The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work"

by Kathleen Norris

guidebook to the history of English, Eric Partridge’s Origins,

She reminds us that we need to keep praying for this food, acknowledging our needs as daily, because in the act of asking, the prayer awakens in us the trust that God will provide.

Laundry is universal—we all must do it, or figure out a way to get it done—and as I learned when writing my essay, it is also surprisingly particular.

adept at recognizing and savoring the holy in the mundane circumstances of daily life. Finding spiritual refreshment in unlikely places, she can offer nourishment to her children.

No matter how dreary the weather, inside or outside the car, there are daily blessings to be found.

Lauds (or morning prayer) reminds us of our need to renew, to remember and recommit to this process of creation in our inmost selves. Those

The evening offices of vespers and compline, by comparison, are a surrendering of contention, a willingness to let the day go, and let God bring on the quiet, brooding darkness in which dreams might wrestle with and even nourish the soul.

Remembering to praise God every morning, noon and evening establishes a primal rhythm, as primal as creation,

“My strength… returns to me with my cup of coffee and the reading of the psalms.”

morning devotions can feel useless, not nearly as important as getting about my business early in the day. I know

It is as if I have taken the world’s weight on my shoulders and am too greedy, and too foolish, to surrender it to God.

Both laundry and worship are repetitive activities with a potential for tedium, and I hate to admit it, but laundry often seems like the more useful of the tasks. But both are the work that God has given us to do.

Sirach 27:30: “Anger and wrath&are abominations, yet the sinner holds on to them.”

Instead of looking inward to find the true reason for their sadness—with me, it is usually a fear of losing an illusory control—they direct it outward, barreling through the world, impatient and even brutal with those they encounter, especially those who are closest to them.

“O God, make haste to my rescue,/Lord come to my aid!” (Ps 70:2, GR).

“What I do must be done/each day, in every season,/like liturgy,”

Marriage is eternal, but it’s also daily, as daily and unromantic as housekeeping.