The more unusual an event seems, the easier it is to believe that God was involved. That is often our tendency—to see God in the extraordinary. In February, we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus. The Gospel reading for this feast day introduces us to Simeon, a man who somehow overcame this tendency.
Simeon was in the temple when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to present Him to God. The scene before him that day seemed ordinary. An everyday couple with an ordinary child, participating in a ritual that had been practiced by Jewish parents for hundreds of years. Yet, Simeon saw beyond the ordinary and recognized the divine. Through this Child, Heaven had touched earth, and life would never be the same.
Today, we face a similar challenge. If we look for God only in the extraordinary, we might miss Him altogether. But if we train our eyes to see Him in common things, like Simeon did, we can encounter Him every day. Most of our days are unremarkable. They begin and end without any lasting memories. We wake up at the same time, send our children off to school, and go to work. In the rush of daily routines, we often forget to consider the spiritual. But do we ever think of God when we eat? Without Him, nothing would grow. Do we think of God when we receive a hug from someone we love? He is the source of all love.
Jesus saw God in the ordinary moments of life. He saw God in the flowers and the birds. He saw God in the shepherd searching for a lost sheep, and in the father embracing a rebellious son. To Jesus, ordinary events and people were windows into the Kingdom of Heaven—windows through which He could see God.
We can do the same. Our failure to see God doesn’t mean He is absent; it usually means we are looking for Him only in the unusual, which rarely happens. But God is with us in the ordinary moments of life.
Remember: He took ordinary bread and ordinary wine and said, “This is My Body, which is given for you; this is My Blood, which is given for you. Do this in memory of Me.”
As we embark on the 2025 Jubilee Year, with the theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” we are reminded of the unique ways in which God invites us to find Him, not only in the extraordinary, but also in the everyday. The journey of a pilgrim is not always about seeking distant places, but recognizing the divine in our regular, daily surroundings.
This Jubilee year, one such pilgrim site is here at Graymoor, a place of prayer and spirituality where many have sought to encounter God’s presence in the serene beauty of nature and in quiet moments of reflection. As pilgrims of hope, let us open our hearts to the divine in the ordinary, allowing each step we take to draw us nearer to the presence of God.