Ordinary Time, Isn’t

In a recent episode I talked about why I hate Ordinary Time.  For those of you who may not be familiar with liturgical seasons, we have a lot of special times during the year for the Church.  Each one has its own unique flair and theme; Advent and Lent are times of preparation, Christmas and Easter are celebrations, and Triduum is the time of Christ’s Passion.  I love these seasons because it’s clear what God is asking of us during these times and I can understand the direction we’re going in.  Then there’s… Ordinary Time.  This takes place between Christmas and Lent and then Easter to Advent.  It always felt like a holding place for something better, it just feels so, ordinary.  To many people, myself included, Ordinary Time is bland, missing flavor and direction.  The green color of the season is supposed to represent growth like a plant, but for many years I never felt that growth.  Even Lent, which is a time of spiritual desolation would be something I look forward to more because I at least had a direction to look for.  Then as usual, someone far wiser than I gave me some advice.

            During spiritual direction, my director and I were talking about my prayer life and I told him that it always has felt stagnant during Ordinary Time, especially the long time for summer and fall.  “I just don’t get it, there never seems to be a rhyme or reason to the Sunday readings and I don’t know where God is calling me to grow” I told him.  I rambled for a bit and then he told me something that was seemingly obvious but I had never really heard before.  He told me that we’re called to do ordinary things with extraordinary love, just in general.  Most of us will never have to do a big sweeping display of faith and love to the Church and our Faith, so how do we live the ordinary in an extraordinary way?  More importantly, how can I listen to what God is trying to tell us during this time?  God wouldn’t just arbitrarily throw in the readings for no reason, so how am I taking time to listen?  My director then suggested reading the DAILY readings, not just the Sunday ones, going to mass more often, using the Hallow app, just doing something different than what I regularly do.  It just clicked with me and God hit me with the DUH hammer.

            Josh and I talked about how we wanted to live our ordinary lives in extraordinary ways all the time on the podcast.  For some reason, I always thought about that in the context of my everyday life and never linked that to my prayer life.  It is in many ways just as ordinary and just as able to be done with extraordinary love.  So, I got to work and realized that this is the perfect way to connect with my wife.  We both struggle to pray as a couple, after almost 4 years of being married we’ve tried and tried and given up within a few days.  Sometimes we just didn’t prioritize it, sometimes we just stopped because it felt awkward, regardless of why it just never stuck.  This time is different.  We decided to read the daily readings together and talk about what stuck out to us.  Some conversations were long, some quick, but the important thing is we began to learn how we both interpret Scripture differently and really enjoy our reactions to the readings.  Then we break open the Hallow app, listen to a reflection from Fr Mike Schmitz or hear Father Dave Pivonka talk about the Holy Spirit.  Finally we wrap things up with our intentions, alternating who leads and getting to hear about what’s on our hearts and what we want to pray for.  It’s structured but it feels almost natural in a lot of ways.  It brings me back to my time at Franciscan when I would pray with my household brothers.  Now it’s even more so now because I’m praying with my wife, my best friend and the person I want to get to Heaven with. 

           I never would have believed that Ordinary Time would truly be the time of growth for my Faith life.  It always felt so uninteresting and bleh.  Now I look forward to every night after dinner, to sit down with my wife and really listen to what God is trying to tell me.  That’s what Ordinary Time is for, it’s a time to listen, a time to grow, and a time to find God’s Extraordinary message in our ordinary lives.

Yours in Christ,

Andrew (The Kurtlocker)