“O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!” Psalm 95: 6
Our worship has a rhythm. A rhythm established centuries ago to provide a set progression for people to live out their faith. We call it the Liturgical Calendar. When viewed as a whole we see a mix of high holy-days and regular days. We have entered what we call “Ordinary Time.”
The Christian year begins each year with the First Sunday of Advent. We progress through about six months of festivals – Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter. Once we get into Pentecost the pendulum swings into “ordinary time.” We should not mistake this for “boring time.” Much of our cultural focus gets grabbed by the attention to Christmas, a bit by Lent and a bit more by Easter. Each year we have about six months of rotating holidays followed by a period without holy days. We alternate between the bustle of celebrations and the quiet of down time.
Our lives alternate among many schedules; the Gregorian Calendar marking the months as January thru December; the school calendar of August thru June; the activities calendar which varies upon which sport or activity is in season. The liturgical Christian calendar is one many lose contact with yet is the only one which offers a rhythm for faith. Life is filled with commitments and priorities. Our calendars fill up very quickly. Often our personal value and status is determined by how full our schedules are and how busy our lives become.
The alternating rhythm of the liturgical calendar provides us with a time of ordinariness. A pause from the busy celebrations for the work of everyday faith in everyday life. Too often we fear the ordinariness of life – as if being ordinary is somehow a failure of personal achievement. The rhythm of our faith offers us the spiritual work of the ordinary. A life of faith takes place and requires attention and intention in all places of life. Our ordinary time can be the perfect time to bring attention and focus to the longings of our souls.
Sometimes when we are busy we can lose sight of who we are as God’s beloved. We can embrace this Ordinary time, to listen to parables, ponder and pause the gift of living a life of faith in this time and this place. The ordinary time is a rich time in its own right and one to discover new insights of faith.
Faithfully Yours,
Rev. Wendy
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