By Sister Barbara Paleczny, SSND
When I was finding the title 'Ordinary Time' inadequate, I looked carefully at the Church Year. Clearly, Advent-Christmas, and later, the Lent-Easter-Pentecost season (with 6 weeks to prepare and 7 weeks to celebrate) capture our imagination.
But what does Ordinary Time mean to us?
It is central to our journey, as I discovered in my first year in South Sudan. As I prepared Christian Religious Ed course materials for our Solidarity Teachers' College, I read all the gospels of the 34 weeks of Ordinary Time. They all focus on the healing and teaching ministry of Jesus.
"The Healing and Teaching Ministry of Jesus" became the title of the season as I taught it. (With humour, I say that some call it 'Ordinary Time'. By the way, this is not doctrine!)
Major and minor changes in the Church happen in two ways: from official, authoritative proclamations, and from the 'sense of the faithful'.
As people say and do what they know to be good and true, the 'sense of the faithful' spreads and is gradually recognized officially.
During Covid, I was delighted to hear Dr. Dan Donovan, Theology Professor Emeritus at Toronto School of Theology, explain what I just said about Ordinary Time being the Season of the Teaching and Healing Ministry of Jesus.
It could be said respectfully from the sanctuary, and modified, if desired, by the addition of the traditional term, 'Ordinary Time'.
I truly experience the ordinary as profoundly sacred and the sacred as incredibly ordinary. 'Ordinary Time' is profoundly sacred and ordinary.
The paintings of Jesus' teachings, above, were created by the Jesus MAFA movement in Cameroon, Africa. They are used here with permission.
