Remember the saying: The liturgy is the handmaiden of spirituality?
With the celebration of Pentecost last Sunday, we enter again into Ordinary Time after celebrating Lent, Holy Week and Easter. In this context “ordinary” does not mean “common place.” It means from the Latin, ordered numerical weeks.
The official explanation says: “Besides the times of the year that have their own distinctive character, there remains in the yearly cycle thirty-three or thirty-four weeks in which no particular aspect of the mystery of Christ is celebrated, but rather the mystery of Christ himself is honored in its fulness, especially on Sundays….”
A mediation in the official liturgical calendar reminds us: “What happens in our churches on Sunday is the fruit of our week. What happens as the fruit of the week past is the beginning of the week to come. Sunday, like all sacraments is simultaneously a point of arrival and departure for Christians on their way to the fulness of the kingdom. This is not ordinary at all. This is the fabric of Christian living.”
This first Sunday as we return to Ordinary Time is Trinity Sunday. We remember the mystery of our loving God: Father Son, and Holy Spirit. One God in three divine persons. Not to be explained but to bask in that love. A wonderful way, I think, to wrap up the seasons of the Paschal Mystery (the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit) of our redemption we have just celebrated.
Another wonderful blessing for us as Catholics to have a year of organized celebrations to be able to hear a large portion of Sacred Scripture each Sunday (and during the week). Indeed, not so ordinary help to our spirituality after all.
Saint James Catholic Church 