At this point in the Church year, we are in the midst of “ordinary time.” We might be tempted to think this means that this time is simply boring, uneventful, mundane, unimaginative, monotonous. Not true! These weeks are referred to as Ordinary Time because the weeks are numbered — i.e., “ordered.” Ordinary Time is therefore “ordered time.”
Ordinary Time is the time after Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came, and it was now time to go out on mission — in a structured, systematic, “ordered” way. Today we would lovingly refer to this as “execution.”
Ordinary Time is the time between Christmas, Easter, and preparation for these uber-celebrations, plus a few other important feasts. While these events garner much focus, it is through ordinary time that we get things done and make progress on our plans, our missons, our goals, our relationships. Again, the temptation is to slough off, like not fully engaging in ordinary time won’t hurt, we can make it up later — Advent, Lent — we’ll hit it hard then.
Bad juju with that line of thinking. We make progress when we are focused and disciplined in the middle of the week, between target destinations when traveling, between major milestones / deadlines on projects, amid the behind-the-scenes hours when we are not “on stage” — this is where we want to do our best, extra-ordinary work.
God has everything under control. He is the Lord of Time. He gives us what we need. Let’s make our Ordinary Time an extra-ordinary work of advancement and growth.
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