Winter’s “Ordinary” Time
“Why can’t every day be Christmas?” It’s one of those questions many children ask at one point in their lives. As adults we know intellectually, that if everyday were Christmas, that Christmas would cease to be as special as it is.
We know this intellectually, but it doesn’t take away the fact that many of us, maybe even most of us, tend to experience a post-Christmas hangover. And I don’t just mean a physical one, even though it’s quite likely that many of us indulged bit in food and drink over the holidays. Even more so than that, I mean a kind of spiritual hangover.
It’s only natural that having gone through the month of December and the season of Advent, after having reached Christmas Day and that strange week between Christmas and New Year’s, after we finally get ourselves back to some sort of a normal schedule, it’s only natural that we experience a bit of a let down. It’s only natural to feel a bit down in the dumps, after having been surrounded by cheerful Christmas music for nearly two months, now, we enter the cold, dark month of January.
I’ve had a number of different pastoral conversations the past two weeks, about all sorts of different challenges people are facing, some more serious and some less. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it is right now, in this post-Christmas hangover time that people are struggling. If that sounds like you; if you’re feeling some of these “January blues,” I want you to know that you’re not alone.
Thankfully, the Church is not only open the two days of the year that we have the most people in the pews. Thankfully, the Church is open Sunday after Sunday. And the Church recognizes that in the course of our lives, in the course of a year we have highs and lows. And right now we have entered the so-called “ordinary time” of Winter. It’s the season between the big Advent-Christmas-Epiphany cycle and the Lent-Easter-Pentecost Cycle.
This ordinary time provides us a chance to catch our breath, to rebound after the Christmas high and the January low. We have the time and the space to stabilize ourselves before we are asked to prepare, yet again for the Feast of feasts.
Thankfully this year’s Winter ordinary time is considerable, due to Easter not falling until April 20th and Ash Wednesday not until March 5th. I hope that you will take this time to reset and recoup. If you need to talk, that is why I am here. Please don’t hesitate to reach out. And finally, I hope that you will join us both in worship and fellowship throughout these cold, dark weeks of Winter’s ordinary time.
See you in Church!
Peace,
Fr Adler+
“Dominion” Extra Credit
One of the recurring things that I’ve found myself saying in our discussions is that Church history is messy. There’s almost never black and white, but rather a whole lot of gray. This was most certainly the case with this past week’s chapter. And in particular there was one figure, briefly mentioned who in his very own self and story embody this messy mix of good and bad. I found the following video on Bartolome de las Casas helpful with how we modern day Christians might wrestle with some of these issues: