Sacraments of the Ordinary

 

In the Middle Ages, people carried a book of brief prayers called a breviary, or a Book of Hours, to help them pause for prayer. In our time, we're so busy we need to pause just to take a breath! Yet it only takes one breath to enter the kingdom of heaven on earth. This is not really a book of hours, but a book of moments.

If we go 101% into this ordinary moment, it is an extraordinary moment in eternity. Such a moment can provide energy and clarity for hours. This moment is not a "High Feast": it is what the Church once called "the Ordinary of the Seasons," a sacrament of the commonplace that re-ignites the wonder we felt in childhood.

How we limit ourselves in believing that we must do something new, something edgy, something extreme to experience a glorious adventure. If we are awake, a glass of water is breathtaking, a dandelion miraculous, the eyes of a friend an infinite journey. To the awakened heart, every atom of the earth is made out of love.

The momentary meditations in this book will refresh you throughout your busy day. They require no religious belief or sustained concentration. In fact, they invite you to de-concentrate and relax your awareness. Relaxation is power.

Spirituality is generated in the body, not out of the body. That is why the practices in this little Book of Moments do not transcend our earthly experience, but celebrate it. You can practice these moments of enlightenment in the midst of your work - at the desk, the bus stop, the garden, the kitchen sink.