Ordinary Time

We are currently in a time of the church year called “ordinary time.”  The church year is an annual way of keeping time around the events of Jesus’ life.  It starts with Advent leading up to Christmas.  The season of Lent prepares us to celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection.  Eastertide comes next.  Then Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost, which happens in late May or early July.  We are now in this long block of time between Pentecost and Advent called Ordinary Time.

And yet no time is truly ordinary.  Even though we’re not in a special season of preparation or celebration.  Life is infused with God’s presence.  Each day brings us encounters with God’s love and power.  God is at work in your life and in the world.  And maybe that’s the whole point.  Ordinary doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.  Ordinary means that God is powerfully at work in his world and his people.  That is the ordinary way that God rolls.  God’s mighty acts are the rule, not the exception.  Ordinary time invites us to look for and celebrate the fact that God is always at work.  That powerful work is not exceptional.  It is ordinary!