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

by Kathleen Norris

Overview

The bestselling author of The Cloister Walk reflects on the sanctifying possibilities of everyday work and how God is present in worship and liturgy as well as in ordinary life. Definitely not “for women only.”
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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809138012
Publisher:	Paulist Press
Publication date:	01/01/1998
Series:	Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality Series , #1998
Pages:	104
Sales rank:	170,128
Product dimensions:	4.50(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.31(d)

Editorial Reviews

Laundry may seem an odd element in the realm of religious worship, but poet and author, Norris (Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, LJ 12/92) has a talent for weaving seemingly disparate fragments of life together to see them as naturally connected. She points out that "women's work" such as laundry, cooking, and cleaning, done repeatedly on a daily basis and seemingly never to completion, can be approached in the same manner as liturgy. If seen as endless and dreary repetition, these domestic rituals become mindless activities to be gotten out of the way. When considered in terms of their enormous life-giving importance, the feeding and clothing of a family and maintaining of a household can be undertaken in the contemplative spirit. They become, like prayer and worship, acts of love that transform us and, in turn, the larger world around us. An uplifting book of inspiration, this is filled with humorous insights that will be enjoyed by readers unfamiliar with Norris's other work.

Library Journal