The Feast of the Baptism of Lord, which we celebrated last Sunday, marks the beginning of Ordinary Time in the liturgical cycle of the Catholic Church. Ordinary Time has two parts: 1) the shorter stretch between the end of the Christmas season and Ash Wednesday and 2) the much longer period between Pentecost and the first Sunday of Advent. The phrase "Ordinary Time" has an unfortunate connotation in the English language, suggesting that this period is plain old ordinary and that nothing special is happening during this time. But nothing could be further from the truth.
At the heart of Catholic liturgical practice is the concept that every Mass, regardless of how grand or simple it is, expresses the fullness of our faith. In that sense, no Mass is ordinary, since the Mass is the most intimate union we can have with God on this side of Heaven. The various feasts and seasons of the liturgical year do not add new concepts to the Mass but serve to highlight different aspects of our faith, helping us to reflect on them more deeply and to enter into them more fully.
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Photo Credit: The Sea of Galilee by Zoltan Abraham (c) 2016.