ for fifteen minutes or two hours, Adoration is like a refreshing retreat in and of itself.

5.  Adoration is for YOU! All are welcome. Adoration is not something you have to be particularly “good” at. In fact, as discussed above, there are lots of great ways to engage in Adoration. It’s not required, but offered as a gift and as an invitation to further engage our faith lives.

In honor of Pope Francis' visit to the United States this week…
Photo from saltandlighttv.org

Many find it particularly helpful to schedule Adoration in and to make it a part of their daily or weekly routines. Campus Ministry hosts adoration in the Notre Dame Our Mother Chapel inside the Coleman-Morse Center from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. every weekday. Anyone is free to drop in for any length of time, and there are sign-ups for half-hour slots throughout the Adoration period for those who wish to come on a weekly basis during particular periods. See this link for more information on Eucharistic Adoration, as well as the sign-up sheet for Adoration in CoMo.

Loving: The Brave Choice

This summer, I was asked to love people with everything I have because that’s what Jesus did.

I worked at Notre Dame Vision, a Catholic youth conference for high school students that involves some playing, some learning, some praying, and a whole lot of energy and joy. As a Mentor-In-Faith, it was my job to lead a small group and create a space where high schoolers could dialogue about faith and life.

I chatted about everything from Snap Chat (gotta love the newest filters) to Inside Out (best movie of the summer) to vocations with high school participants. My job was to encourage participants to recognize their gifts and how they would be used to change the world. In turn, the college students who led Vision strove to give of our own gifts wholly and constantly to the participants, a task which was both life-giving and challenging.

Loving, itself, is both life-giving and challenging. But while the choice to love can be challenging, I have never once made the loving choice in a situation and regretted it. Loving means summoning the extra energy to make a “good morning” greeting hearty and energy-giving, even if I’m still feeling sleepy (I have never been called a “morning person”!). Loving means listening to friends and parents and classmates and professors, and really hearing what they have to say before responding. Loving means having a humble awareness of my gifts and learning how to share them with others.

The perfect example of someone who always made the loving choice is Jesus. When the Word became flesh in the person of Jesus, He became the first example of the fullness of what God created man to be. Christ had the discipline, tenacity, and humility to love at all times, a concept that presented a “wake-up call” to humanity that came at a high cost. Persistence in love is one of the fruits of the Resurrection: one of the gifts Jesus gave to us.

Loving, I have learned, is the brave choice.

And the more we pour love out to others, the more we will be filled up with more love in return.

Image from communitylutheran.org

That Magic Week

This August, I had the privilege of witnessing God’s love manifested in a place: The Grand Canyon. His love is preserved in the fossil beds, built up in the multi-billion-year-old layers, carved into the grooves of rock. The patience, the care, the beauty: it’s all delivered through the persistence of the Colorado River, ever-flowing and continually changing that extravagant place into a new work of love.

Our crew, most of my dad’s side of the family, was in the Canyon for 8 days and 226 miles. My grandma asked that her ashes be spread there, which was our mission. The outcome? Abundant grace. Peaceful love. The making of thousands of tiny memory-instants. It was the best way I can imagine spending a week: having the opportunity to just be with one another was such a gift.

I hope the piece I offer below succeeds in conveying even a little sliver of the grace God gave my family and I during that magic week:

Were you paying attention?

Did you absorb the colors, feel the breeze, sense the energy in the splashes that arose from 
     the magical Colorado?

I did.

Were you scared?

Afraid of critters – scorpions, mice, snakes, bats –

Pieces of the canyon toppling on you while you slept,

Pushing your mental and physical strength as you suspended your body by four limbs on 
     slippery stone in the middle of a slot canyon?

Did you fear, even for a moment, that we might flip in the midst of Crystal or Lava Falls 
     rapids?

Did you hear the cicadas?

Smell the tasty freshness of the brush after thunderstorms that rolled in and out with ease?

Anticipate the beauty of each new rock layer of the canyon revealed around the bend?

Did you…

Feel the rush of jumping off the boat or of scrambling up a canyon wall or of sitting in 
     silence with beauty towering over you?

Contemplate the billions of years during which God crafted this place and the risks it took 
     other humans to discover and explore it and live there?

Pray while watching a shooting star and its wondrous tail flash across the light-speckled 
     night sky?

Marvel at tadpoles and wade through muddy water that stained your skin and caked your 
     hair?

Did you notice how nature has full reign there?

Did you rejoice at the blue color of the Little Colorado River?

And proceed to make a human train through a rapid

That ended up in a big puddle of family and body parts and laughs and sputters and joy?

And swallow mouthfuls of the river with your head thrown back and your eyes squinty and 
     your arms flailing all about?

Did you rise and set with the sun?

Did you encounter the Son?

Did the experience change you in ways you needed to be changed?

Did you stand in wonder at the base of a waterfall Grams jumped off of, and then jump off 
     of it yourself?

Did you reflect on the fact that none of us would be here –

Yes, here:

In the world,

Experiencing this glorious life in the way that we currently are –

Without her?

Did you miss her?

Me too.

Did you find love, and give it all away?

Did you sing

And dance

And laugh

And play

And swim

And bathe

And play cards

And pack up

And hike

And work a bag line

And cook

And clean

And huddle under a tent

And pass around Twizzlers and Sour Patch and gorp and peanut butter pretzels

And talk

And sit

And remember

And cry

And learn

And celebrate

And give thanks

And frolic

With your family

And two awesome guides

And some of your best friends on the whole planet

In the midst

Of God’s endlessly majestic

And utterly indescribable creation

For one week of uninterrupted adventure and joy?

I did.