Perfection in ordinary things

Perfection in ordinary things

$12.  On the other hand, if there should arise the temptation to do strange and extraordinary things, overcome it. For us, that way of working is mistaken, the wrong track. I will say this with an example which will probably amuse you. Imagine that you go to a hotel and ask for hake. Some minutes go by, and the waiter brings you a dish. Looking at it, you are surprised to see that it is not hake, but rather a snake. Perhaps one of those great miracle-workers of old, whom I admire and whose lives were full of marvels, might have reacted by giving a blessing and transforming the reptile into a well-cooked hake. That approach merits all my respect, but it is not ours.

Our way is simply to call the waiter and say clearly, “This is garbage. Take it away and bring me what I asked for.” Or perhaps, if there are reasons that make it advisable, you could make an act of mortification and eat the snake, well aware that it is a snake, offering this to God. There is, in fact, a third alternative: call the waiter over and punch him a few times, but this is not our solution either, because it would be a lack of charity.

My children, what is extraordinary for us is the ordinary: the ordinary done with perfection. It is to be always smiling, overlooking – even with human grace – the things that irritate, that annoy. It is to be generous without measure. In a word, it is to make of our ordinary life a continuous prayer.

Ours is of ordinary providence