Let us remind ourselves over and over again that holiness has to do with very ordinary things: truthfulness, courtesy, kindness, gentleness, consideration for others, contentment with our lot, honesty and courage in the face of life, reliability, dutifulness. . .If we were to offer advice to those who want to advance. . .it would be to set the compass, so to speak; to aim at this gathering up of the self so as to be able to give that self to God. This has nothing to do with a psychic awareness, it happens in day to day life. It involves constant watchfulness for the call of God so as to answer with an immediate ‘yes.’ We miss countless opportunities when he is there offering himself because we don’t notice him, we are not really looking for him. This is where our attention should be – the whole of it – on noticing where he is, what he is asking now, not on spiritual states, stages, what happens to us when we are at prayer, what we feel of God and all the rest of it. What matters is that at every moment of our life we are there, waiting, receptive.
– Sister Ruth Burrows, O.C.D.
