I don’t usually love doing housework, but I do like to have things in order. When I was a young mother I felt like it was an impossible task to keep the house clean- it seemed that the piles of laundry or the dishes in the sink would multiply like so many Tribbles on a Starship. With age and a better handle on organization- plus kids getting older-that time of chaos seems like a distant memory.
We have a pretty rustic home in the mountains outside of New York that we go to many weekends to get away from the hustle of the city. We don’t have a dishwasher upstate, so I found myself on Sunday morning being the only person awake, in front of a sink filled with soap suds, cleaning up the remnants of the previous night’s feast. I recognized that this quiet time with my hands in water would be a perfect time for prayer.
Before I really got into praying, I started to think about how our Blessed Mother Mary also would have washed the dishes for her family, and how she never would have felt “put upon” by the chore. Her “Big Yes” of accepting her role without question in the Annunciation, was undoubtedly followed by thousands of smaller “yesses” as she lived out her perfect vocation. While none of us are perfect in our vocations (and certainly not me when it comes to caring for my house!), it is such a wonderful opportunity to bless our families in the same way that she most certainly blessed hers.
Feeling the love of the Blessed Mother with me as I started to wash the dishes, it became a wonderful opportunity to say the rosary as I scrubbed away, and had the beautiful winter morning outside the window staring back at me. When I had finished the praying and the dishes, it occurred to me that years ago the idea of saying the rosary daily was daunting because I wondered when I would fit it in to my busy schedule. Now that I have been at it for some time, I realize that there are so many hidden moments in every day available for prayer- if you want there to be. Before the feet hit the floor in the morning is perfect, but so is when taking a shower, when commuting, when taking a lunch break, when doing something manual like chopping onions or folding laundry, and of course, when in bed before the day is done. We also have the opportunity for a “yes” to giving our lives to Christ, always and completely, and it starts with choosing to be in communion through prayer.