Ordinary People Living Inner Lives

 From Heather King:

She decided to become a Catholic.

But what was her vocation now? Hitz wondered.

“Never short on self-esteem, I was sure that God would want me to do something quite unusual. … I figured I could live in a poor neighborhood as a sort of Catholic anarchist, teaching Greek and Latin out of my living room to the locals.”

Instead, she sold her car, gave away her furniture, put her books in storage, and for three years lived under obedience at Madonna House, a Catholic lay community in Combermere, Ontario, founded by Servant of God Catherine de Hueck Doherty (1896-1985).

The life is rigorous: no internet, virtually no time alone. “All that was permitted to me was a full, ordinary human life: work, service, friendship; leisured time in nature … lovingly prepared liturgical celebrations.”

Hitz saw the profound value in such a life. At the same time, she thought hard about the point of higher learning. She began to realize she was stifling her deepest desires and gifts. She began to think of returning to the small college that had first nurtured her thirst for learning, for asking the deep questions, for pondering the works of those who have asked those questions before us: Homer, St. Augustine, Dante, Dostoevsky.

She realized that throughout time and history there has been a huge unremarked upon body of “ordinary people — library users, taxi drivers, history buffs, prisoners, stockbrokers — doing intellectual work without recognizing it as such or taking pride in it.”

“Lost in Thought” celebrates such people. People who participate fully and responsibly in life but, left to their own devices, immediately shut the door and curl up with a book.(Read more.)