 |
||
|---|---|---|
January 2009 |
||
|
||
We may be tempted to think that this time for the Church is just an interlude between the fast and feast seasons, and that the Church had nothing better to call this time then, well, ordinary. The Church as a good mother is teaching us a lesson, though. If all we did was wait for the Advent and Lenten preparation and the celebrations that come with joyful seasons such as Christmas and Easter, we would miss out on the majority of the liturgical year. |
||
 So it is with life: most of our it is "ordinary time." This is especially true of our spiritual life and discernment. While we are called to rejoice and be thankful for those "feast" times that we may experience in our discernment or spiritual life, we cannot hope that life will be one big Transfiguration: we must come down the mountain. Our lives as friars are filled most of the time with unimpressive ordinary tasks. Jesus our Lord spent the majority of His life in the ordinary work of the carpenter shop and the hidden life of Nazareth. Those who lived nearest Him noticed nothing out of the ordinary in Him and were shocked to hear that He might be the Messiah. |
||
 It is through our gift of fidelity offered to the Lord in the little tasks of everyday life entrusted to us that we are made holy. This, as He tells us, will make us open and ready to respond when He calls us to greater things. In our discernment, if we respond to the call of the moment nothing is wasted, nothing is "ordinary." If we let Him the Lord will lead us in such a way that all things prepare us to generously answer Him, even the most insignificant. So as you discern the big picture, offer God the "ordinary" with extraordinary love as Mother Teresa used to say, and it will be blessed. |
||
Wisdom quote: "We must strongly state that even today there is need for the testimony of consecrated life, so that mankind will never forget that its true dimension is the eternal one. Mankind is destined to inhabit 'new heavens and a new earth' (2 Pt 3:13), and proclaim that true happiness is found only in the infinite love of God" |
||
May the Lord bless you,
|
||
 Br. Pius Marie Gagne, CFR Assistant Vocation Director Saint Joseph Friary 523 W. 142nd Street New York, NY 10031 (212)281-4355 Archive eLetters |
(Extra)Ordinary Time - Well, its over. The trees are needle-less and on the curb, the carols are about stopped and all the decorations are stored away. This month seems to come in with a bang and go out with a whimper, from the exaltation of the Christmas season to the humdrum green of ordinary time. It is always with a note of sadness that we return to the "ordinary."