First Monday in Ordinary Time. One of two Mondays in Ordinary Time with no ordinary Sunday to precede it. Trivia question: when it the other?
I've said it a couple of times, but it bears repeating."Ordinary" in this context does not mean routine, let alone dull or uninteresting. It means that the weeks are ordered, or numbered. With ordinal numbers, get it?
But there's nothing ordinary (in the sense of dull or unimportant) about the breathtaking poetry in the book of Sirach this week (Office of Readings). Nor the reading from Pope St. Clement I, which is a lovely, long petitionary prayer which certainly covers every base. Nor does todays daytime reading (midafternoon) from 1 Peter ever fail to inspire awe: realize that you were delivered not by any diminishable sum of silver or gold, but by Christ's blood beyond all price!
And so it goes. The liturgy fills us with a thousand gifts, all year long. Never "ordinary".
Yet.
At the same time, I feel a good kind of ordinary (in the "ordinary" sense of the word) whenever I put away the Christmas paraphernalia, put the furniture back where it belongs, and get back down to the business. The relative quiet and the relatively slender to-do list clears my mind. And leaving behind for a while the page flipping and calendar checking of Christmastide does much to fuel the notion that ordinary time in the liturgy, is a little less cluttered, and breathes upon us a goodly simplicity. A needed break until Lent.
I've said it a couple of times, but it bears repeating."Ordinary" in this context does not mean routine, let alone dull or uninteresting. It means that the weeks are ordered, or numbered. With ordinal numbers, get it?
But there's nothing ordinary (in the sense of dull or unimportant) about the breathtaking poetry in the book of Sirach this week (Office of Readings). Nor the reading from Pope St. Clement I, which is a lovely, long petitionary prayer which certainly covers every base. Nor does todays daytime reading (midafternoon) from 1 Peter ever fail to inspire awe: realize that you were delivered not by any diminishable sum of silver or gold, but by Christ's blood beyond all price!
And so it goes. The liturgy fills us with a thousand gifts, all year long. Never "ordinary".
Yet.
At the same time, I feel a good kind of ordinary (in the "ordinary" sense of the word) whenever I put away the Christmas paraphernalia, put the furniture back where it belongs, and get back down to the business. The relative quiet and the relatively slender to-do list clears my mind. And leaving behind for a while the page flipping and calendar checking of Christmastide does much to fuel the notion that ordinary time in the liturgy, is a little less cluttered, and breathes upon us a goodly simplicity. A needed break until Lent.
Nice post, Daria.
ReplyDeleteI always learn something from you.
P.S. Any hints about that second Ordinary Monday?
The other one would be after Pentecost, right? :)
ReplyDeleteYou won! Monday after Pentecost this year will be Monday of the 7th week of Ordinary Time.
DeleteIs other Monday that one after Christ King Sunday?
ReplyDeleteHmm. I'd almost say you've caught me with another exception, except that the breviary and missal calls it the last Sunday in ordinary time as well as Feast of Christ the King, Whereas Pentecost and the Baptism of the Lord are named by the feast alone. But nice try!
DeleteI couldn't agree with you more! I love ordinary time and find myself actually welcoming the new season, liturgically speaking. The readings have been awesome. Thank you for the posts!!
ReplyDelete