Season of Thanks & Seeing the Extraordinary

Last weekend, my wife and I attended a wedding of a young couple who were married at Immaculate Conception Chapel on the campus of Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md. The priest, a friend of the couple, talked about the sacrament of marriage, and in his explanation, he focused on the meaning of “sacrament.” He explained that the sacraments make the ordinary into the extraordinary. As he said, any two people can get married anywhere, but those who choose to be married in the Church by invoking the sacrament of matrimony are specifically acknowledging the presence of God, who blesses the ordinary, making it extraordinary.

As I thought about the priest’s words, It occurred to me that we are asked by God to see the extraordinary in the ordinary all the time, to appreciate the beauty and wonder of creation in the people we encounter and in all of our surroundings. To create such a mind view is, in a way, to see everything as a sacramental opportunity to be infused with God’s presence. That is a helpful idea for me as I work through situations each day that may challenge my patience or not square with my sense of equity. If I consider that God is somehow present in all of this, perhaps I can learn from the experiences rather be drained by them.

I am grateful to have attended this wedding to hear the words of the priest with the Thanksgiving holiday next week and the start of the Advent season a week later in anticipation of Christmas. All of us, I am sure, are grateful for the many blessings we enjoy, and I know that many give thanks more than just one day out of the year. Many offer daily thanks, as we do at Archmere, in the morning as the school day begins, before lunch, and other times throughout the day when we might pause to offer a prayer. But I believe that to be in a constant state of gratitude results in an even deeper union with our God, allowing us to see more readily the extraordinary in the ordinary.

When we attended the wedding reception after the Nuptial Mass, the bride and groom offered words of welcome and thanks to the guests. They said that one of their gifts to us was noted on the bottom of our place cards. There was written a date, and they explained that on that day they prayed for us in thanksgiving for our friendship and support by giving witness to their marriage. I have never had a place card mean more to me – something so simple and ordinary made very special and extraordinary.

As we share the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday with families and friends, my prayer for all of us is that we appreciate each moment together and make the ordinary extraordinary by the way we choose to relate to others and to see the blessings of the world around us.