Ordinary can be extraordinary. The season of "Ordinary Time" is upon us.
Ordinary Time is a real thing, but it's not nearly as boring as it sounds. It's one of the liturgical seasons of the church year. It's also referred to as the Season of Pentecost.
Not every congregation or denomination utilizes a liturgical calendar, and that's A-OK. There are many great ways to practice the Christian faith.
Even if your family of faith doesn't incorporate the seasons of the church year into worship, they can still be a helpful tool in your faith journey. One great quality of the liturgical calendar is the way that it connects us with brothers and sisters in faith around the world!
If your church places colored pieces of fabric (called paraments) around the altar and pulpit, it's likely they are following a liturgical calendar. Sometimes the fabric is green, red, purple, and white. Each color represents a different season.
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Some of the seasons and holy days that are part of the official church year include Advent, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Holy Trinity Sunday and Epiphany.
Ordinary Time is slightly underrated, but it's one of my favorites! Ordinary Time starts the week after Pentecost. Pentecost is the day we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming upon the early church and filling them with newfound inspiration to love and serve (see the Book of Acts, chapter 2 for more).
This year, things got officially ordinary on June 15. But Ordinary Time is not mundane or sleep-invoking. This special season of the year can hold value for us all, regardless of whether our worshiping communities utilize colored stoles, paraments, and banners.
At its creation, "Ordinary Time" meant "counted time" – it was a way to mark the long stretch of weeks between Holy Trinity Sunday in June and Christ the King Sunday in November. Nowadays, Ordinary Time can mean lots of things. The liturgical color of these months is green. How perfect since everything is so green and lively this time of year.
During these months, we're often less distracted by major holidays and obligations. We have time and energy to try something new. Perhaps a new devotional practice or form of prayer. About a month ago I discovered a labyrinth on the Assisi Heights grounds. It has become a lunchtime sanctuary for me.
The Season of Pentecost provides us with a space to listen closely for the Spirit's leading. The same Spirit that led the people of the early church remains with us today. We honor that and celebrate it in these weeks of Ordinary Time.
When you look at the ordinary with patience and respect, it has a way of transforming into extraordinary right before your eyes! A blade of grass. A persevering dandelion. The way your spouse makes spaghetti every Thursday.
The Ordinary Time of the church year serves a similar purpose. It gives us a whole, giant span of weeks to recognize the extraordinary within the ordinary. It is not a season of glitz and glam. We aren't distracted by sales and gift lists. We get to focus on the Spirit of God at work among us. And that, dear friends, is anything but ordinary.
