Longing for Ordinary Time

Don't get me wrong...I love the entire liturgical year, but most of all I love Ordinary Time. Why? Well, in Ordinary time things are .....well....ordinary. There is a beauty and a rhythm to Ordinary Time and to me that makes it as special as the other seasons.

In Ordinary time we are reminded that it is the regular things of daily living that make us feel human and give us meaning. For me, I equate Ordinary Time and ordinary days when I can do, and appreciate, normal ordinary things. Things like: doing the dishes, sweeping the floor, puttsing in the yard, running errands.

I've had some times in my life that are anything but Ordinary: either really great or really bad. And in both of those times I long for Ordinary Time. Again, there is a pace, a rhythm to the Ordinary that makes it special.

How many times have I heard homlies in which the priest talks about how Jesus speaks to us in ordinary ways through ordinary people. And wasn't it Abe Lincoln who also said "God must have loved the ordinary people - he made so many of them."

Ordinary Time means there is no suped up choir with trumpetts and screechy sopranos sounding off from the choir loft, and an over enthusiastic organist playing so loud that voices of the people below are drowned out and the building shakes! It means there is no very long procession to start Mass. It means that the vestments are green - a nice earthy, ordinary color. Calming. There is no need to shop for gifts like when it is Advent/Christmas. It is just plain and simple....ordinary.

But again.....if you examine ordinary time through the eyes of faith, we realize that so much of the ordinary in life helps us become the people we are supposed to be. It just happens quietly. Day after day. Moment after moment. It is like a baby growing into a child and into an adult. If we see a baby every day, we don't see how they grow. But if we see a baby at baptism and then again at their high school graduation, we see a huge difference in the baby because now he/she has grown up. Ordinary time is like seeing ourselves every day...we change in incremental ways. Small ways, but in time we become who we are supposed to be.

Some people love the pomp and circumstance of setting up poinsettas and Christmas trees, and candles and all sorts of decorations and some people love focusing on the denial called for during Lent with all its purple spirituality. Those are cool things in their own right, but for me....as someone who used to be proud of saying she is a "Lenten person" and "I could live in Lent all the time".....now I am changing. Now I like ordinary time.

I guess as I am growing in faith, I am seeing not that Jesus is the reason for the season ( thinking of Advent and Christmas), but in fact, Jesus is the reason for ALL the seasons, and Ordinary Time is a gift to us.

So, I am longing for Ordinary time.

Heavenly Treatment for Human Weakness

I haven't written in a while. I've been busy.

Tonight I am writing about human weakness - specifically, mine.

We are all weak. None of us is perfect. If you look at the most together person you know, the reality is that they are not really together, at least not all the time. We all make mistakes. Lots of them. We are very hard on ourselves and others. I know I am extremely hard on myself when I mess up or don't measure up to my own high standards. I am always amazed at the intensity of my weaknesses.

I can promise myself to have self-control and then two minutes later the self-control goes right out the window. This happens a lot with eating and with talking. Lucky for me, Jesus already knows all the weaknesses I will display in my life today and ten years from now.

We are all called to be saints. That is foremost in my mind most days. When I have an opportunity to do the saintly thing sometimes I can do it and other times I can't. I get down on myself for being weak. I pray for strength and grace. I hope that God will take me from the mire that I often find myself in and will raise me up to be a saint. But, I can tell you right now, it will only be by his power and grace and not of my own doing. I cannot do it. I cannot be a saint without the help of the Holy Spirit.

Some days I feel I will never make it to sainthood and my heart cries deep inside. Other days, when I do well, I think that there is actually a chance for me to succeed.

I have been doing something lately that I think is helping me. You know how people go for medical treatments? Perhaps they need dialysis or chemo or physical therapy. They go to the doctor and let the doctor do what he/she has to do and they just cooperate and say yes. So, lately I've been going for "treatment" before the master physician - Jesus Himself. I go into the church when nobody is there. I lay down face first in front of the tabernacle and I say a prayer of surrender and then I just stay there. I try and clear my mind and imagine that God's grace is doing whatever He wants it to do. Like a medical treatment. I am the patient. Jesus is the doctor.

I am noticing that there is a difference inside of me due to these heavenly treatments. I feel His grace kicking in at different times and I feel more connected to Him. I am hoping in time that my weaknesses will fade away some and I will once again have courage and strength.

You see, I so much want to be the person that Jesus wants me to be. The church tells us we are called to be saints. I want to be one. I really do. Jesus help my faith increase. Help me to be open to your grace. Bless me with the gift of discernment. Heal my weaknesses. Thank you Jesus.