Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Thud.
Here we are in the first week of ordinary time of the new liturgical year and the second full week of the
calendar year. Sure, we know intellectually that “ordinary” refers to ordinal, as in counting. Sure, we know that another of our special seasons, Lent, is less than a month away. But right now, it’s ordinary time, and let’s be honest: ordinary time can be boring. Ordinary time can be tedious. Ordinary time can be, well, ordinary.
But it can also be extraordinary.
In today’s first reading from 1 Samuel 1, Hannah wasn’t feeling particularly extraordinary when she and the rest of Elkanah’s family went to Shiloh to worship; to the contrary, she was feeling pretty despondent about not having a child, not to mention tormented by Elkanah’s other wife. And yet, in her sadness, she continued to pray… and her prayer for a son was answered.
The day may have started out as ordinary, as any other for the man with an unclean spirit who is the subject of the Gospel reading from Mark 1. But it turned out it was the day he would encounter Jesus… and he was freed of the spirit.
Our “ordinary” time can be the same. We can wait until Lent, Easter, Advent, Christmas, a holy day of obligation, or a feast day to grow our relationship with God… or we can seek to make every opportunity for an encounter with the Lord special. He’s ready if we are.
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