Before we do the extraordinary…We must first do the ordinary…This is how God works…And this is how we must work as well

Today at Holy Mass in the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Hosea the Lord calls to his people pleading with them to return to him…..”I will heal their defection, says the LORD, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them.”….Above all, God is our Father and a Father’s love for his children is not subject to whims…We are flesh of his flesh….God’s love for us sees past our sins and faults…It sees what and who we were born to be….And only and until we know of this love will we subject ourselves to God’s transforming grace……Being Catholic is not about “ticking boxes”…Its not like studying from a book…Its a lived experience….It transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary….We too easily forget that God works in the ordinary….This morning I read a refection from a French Servant of God (Elisabeth Lesser)…This is what she said….”We must fulfill our responsibilities daily, without worrying about what fruit God will draw out of them. For us: work, sacrifice, the offering of ourselves. For God: the immediate or remote effect that the least of our thoughts and actions will have on others. Nothing is lost”…….This is how we are to live….And it is through the “ordinary” that we cooperate with God….Who is a Father above all things…Constantly calling to his children to return to him…However, before we are satisfied with performing the “ordinary”. We first must encounter the Father’s love for us….No book, sermon, or self-motivation will bring satisfaction to a hidden life…A humble life that does the “ordinary”…..And does it well

"If only my people would hear me, and Israel walk in my ways, I would feed them with the best of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would fill them."

When I was a kid I remember my father talking about how if you were good at baseball, the professional scouts will find you - No matter where you are from - They will find you…Well, God works the same way….When we look at the lives of the saints…Many of them lived very ordinary and hidden lives…Somehow God found them and so did the Church, who in turn canonized them and magnified their work in a way that almost seems impossible……But remember, nothing is impossible for God…..In the first reading from Mass, the Prophet Hosea talks about how God will heal his people….How does God do that today? - Well, people believe what they see….Not necessarily what they read or hear…..And a Catholic who embraces humble acts of self sacrificial service to others - This approach to life speaks - No - It screams of God to the world…..When the foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor (St Jeanne Jugan) was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI, the pope said you will be hard pressed to find a more humble saint. St Jeanne, was a poor French lay woman who worked menial jobs her enter life…One day she saw an old blind woman on the streets…St Jeanne took her into her own home and placed this poor stranger in her bed and cared for this woman….This began a work that spread all over the world….St Jeanne founded the Little Sisters of the Poor who care for the elderly who are destitute….How could such a simple uneducated person start something that spreads all over the world from some remote town in France?…Tell that to Harvard Business School…But this is how God works…God sees what we do not see and he magnifies our “ordinary” tasks….Far too many in the Church are “caught up” with trying to do the “extraordinary”…..If we focus on the ordinary…God will turn the “ordinary” into the “extraordinary”…Again, this is how God works…Like my father would always say…If your good at baseball, the professional scouts will find you….So it is with God….Once again, God who is a loving father is always calling to his children….We assist God in this call when we do the ordinary and do it well

"Unseen, I answered you in thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear, my people, and I will admonish you; O Israel, will you not hear me?"

Far too many see God as this ogre, who points out all our flaws and tells us what to do….I can’t speak for you, but that is not the God I know….God is a father, who continuously calls to us…Who works through the ordinary…..”Again they shall dwell in his shade and raise grain; They shall blossom like the vine, and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon”…If we as Catholics what to participant in God's eternal work of salvation - And many do! - We need to focus on our daily tasks at hand…And do them well…..When we are rooted in Sacramental grace and daily prayer…God will magnify our work…But this work begins in the “ordinary”…....The power of a “hidden life” can transform generations…..Do you doubt what I say?……St Joseph did not have one recorded word in the entire book of the Bible…Our Lady was always in the shadow of her son…And look at how God multiplied their “ordinary lives”….Before we do the extraordinary…We must first do the ordinary…This is how God works…And this is how we must work as well