We are half-way through the year (how did that happen?) and we’ve entered that period of the church year called “Ordinary Time”, which is the weeks
after Pentecost and before the beginning of Advent. There is also a shorter period of Ordinary Time between the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in 
the Temple – Candlemas, which happens on 2nd February – and Ash Wednesday. In these periods, after the great celebrations of Christmas and Easter and the Feasts that follow them, nothing particular is happening and we “settle” into the ordinary regular routine. We have no particular celebrations or events to remember so can focus instead on the teaching expressed in the story of God’s people in the Old Testament, in the life of Jesus and in the history of the early Church, and their application to our own lives.
I find this a huge strength of our Christian calendar. Great celebrations are important. The remembrance of Christ’s birth, his death and resurrection are central to our faith, and provide the high points of our observance, full of drama and joy, but major celebration is only a part of life. Most of life is made up of the day-to-day, the fairly mundane, the just-getting-on-with-it. For the most part, it is in the ordinariness of life, and not in the dramatic moments, that we grow and our character is built. It is in persevering in holding on to God, and believing that we are held by him, that we become more like him. As St Paul wrote in his Letter to the Romans: “endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
So enjoy Ordinary Time, and the day-to-day experience of God’s love!
With every blessing,
Janet