Written by Barb Spies, OFS, Director of Mission Services and Pastoral Care

The Church is moving into Ordinary Time. Have you ever seen a liturgical calendar? Maybe there is one hanging in the sacristy of your church so that the people who change the paraments know what the color of the day is. We have one hanging on the wall in the sacristy at Felician Village. So much of the calendar is green. That green represents Ordinary Time. The webpage of the US Bishops says, “Ordinary Time is a time for growth and maturation, a time in which the mystery of Christ is called to penetrate ever more deeply into history until all things are finally caught up in Christ.” An article in US Catholic says, “The ordinary here does not refer to a season of dull routine but rather the listing of ordinal, or sequential, numbers.” These days are numbered. This week we have Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time, and so on.

So, whether we see “ordinary” as counting, as keeping track as the days go by, or as something with no distinctive features – normal, it is the time that fills most of our days. It’s a time that I find comforting to recover from the busyness of the holidays. And aren’t those ordinary days lovely? Time to consider the beauty of the world without the stress of getting ready for a big event is restful. The ordinary can even be awe inspiring. The pink sky at dawn. A deer running through a pasture. A toddler holding her mama’s hand.

I read a poem by Andrea Gibson. The poet describes how a moment inspired an awareness of experiencing goosebumps in one’s life. “My every pore reached out like a hand pointing to the first unsinkable lotus in the bayou of the universe. I’d never felt anything like it.” Then the poet goes on to note the many extraordinary and ordinary times when goosebumps appeared: “The octopus documentary: 54 goosebumps, multiplied by 8. The biggest dog in the shelter hiding behind a teacup chihuahua, and the woman who came to adopt a cat taking all three of them home: 1,012 goosebumps.” I love this counting of the goosebumps! It’s like the counting of Ordinary Time. It’s not inconsequential experiences, but a notation of the beauty in the ordinary.

Whether we see it as Ordinary Time or Goosebump Time, both descriptions give us a moment to encounter the glory of God’s creation, of each person, each animal, each plant, each word. May you experience what the poet did: “Beauty caught me and never let me go.”

Blessed Angela: “Accept everything from God with submission and gratitude, believing that everything which comes from God is for the good of your soul.”