Living a Hidden and Ordinary Life

Photo by Kevin McCutcheon on Unsplash

It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since the country entered its first lockdown due to the pandemic. One thing that the pandemic brought to light was our tendency to normally be ‘on the go’ – to be busy with something, to be going somewhere, to be meeting someone, to be hurrying from one place to another. There is nothing wrong with being busy, of course. But it made me realise that it is sometimes at the expense of noticing or appreciating the ordinary things that are often in front of us every day. 

It’s quite simple, but it can be hard to grasp, since we can be obsessed with achieving and being ‘extraordinary.’ I remember a colleague remarking at how creative she had to be to make her 5km restrictions during the lockdown somewhat more exciting, and that she had never really appreciated what was around her up until then. 

What do the poets have to say?

Of course it was a very wearying time, but it made me think of the poet Patrick Kavanagh, who was described by Seamus Heaney as having the “indefectible gift for discovering the mystical body of the world in the bits and pieces of every day.” Indeed Seamus Heaney himself was a master of ‘the ordinary’ and his 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature was “for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles…”  

For me, both poets are perfect examples of how we can have a fullness of life, even within the seemingly ordinary or mundane events of every day. For this reason, too, one of my favourite quotes from St. Josemaria Escriva is “there is something holy, something divine hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it.”

Is there anything divine in my life? 

Given that most of us experience quite a similar ‘ordinary’ life and routine – getting up for work, making dinner, doing the housework, going for a walk, taking care of family  – means that we all have a chance to discover something of the divine that St Josemaria speaks about. 

Granted, we might sometimes need to find some moments of silence to really ponder this, but it’s quite nice to think that we can get closer to God, and find that union with Him, by being perfectly ordinary.  If our destination is heaven, the way there can only be what we have in front of us everyday. But how is that done? What does that mean?  Can we do like Heaney did in his poetry and “exalt the everyday miracles” in our day and build heaven on earth?

Discovering what it is not

Often we discover the hidden depths of something by discovering what it is not. Discovering God in the ordinary is not passive acceptance of life. It’s not taking what comes our way without agency or living life as if we were sleepwalking. It is not being reconciled to our fate.  Rather, it’s seeing our realities as God sees them; with eyes of faith.  Jesus became man and worked on this earth like you and me. That tells us that what we do each day is of infinite value - if we choose to discover the value. 

It boils down to doing what we do intentionally and as well as we can, with love. Then we have brought heaven on earth. It might be as simple as the difference between an unmade bed and one made well every day and with love and that simple effort offered up for someone we care about, maybe the Pope! 

Holiness: putting ourselves into things?

Even when ordinary life throws us a few curveballs, we can still find something to smile about or something to give to God. Putting ourselves wholeheartedly into these inconveniences is what it means to be a living Saint in the ordinary. 

An example of the ordinary life well lived might be found in St. Joseph. He is traditionally portrayed as humble, hardworking and obedient in his very ordinary life.  Yet, he was someone of extraordinary significance. He does not utter one word in the Gospel and yet he did God’s will and never complained. He did not have Mary’s privileges of grace, and yet he was always united to God. He reminds us that the divine dimension of life gives meaning to everything.

We too can imitate this and turn each one of those ordinary things into moments of grace, moments where I try to be Christ, reacting as he would have reacted. This is the ordinary holiness of putting God in the centre, without fuss or fanfare, without any external show, but on the inside.  

Being able to sanctify cooking dinner, watching a film, calling that friend (even our sleep!) is something quite extraordinary. Nothing in our life is inconsequential. It all has meaning and significance.  Having this ‘material’ and means to holiness so clearly within our reach might also mean that we enjoy it. 

Let’s ask ourselves if we can do the ordinary better and more lovingly than before. And perhaps we can let St Joseph teach us how.

Editor’s note: This blog post was originally published with the title Saint of the Ordinary during the Covid-19 Lockdown. It has since been updated and edited for clarity.