Tempus per annum –literally "time through the year" translates for us Roman Catholics on the Liturgical Calendar into Ordinary Time. Yesterday completed the full grandeur and magnificence of the Christmas Season. And so now that the tree lights are boxed, the decorations all wrapped up and back in the attic, and the manger scene put away after the extensive celebration commemorating Jesus’ Birth, we now return to the tempo of "Ordinary Time." The Church asks of us that from today through Mardi Gras, or the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, to focus on the life of Jesus, on his daily routine, his teachings, his friendships, his challenges, his struggles, and the living out of His call as “Son of God.”
Ignatian Spirituality very much implores a retreatant during the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises to come to know, to love, and to serve the person of Jesus. My friends, what more can one ask than to be loved by Jesus? What more can one ask than to come to know “love” in its greatest expression? Take this “Ordinary Time” to bolster that love. See, feel, experience Jesus in your daily routine, you won’t be disappointed. You will know your truest self when you know Jesus in the Ordinary. How will you respond to that?
