Of celery and prophets in the temple of the ordinary

I wrote the opening essay for this month's Give Us This Day.  I riff off the story of Anna the prophetess who appears in today's Gospel for the Feast of the Presentation. We hear that Anna prays day and night in the temple precincts but not a single word of hers is recorded. She stands as a saint of the Ordinary, her prayers beating out the rhythm of her days.

"As extraordinary as it is to be drawn into a relationship with the immanent and transcendent Triune God, prayer is meant to be an ordinary part of our lives. Like the making of dinner and doing the dishes, it is what sustains us. In his short book The Need and the Blessing of Prayer, theologian Karl Rahner, SJ, advises, 'Pray in the everyday; pray the everyday.'"

The whole essay is posted at the Liturgical Press blog if you want to read the rest.