ABOUT

Hello, and welcome to The Contemplative Homemaker! My name is Lauren, and I am a Catholic convert, wife, and mother of three. After practicing law for nearly seven years and serving as Christian Formation Director at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church for a time, I am now "simply" a full-time homemaker, occasional homeschooler, intermittent speaker and writer, and sporadic graduate student studying spiritual theology at The Avila Institute. 

 

The inspiration for The Contemplative Homemaker struck me several years ago I ran across a story of St. Francis of Assisi that radically changed the way I thought about my daily tasks. One day, while hoeing his garden, someone asked St. Francis what he would do if he knew he was going to suddenly die before sunset that very day. St. Francis reportedly replied, "I would finish hoeing my garden." 

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There is something deeply spiritual about work - something about the mundane and the ordinary that brings us closer to God. In the beginning, when God settled Adam in the Garden of Eden, it was for the purpose of allowing Adam to cultivate and care for it (Genesis 2:15). Moreover, the first thirty years of Jesus's life were spent "hidden" in Nazareth, learning the carpenter's trade. It was through this time of quiet growth, obedience, and  work that our Lord prepared for his salvific mission. 

 

The spirit of the Rule of St. Benedict is "ora et labora," or, "pray and work." Work, however, does not begin when prayer ends. Rather, prayer continues through our work. A life of contemplation in action. Whatever your vocation or stage of life, my hope is that this blog can help inspire you to transform the mundane into the miraculous and support you on your path to sainthood, even if that path is through something as ordinary as a seemingly endless pile of laundry.