Dear Parishioners,
We have returned to what our Church’s liturgical calendar calls Ordinary Time. The color of the season is green, which is the symbol of ordinary, everyday events. That's why the priest wears green vestments. This comprises the longest period in our calendar, thirtyfour weeks in all. Although interrupted by other seasons (Lent, Easter), it continues on afterwards.
Unlike during Lent, Easter, Advent and Christmas seasons, exceptional moments in our salvation history are not observed. During Ordinary Time, we just contemplate the ordinary and everyday events in the life and ministry of Jesus. The Gospel today begins by John introducing and identifying Christ: “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
Please don’t be misled. Ordinary doesn’t mean insignificant, unimportant or negligible. The Ordinary Time of the Church calendar is actually a call to embrace a particular spirituality. We can call it the everyday sense of the sacred. Ordinary Time reminds us that God does not manifest Himself only in grand and spectacular ways. Every day, the sacred can be seen if we only have the right pair of eyes — the eyes of faith. Ordinary Time reminds us of the things we tend to take for granted because they are, yes, just ordinary.
That is the irony of the Ordinary Time. When you pay attention to the ordinary, everything and every day becomes extraordinary!
Dear Parishioners, every morning, you open two gifts: your eyes. Please don’t forget that.
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Lito