"The rhythm of the liturgical seasons reflects the rhythm of life — with its celebrations of anniversaries and its seasons of quiet growth and maturing."
I was surprised after decades in ministry to learn that the term "Ordinary Time" actually means ordered or numbered time. Cardinal numbers tell ‘how many’ of something, they show quantity. Ordinal numbers tell the order of how things are set, they show the position or the rank of something.
Thank you for this. I love the extraordinary and the way the high seasons take us into deeper mystery. And so it has been a process of learning to appreciate and revel in the ordinary. Just as in moving to the prairies after growing up in the mountains, I’ve learned to look for and love this subtler beauty. I think there will always be a place for both in my soul - and your meditation was a great welcoming back to this year’s Ordinary Time
“These months are an invitation to follow God through the everyday landscapes of our lives. But it isn’t a call to the spiritually humdrum. Instead, following in the midst of the ordinary is to awaken ourselves to the extraordinariness that surrounds us. We’re invited to find the unusual, the unbelievable, and the wonder of daily life. We journey through the prosaic to discover the poetry of faith. The mundane is transfigured and magical.” Perfect insight at a perfect time as With classmates from this past year’s course of Ignatian Exercises, I began today a second course of spiritual exercises, with Louis M Savary’s THE NEW SPIRITUAL EXERCISES IN THE SPIRIT OF TEILHARD DE CHARDIN. Journaling over the first principle (to value scientific discoveries in our spirituality) got me to thinking about the “new truth” of the Anthropocene and the Canadian fires that have lately been smoking southward over the USA, making this ordinary time extraordinary and the extraordinary event sadly becoming ordinary: an altogether “new and different home,” the dark wonder of a hemorrhaging mother-earth! Contemplating that reach for the hem of Jesus’ garment.... What move might that now be?
Our Town, by Thornton Wilder comes to mind as I read about ordinary days. Emily ends the play saying “They don’t understand “. It’s a classic that captures my mixed emotions about naming any day “ordinary”. I can say what my typical day is like, but I simply can’t help feeling that no gift of a day is ordinary. I feel like a square peg on this one. Every day I see the hand of the Creator of a diversity in nature, people, planets, galaxies and it never feels ordinary. Maybe it’s me who doesn’t understand....
I love my ordinary days, up to my elbows in soil, checking out the tomatoes to see how close they are to getting ripe, eating a fresh bluberry or two and checking the turtle nests to see if they are still intact or if the marauding raccoons have eaten the eggs. I wonder if God has ordinary days.
On an ordinary day in 1973 I walked into a bank in Birmingham, Alabama for an ordinary reason. I happened to meet the President of the bank. He said, "I think we need an Episcopal Church in my neighborhood." I said, "I agree." This year that church, St. Stephen's, now one of the largest Episcopal congregations in Alabama, is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Such extraordinary ordinary truth you’ve shared today...much appreciated, for these are the times we live in daily, moment by grace-filled moment, if we will but recognize! Thanks!!
Help me with a Gospel mystery! In the midst of the ordinairiness of Christian learning, I recently came across a mystery related to the Apostle John, which I had never heard of in my 60 years of being a Christian. John never once mentions his brother, James, in his Gospel. It's almost like he avoided the story of the Transfiguration on purpose. My father was a highly educated pastor, and he never mentioned this as far as I remember. No one seems to know the reason for this omission, or why the only mention in Acts of James, the brother of John (not Jesus' brother, James, who was the top Christian leader in Jerusalem) is when he is beheaded. Any clues?
Most scholars don't believe that John is the author of that gospel. There are a number of other interesting authorship possibilities -- including that Lazarus wrote its original draft.
But the book was most certainly written between 90-110, most likely as a work written by a later community or as a composite work of several authors gathered into a single text and edited into one book.
Also, did you know I have a brother? Nope, I bet. Because I don't write about him. No mystery there - lol!
A quote I ponder when life is fraught with problems and far from ordinary: “Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.” -- Mary Jean Irion
Amen to all of that.
"The rhythm of the liturgical seasons reflects the rhythm of life — with its celebrations of anniversaries and its seasons of quiet growth and maturing."
I was surprised after decades in ministry to learn that the term "Ordinary Time" actually means ordered or numbered time. Cardinal numbers tell ‘how many’ of something, they show quantity. Ordinal numbers tell the order of how things are set, they show the position or the rank of something.
Thanks for this! It's why I wrote "Extraordinary Ministry in Ordinary Time." So much of what we do that really matters happens in ordinary time! https://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Ministry-Ordinary-Time-Invitation/dp/0835819124/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3GKUIDQFWYBP2&keywords=extraordinary+ministry+in+ordinary+time&qid=1686923797&sprefix=extraordinary+ministry+in+ordinary+time%2Caps%2C98&sr=8-1.
Beautiful. Thank you.
Thank you for this. I love the extraordinary and the way the high seasons take us into deeper mystery. And so it has been a process of learning to appreciate and revel in the ordinary. Just as in moving to the prairies after growing up in the mountains, I’ve learned to look for and love this subtler beauty. I think there will always be a place for both in my soul - and your meditation was a great welcoming back to this year’s Ordinary Time
Thanks for this lovely reminder that God is the God of the ordinary, rendering it all extraordinary.
“These months are an invitation to follow God through the everyday landscapes of our lives. But it isn’t a call to the spiritually humdrum. Instead, following in the midst of the ordinary is to awaken ourselves to the extraordinariness that surrounds us. We’re invited to find the unusual, the unbelievable, and the wonder of daily life. We journey through the prosaic to discover the poetry of faith. The mundane is transfigured and magical.” Perfect insight at a perfect time as With classmates from this past year’s course of Ignatian Exercises, I began today a second course of spiritual exercises, with Louis M Savary’s THE NEW SPIRITUAL EXERCISES IN THE SPIRIT OF TEILHARD DE CHARDIN. Journaling over the first principle (to value scientific discoveries in our spirituality) got me to thinking about the “new truth” of the Anthropocene and the Canadian fires that have lately been smoking southward over the USA, making this ordinary time extraordinary and the extraordinary event sadly becoming ordinary: an altogether “new and different home,” the dark wonder of a hemorrhaging mother-earth! Contemplating that reach for the hem of Jesus’ garment.... What move might that now be?
An extraordinary reflection on ordinary time! Thanks, Diana!
The Star Market sounds like a wonderful, terrifying place. I'm sure it's right around the corner.
Our Town, by Thornton Wilder comes to mind as I read about ordinary days. Emily ends the play saying “They don’t understand “. It’s a classic that captures my mixed emotions about naming any day “ordinary”. I can say what my typical day is like, but I simply can’t help feeling that no gift of a day is ordinary. I feel like a square peg on this one. Every day I see the hand of the Creator of a diversity in nature, people, planets, galaxies and it never feels ordinary. Maybe it’s me who doesn’t understand....
I love my ordinary days, up to my elbows in soil, checking out the tomatoes to see how close they are to getting ripe, eating a fresh bluberry or two and checking the turtle nests to see if they are still intact or if the marauding raccoons have eaten the eggs. I wonder if God has ordinary days.
On an ordinary day in 1973 I walked into a bank in Birmingham, Alabama for an ordinary reason. I happened to meet the President of the bank. He said, "I think we need an Episcopal Church in my neighborhood." I said, "I agree." This year that church, St. Stephen's, now one of the largest Episcopal congregations in Alabama, is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Such extraordinary ordinary truth you’ve shared today...much appreciated, for these are the times we live in daily, moment by grace-filled moment, if we will but recognize! Thanks!!
As always,you never waste a word. Thank you. This is so needed.
Help me with a Gospel mystery! In the midst of the ordinairiness of Christian learning, I recently came across a mystery related to the Apostle John, which I had never heard of in my 60 years of being a Christian. John never once mentions his brother, James, in his Gospel. It's almost like he avoided the story of the Transfiguration on purpose. My father was a highly educated pastor, and he never mentioned this as far as I remember. No one seems to know the reason for this omission, or why the only mention in Acts of James, the brother of John (not Jesus' brother, James, who was the top Christian leader in Jerusalem) is when he is beheaded. Any clues?
Most scholars don't believe that John is the author of that gospel. There are a number of other interesting authorship possibilities -- including that Lazarus wrote its original draft.
But the book was most certainly written between 90-110, most likely as a work written by a later community or as a composite work of several authors gathered into a single text and edited into one book.
Also, did you know I have a brother? Nope, I bet. Because I don't write about him. No mystery there - lol!
A quote I ponder when life is fraught with problems and far from ordinary: “Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.” -- Mary Jean Irion