Ordinary Time
Read time: 4 minutes
After the long Lenten penitential season, followed by the celebratory seasons of Easter, Pentecost, the month of Mary and Trinity Sunday, we now find ourselves heading back into the longest liturgical season of all, Ordinary Time.
It is easy to be involved, excited and joyful about the big occasions like Easter and Pentecost, but not so easy in Ordinary Time, where we will remain for the rest of the liturgical year. We tend to just take things for granted during this time and not get excited or joyful.
We could learn much from the children of the parish in this regard. When they go up for Children’s Liturgy, have you noticed how joyful they are? They run out of the pews. They bounce up the altar steps. They are smiling and laughing, jumping up and down with delight when they see a friend they can hug. After the blessing they bounce back down the steps, smiling, laughing, and chattering with their friends. We can all see from the looks on their faces that they are full of joy and excited to be going to learn about Jesus.
We should be more like the children and participate in the liturgy with joy, even during Ordinary Time because this long season gives us the opportunity to get back to our individual basic daily prayer routine. We can make ourselves available to God at all times and understand that God is with us at all times. We can continue to grow each day in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
This is a time for growth and conversion.
We live the life of Jesus through the Mass readings because the Ordinary Time readings are focused on helping us learn about Jesus and what He taught. We see and hear everything the disciples experienced and heard. Stories from Jesus Life, His parables and His teachings. We learn about discipleship and this long season of Ordinary Time gives us the opportunity to actually claim our discipleship.
At this time, there is another group of young people in our parish community celebrating an occasion that is not ordinary…Graduation from High School!
Just like the little children in Church, High School Grads are full of joy. They are leaving one stage of their lives and embarking on a completely different adventure. And they do this with great joy and celebration.
Just like Jesus and the disciples, our High School Grads have journeyed together for years. They have shown kindness and caring for one another. They have encouraged each other. They have been generous. They have demonstrated joyful enthusiasm.
Congratulations to our Graduates from St Joseph’s and from JPII! We wish them success, happiness and many blessings.
In this season of Ordinary Time let us continue to joyfully celebrate our liturgy. We can learn much from our young children and from our High School Grads.