Having celebrated an Advent season of joyful preparation, and the wonder-filled Christmas Season with its many bright feasts, we have now entered into “Ordinary Time” on the Church calendar. The purple and rose vestments of Advent, and the white and gold vestments of Christmastide, now give way to vestments of green. The word “Ordinary’ in “Ordinary Time” comes from “ordinal number.” The reason this is called “Ordinary Time” is because it is the time when we count the Sundays after Epiphany. Thus, today is the Second Sunday after Epiphany, or the “Second Sunday of Ordinary Time.”
Nevertheless, our movement from the heights of the Advent and Christmas Seasons reminds us that we live out our faith in the give and take of our ordinary, day to day lives, with its many challenges. Connecting with God, Reaching others, and Building community mostly takes place in the grind of our daily, routine relationships at home, in school, at the work place and business place. It takes constant prayer and effort on our part. I liked that the last hymn we sang at Sunday worship during the Christmas Season, the closing hymn at Mass last Sunday, on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, was “Go Make A Difference.” Everything we did to celebrate Advent and Christmas should propel us to go out and live the mission we were given at Baptism: to bring the light of Christ’s love to the world. Otherwise, our celebration was all in vain.
We thank everyone who helped to make the Advent and Christmas Seasons a blessed time for our parish community.
I am away this weekend on a Retrouvaille Weekend. Retrouvaille is a ministry to couples in troubled marriages. Please keep the couples we will be with this weekend in your prayers, that they may experience healing in their marriage.
Blessings,
Fr. Ron