The days immediately after Christmas are a watershed; for some people, they present the opportunity to rest and relax after days of frenetic preparations and activity. There are others for whom the short lived season of generosity of spirit is past and it is time to revert to the grind of poverty, worry and fear about life.
The Christian liturgical year is divided into the seasons that many of us can name and the big festivals fit into them with due time for preparation. Almost half the year is in ‘Ordinary Time’. The word ordinary, in English, means ‘not different, or special. Or unexpected in any way’. These are the weeks when we settle into the rhythm of life that allows us to mature in our faith.
Growing children have occasional growth spurts, interspersed with times when they consolidate.
For some of us, ordinary is boring, mundane or even tedious. For others of us, ordinary is a time of relief and the chance to have a bit of a rest in the comfortable routine of days coming and going.
This year we have six Sundays or Ordinary Time now, before Lent and do not return to it again until June. Everything in between carrying some sort of label.
We need to make the most of the weeks of maturation, of growing and consolidating. We all need to remind ourselves that he majority of life is ordinary.
A Prayer
Loving Father, we pray that you will help us to focus on making the most of the ordinary. Teach us how to fill out in the gaps between our growth spurts so we become solid and reliable for you and there for one another, especially those who need us most or who are easily forgotten. This we pray for Jesus’ sake. Amen.