Ordinary Time

Pause

“Here we are, you and I, and I hope a third, Christ, is in our midst.”

Aelred of Rievaulx, 12th Century

Listen

Your laws are so faithful. Holiness decorates your house, Lord, for all time.

Psalm 93:5

Think

This final phrase from Psalm 93 adds a key word to the power of God’s laws – that they are not merely faithful, but SO faithful that God’s house is figuratively “decorated” with holiness.

Have you ever wondered what a house decorated with holiness would look like? The question is intriguing.

Take a walk around your own house, or just your room, and look at the artwork on the walls, the pottery and books on the shelves, the photographs of family and friends (perhaps some who are no longer alive). You may begin to realize that many of these decorations are holy. They may remind you of unforgettable people and moments in your life; of places you’ve visited that took your breath away because of their beauty. You may see this place differently and realize that you’re walking on sacred ground.

Christine Vogel

Pray

Faithful and loving God, may I always seek a house decorated with love and holiness. For that is where I shall find you – even in the darkest of days. Amen.

Go

“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. […] Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, 1929