After Pentecost and after Christmas comes ordinary time. Ho hum. Who wants ordinary and why spend months and months in ordinary time? The Church’s understanding of ordinary is rooted in the word ordinal, meaning, counted or arranged, like the beginning fibers on a loom, the stitches in a knitted garment or the megabytes for downloading a photograph. The beauty of the ordinary is finishing the garment or sharing the photograph. The appeal of the ordinary is carrying forward what has happened to us during the Easter season and the Christmas season. The joy of the ordinary is letting God’s love spill out beyond what one day, or even one holy season, can hold.
Jesus also consecrated the ordinary through his use of day-to-day objects. He healed and blessed people through a simple touch, or the waters of a pool, or the hem of his cloak, or a paste made of mud, or a herd of pigs. And he embraced the ordinary by living for thirty years as a carpenter. The life and the works of Jesus point toward God’s concern for the details of our lives. God is willing to build an intimate relationship with each of us, through the stuff of life, on a day in and day out basis. So bring on the ordinary, the time when little Pentecosts and little Christmases are just around the corner waiting for us.
What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him, these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 PS.
The posted graphic is for ‘story webbing’. Draw your own ‘ordinary’ circle. Then generate more words, until one word or phrase strikes you as a good beginning for a meditation.