And so begins the period termed “Ordinary Time.”
Especially given the Church’s particular use of such wonderfully descriptive language, it is a surprisingly uninspiring title. To me, it’s rather…well…how might I best put it…ordinary.
Properly understood, it is everything not Advent and Christmas and everything not Lent and Easter.
Christmas time and Easter time highlight the central mysteries of the Paschal Mystery. We just savored the delights of our blessed Lord’s anticipated arrival and His incarnation. Later this year we will focus expressly upon His suffering, death, resurrection, ascension and descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
During the Sundays outside these grand seasons, we take a slower pace, as it is meandering through the life of Christ. For intentional disciples the ordinary is precisely the time for patient and persistent growth in understanding and practice of the faith.
