Today is Ordinary

How many hallelujahs will it take for you get in line
When will you ever learn from your mistakes boy you gotta try
Deadlines and progress 
Just being honest 
You can do what you want with your time
I don’t wanna waste mine
No, I don’t wanna waste mine

- Needtobreathe, Wasting Time

Last week we concluded the Christmas season and have officially moved into Ordinary Time within the Church's liturgical calendar. Candidly, prior to last week I had assumed that this meant "non-special" times throughout the year.

Ordinary.

Average.

Meh.

However, our Church terms this time "ordinary" not because it isn't special, but because it is numbered in a sequential fashion. The Second Week in Ordinary Time. Thursday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time. The 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

This new understanding of Ordinary Time struck me: God has numbered our time. Instead of a feeling of discouragement, this left me encouraged. It inspired me. The time we have to do the work that God has called us to do has a limit.

Let's go.

In the high school environment, we only have our students for 4 years; even less with students who transfer after 9th grade. We only get 180 instructional days each year - actually even less when we factor in "non-instructional" days/moments with students - retreats, pictures, service projects, early dismissals, assemblies! There are only so many minutes in an instructional period, which also get squandered for announcement interruptions, classroom management issues, and a lack of preparedness.

Every moment matters. Each one is sacred, holy, incarnational and not just because they are limited but because they are the gifts from God. 

That's why we call right now the present. 

Let's make the most of our borrowed time (if you want to go deeper on this theme, you can check this post out: https://icscatholicedu.blogspot.com/2022/06/borrowed-time.html). 

St. Josemaria Escriva popularized the heroic minute as getting out of bed precisely after your alarm sounds. In St. Josemaria's own words, the heroic minute is “the time fixed for getting up. Without hesitation: a supernatural reflection and… up! The heroic minute: here you have a mortification that strengthens your will and does no harm to your body” (The Way, no. 206).

While I am infamous for snoozing, I have tried to extrapolate St. Josemaria's motto to include any moment of the day. 

Send the email/text. Make the phone call. Take the stairs. Sing. Pray. Hold the door. Pick up trash. Smile. Repent. Forgive. Hug. Try again. Put down your device. Pick up your head. Live from your heart. 

Respond to the whispers and promptings and urgings of the Holy Spirit and take action.

Up!

Today may be ordinary - numbered - but that is precisely why it is the perfect moment to be heroic. 

Deliver Me

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas! May the joyful hope and everlasting peace of the birth of Christ fill this new calendar year with renewed missionary purpose and visionary anticipation!

During prayer and reflection at the conclusion of Advent and throughout the Christmas season thus far, the message "deliver me" has surfaced over and over.

It really hit home when this song - one that I had never heard before - popped up on my feed. 

Deliver Him. To the world. To my family. To my friends. At my work. Throughout my life. 

Deliver the Gospel message.

Deliver Christ so that Emmanuel - God with us - truly comes.  

Especially now that Christmas for most is neatly sealed and put away until November 1, 2024, deliver Him. Like the theologian Howard Thurman notes in his poem, "The Work of Christmas" this is when the work of Christmas begins: 

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among others,

To make music in the heart. 

John the Baptist declared, "Make straight the way of the Lord." Mother Mary received the angel Gabriel's invitation, "Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus." Angels sang glory to God declaring the birth of our Savior. The shepherds returned to their flocks glorifying and praising God. Mary and Joseph presented the infant Christ in the temple. Joseph, being warned in a dream, led the Holy Family to Egypt.

John delivered the news that the Messiah's coming was imminent. Mary delivered Christ into the world. The angels and shepherds delivered the Good News of Christ's birth beyond the stable. Mary and Joseph delivered Jesus to the temple, dedicating Him back to His Heavenly Father. Joseph delivered the Holy Family from the dangers of remaining in Israel.

These scriptural messages, coupled with the tasks of the season - delivering Christmas cards, delivering presents, delivering cookies, delivering lights and trees and ornaments and Christmas music and Christmas sweaters - have inspired me to take up this invitation from God this year:

"Deliver Me."

Let us deliver the hope, peace, joy and love of Christ's birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension to our communities, our cities, our states, our countries, and our world this year and always.

And, as we deliver Christ to a world in desperate need of rediscovering itself, may our Deliverer deliver us. 

May my Deliverer - Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God - deliver me.