Beauty In The Ordinary: The Lost and Found Art of Homemaking

“We live as though He were far away, in the heavens high above, and we forget that He is also continually by our side.” How can we find Him, how can we establish a relationship with Him? “Understand this well: there is something holy, something divine hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it.” 

- Saint Josemaria Escriva 

 The home is the domestic church. As women, we have an innate desire to cultivate and surround ourselves with beauty. The art of homemaking is one prominent way to bring beauty into the seemingly ordinary day-to-day tasks of life. Fresh flowers on the table, beautiful music, sacred art, and making homemade meals are just a couple examples of bringing beauty to the home. 

 Something as simple as growing some food in your backyard, to eventually pick, and bring to the table; becomes a prayer of thanksgiving to The Lord, for His food of the earth. As I pick the blackberries and lemons from the garden, I find myself relishing in the sweet simplicity of allowing The Lord to provide, and in receiving His bounty. The lesson of feminine receptivity is found in making fresh lemonade. The Good God provides the lemons, I receive them, and turn them into something delightful. The man provides, the woman receives, and thus brings forth beautiful life. All of God’s creation and design, are intertwined as one divine love letter. 

 A woman is deemed a “co-creator” with God. Women today are largely unhappy and unfulfilled because they have forgotten their sublime mission. “Woman has forgotten her nature, and she has forgotten that she is heaven's instrument on earth. Man cooperates with nature, but woman cooperates with God. Woman, to be happy, must be a co-worker to the Divine; for she bears what God alone can give."

- Venerable Fulton Sheen "Life, Marriage, and Children” 

 To be a woman means to bring forth the beauty of God. I truly believe that one way forward is by taking a step back and reintroducing traditional ways to be interwoven into our day in age, thus bringing back the lost art of homemaking. Many skills that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers once possessed such as sewing, baking, canning, and gardening, are being lost among our generation today. Perhaps the way forward is achieved by taking a step back, and cultivating timeless life skills; that help simply, beautify, and direct our eyes to God. Our grandmothers grew their own food and created fresh meals out of them. In all of that is a prayer. We’ve lost the simple beauty of daily thanksgiving in the garden for the harvest. One’s a lot less likely to pray when picking out produce from the grocery store. The generations before us relied on God as the provider, today we rely on the supply chain as our provider. These seemingly mundane generational changes have compiled into a now faithless generation, that relies not on God but on man and technology for all things. 

Mother Teresa was quoted saying, “Wash the plate not because it is dirty nor because you are told to wash it, but because you love the person who will use it next.” Sure the dishwasher is a time saver, but hand-washing dishes can become a prayer. I watched a documentary called “An Enclosed Garden of God: The Joyful Mystery of a Traditional Carmelite Monastery” about these Carmelite cloistered nuns who live completely off-grid lives, enclosed behind the walls of the monastery. These nuns have no electricity, but are illuminated with the light of Christ, and thus they have an abundance of joy; the type of joy that the modern world craves to possess. 

I think we can all learn a thing or two from cloistered Carmelite nuns. The home is supposed to be the domestic church, and our hearts are supposed to be like the cloister, totally focused on God. We are to make our homes beautiful with proper order, and Christ-centered like the convent. I’ve heard women say in response to being a stay-at-home mother, “I don’t want to be at home all day!” Home is supposed to be a place where God dwells, not a place where one wants to escape from. The barometer for if your home resembles the domestic church is if your loved ones wish to relish there, as one wishes to relish in the pews of The Church. Home is supposed to be our haven, our place of refuge, and our mini monasteries where The Lord dwells in the midst. As the nuns in the cloister pray all day and around the clock; we are supposed to look for opportunities to pray throughout our day. Washing dishes, sweeping floors, and cooking meals all can be offered up and turned into prayers. God is found on the altar, and He’s also found in the midst of all the pots and pans at home. Let us remember that The great Mother of God was none other than a simple housewife. 

 This doesn’t mean that we all need to buy a lot of land and move out to the countryside; and never use a dishwasher again. It simply means that we have to cultivate being a homemaker wherever we find ourselves, and more so importantly shift to the mindset of a Catholic homemaker, where everything can become a prayer, and an opportunity to make the ordinary extraordinarily beautiful. 

In imitation of Our Lady, it’s time to bring back the lost, and now found art of homemaking.