We often imagine that God is waiting for us to become a more organized, prayerful, patient and generally improved version of ourselves. But Ordinary Time reminds us that God does not work with our improved selves—God works with the people we actually are. As All Saints approaches, perhaps holiness is less about self-improvement and more about surrender: discovering that grace begins not when we become impressive, but when we simply show up.
Tag Archives: Spiritual Growth
When God Is Quietly Mending Things
Some repairs arrive with noise and commotion. Grace usually does not. In these quiet days of Ordinary Time, perhaps God is already mending relationships, healing wounds, restoring hope, and making things new—one small stitch at a time.
God Is Probably in the Laundry: The Holiness of Doing It Again
Much of life consists of doing things again: washing the dishes, making breakfast, saying our prayers, offering forgiveness, beginning again. Perhaps holiness is not found only in extraordinary moments, but in the faithful repetition of ordinary ones. As All Saints approaches, we remember that saints were formed through thousands of ordinary mornings offered to God.
The Holiness of Showing Up: Why God Keeps Meeting Us in the Same Old Places
Most of the Christian life happens not on mountaintops, but in kitchens, offices, parish halls, and ordinary days. Perhaps holiness is less about doing extraordinary things and more about returning faithfully—to prayer, to mercy, to one another, and to God—with love.
The Holy Art of Not Getting Everything Done
We live in a culture that admires completion, but most of life is lived in the middle — between beginning and completion, between planting and harvest, between the person we once were and the person God is still creating. In this reflection, we explore the holy art of not getting everything done, and how the interruptions, unfinished lists, and ordinary days of life are not failures, but often the very places where God meets us.
God Is in the Unfinished Things
We like beginnings and endings, but most of life is lived somewhere in between. In the Ordinary Time between Thanksgiving and All Saints, perhaps there is grace in remembering that unfinished does not mean abandoned. God is still working—in our questions, our healing, our relationships, our ordinary days, and in the people we are still becoming.
When Nothing Much Happens: The Spiritual Gift of an Uneventful Day
Most of life is lived far from the dramatic and extraordinary. Yet an uneventful day may be one of God’s quietest gifts—a day held together by grace, filled with ordinary acts of faithfulness, and made holy by Christ’s presence.
The Holy Art of Showing Up: When Faithfulness Looks Remarkably Ordinary
Holiness rarely arrives with trumpets. More often, it looks like showing up, saying our prayers, keeping promises, forgiving, serving, and beginning again. In the quiet days between Thanksgiving and All Saints, Ordinary Time reminds us that God does some of God’s finest work through small acts of faithfulness repeated day after day.
After the Pie is gone: When thanksgiving becomes a way of Life.
Thanksgiving may end when the dishes are washed and the leftovers are packed away, but Christian thanksgiving is meant to last much longer. What if gratitude became more than a holiday—what if it became a way of noticing grace, sharing our blessings, and living generously every ordinary day?
The More We Give Thanks, the More We Discover
Gratitude does not always arrive naturally. Sometimes thanksgiving begins as a spiritual practice before it becomes a feeling. As we learn to notice the ordinary gifts already surrounding us, our eyes begin to change—and we discover that grace has been quietly present all along.