Spiritual Practice: Bowl of Water

From Jay Cormier’s Lent daily reflections: Not By Bread Alone: Daily Reflections for Lent 2015, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, I read his reflection for Tuesday, February 24, 2015, which had a wonderful story of a woman who was trying a daily practice that she had learned from a Buddhist nun.

Every morning the nun would fill a bowl to the brim, thinking of all the people in her life that she cared for, all the things which she was given, all the beauty around her.  Then she would carry this bowl carefully to her prayer space without trying to spill a drop.  The exercise made the nun very mindful of those things in her life that she loved, was given and admired.  At the end of the day the nun would spill the water out onto the earth, remembering that eventually everything goes back to the earth.

I love rituals and this one speaks to me, but I thought of everyday rituals we do as moms: clean, fix dinner, care for our family; and there is a rhythm and ritual with those acts.

Every morning I do what every mom does: wash up after our family members have washed up.  It is a perfect opportunity for us to be mindful of all those we love, for those who do not have a home to care for, for those in the world struggling with family.  This everyday ritual was something I garnered from the book Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim.  The book, written by Father Edward Hays, examines how everything we do, everything we encounter; from the most mundane to the most profound, can become prayer and ritual. Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim

So, with both example of the mediation bowl and prayers of the everyday in the book we can see that housework is a form of prayer.

How are some ways you have made the every day things you do a form of prayer?




She is married 20 years and has four children



  1. sarah soriano

    hey patti u know this may sound funny but when I shower I picture myself being baptized by Christ is that a little weird? I really do feel like that it iss a refreshing feeling to think that every time u wash u r washing all your sins away and start anew each day
    what do u think

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