HOLINESS is always tied to LITTLE GESTURES. ... These little gestures are those we LEARN AT HOME, in the family; they get lost amid all the other things we do, yet they do make each day different.
They are the QUIET THINGS done by MOTHERS and GRANDMOTHERS, by FATHERS and GRANDFATHERS, by CHILDREN. They are LITTLE SIGNS of tenderness, affection and compassion. Like the warm supper we look forward to at night, the early lunch awaiting someone who gets up early to go to work. HOMELY GESTURES. Like a blessing before we go to bed, or a hug after we return from a hard day’s work. Love is shown by LITTLE THINGS, by attention to SMALL DAILY SIGNS which make us feel at home.
Faith grows when it is lived and shaped by love. That is why our families, our homes, are true domestic churches. They are the right place for faith to become life, and life to become faith.
-- POPE FRANCIS in Philadelphia, 27 Sept 2015
Holiness in homely gestures
