Not so ordinary after all…

The great feasts are over…Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, Corpus Christ. Liturgically it’s a bit like Fourth of July when the fireworks disappear from the night sky. We enter Ordinary Time. Lush green appears on our vestments, and in our summer fields. It’s the growing time in the North Temperate Zone. Summer is here and the fields are lush with new life.

Truly, this mirrors our grace-lives liturgically. All the wonders of an unspeakable love have been shown to us, and now it is quiet. In the fields of our hearts much unseen will be going on. The texts will be calling forth growth from the great Mysteries. New life, new growth, new challenges to our cranky old ego with its blaming-shaming-complaining-whining-worrying-withdrawing ways. Oh, yes…our egoism has a voice. We can listen for it. Three ugly sisters, and three feverish brothers. They need to be put to ‘bed’ and get a good long healing ‘sleep.’

In their place we welcome joy, cultivate constant prayer, and give thanks, even for what we cannot understand. Then, surprise…! The rich humble earth of our hearts will show new growth! It will appear unbidden…surprising even us. Yes, it is Ordinary Time…but our lives in God are not so ordinary after all.

Holy One,

You have left the scene…or so you have said.

But then you have said too, that you will be with us always.

So you must take your heaven with you wherever you choose to be.

Help me to remember that, when the days are dark…

when the news is bad, when the violence rises, when the virus sweeps away dear ones.

No hair falls from our heads without your knowledge.

Then like that ugly stuff out in the fields, so smelly,

You turn the manure of our lives into marvelous growth and rich food.

Help us to see beyond the darkness, and hear beyond the noise.

Let us hear your voice, Shepherd.