Ordinary Time

After the wonderful festival of Christmas and the celebration of “God become human,” we Christians find ourselves in our liturgical life when nothing “special” happens–that is, unless you consider every day in the Lord “special.” In the time between the Feast of Epiphany and Ash Wednesday we observe no particular season. We don’t spend time in fasting and self-reflection as we do during Lent. There is none of the unique joy which marks our celebrations of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. In fact, save for the isolated holy days of, say, Sts. Peter and Paul, this stretch of time is just plain conventional. Everyday. Commonplace. Undistinguished. Ordinary.
And yet it is precisely during this ordinary time that the church has the opportunity for real growth. This is one of the reasons why green, the color of growth, is the liturgical color for this season after Epiphany (and its longer cousin, the season after Pentecost). Our Sunday readings reflect growth as well: growth in the Lord. We hear of events in Jesus’ life which offer a call to discipleship and a deepening of commitment to God. We see Jesus in his daily ministry, healing, forgiving, and offering a message of hope to all. And we go about our daily lives in which the extraordinary power of God touches our lives in ordinary ways: the gentle fall of snow conjuring up images of horse-drawn sleighs, the cold which cuts to the bone, the short winter days which cause us to dream of summer. We realize that just because we call this season ordinary does not mean that it is boring. Quite the opposite. For, I believe, it is during times as these that Christ does such unordinary work in the lives of men, women, and children everywhere.
Perhaps an unavoidable aspect of human nature is that we tend to get into ruts. Doing the same sort of thing day in and day out, over and over again, can produce in us a sense of uneasiness, of restlessness. How might we be able to overcome this? By seeing Christ at work in such moments? By surrendering ourselves to the life-giving, life-renewing, Spirit of God? By seeking God in the ordinary?
As you go about your daily routine, you might wish to engage in that life of prayer so familiar to Celtic Christians. Say a prayer of thanksgiving every time you do some little work. As you wash dishes thank God for the hands to accomplish this task. Taking out the garbage, offer a prayer for all that you have and the grace to provide for those in need. While shoveling snow or scraping ice, sing praises to God for the beauty of creation and ask for the wisdom to help preserve it. In the workplace, the market, while ice fishing, or on Mount Kato: every place in which you find yourself is a potential cathedral from which to send prayers heavenward. Everything that you do can be a form of prayer to God; your life a prayer to God. Nothing ordinary in that!
God desires our prayers–our life of prayer–no matter where we find ourselves. Such focus on God in all things and at all times transforms the ordinary into a thing most extraordinary. As the well-known ad campaign goes, all we need is to “Just do it”! May our Lord Jesus give us the grace to grow in this ordinary time.

Thanks be to God!