A Prayer for Grace in Ordinary Life

 Laundry may seem an odd element in the realm of religious worship, but poet and author, Kathleen Norris has a talent for weaving seemingly disparate fragments of life together to see them as naturally connected. In her The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Llturgy and “Women’s Work”, she points out that "women's work" such as laundry, cooking, and cleaning, done repeatedly, on a daily basis and seemingly never to completion, can be approached in the same manner as liturgy.

If seen as endless and dreary repetition, these domestic rituals become mindless activities to be gotten out of the way. When considered in terms of their enormous life-giving importance, the feeding and clothing of a family and maintaining of a household can be undertaken in the contemplative spirit. They become, like prayer and worship, acts of love that transform us and, in turn, the larger world around us.

“O Father, light up the small duties of this day’s life: may they shine with the beauty of Thy countenance. May we believe that glory can dwell in the commonest task of every day.”
— Saint Augustine

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation