January 10, 2016
Let's Hear it for Ordinary
Dear Family,
Welcome to the wonderful world of Ordinary Time. It begins tomorrow as Christmas time ends today. That’s why the decorations are still up. If we seem to be the last ones to take the stuff down, it’s probably because no one has yet figured out how to make the Baptism of Jesus a commercial enterprise.
Between Advent/Christmas and Lent/Eastertime, the Church uses 18 or 19 weeks to call attention to those special saving events in the life of Christ that define who we are. The rest of the year we refer to as “ordinary.” In reality, I don’t think there is anything very ordinary about the stories of how Jesus interacted with his times and the people who surrounded him: family, disciples, friends and enemies, the curious, the deeply touched.