The festive mood of the Christmas season has ended and once again we have returned to “Ordinary Time” in the Liturgical Calendar.
In fact no time is “ordinary,” since our encounter with God can happen whatever the season. We are continually being invited to “taste and see the goodness of the Lord,” as one of the Psalms expresses it.
We will be in Ordinary Time until Ash Wednesday on February 17th, when Lent commences. Easter will be celebrated this year on April 4th, as the Northhern Hemisphere welcomes the arrival of Spring and usually warmer weather.
The stained glass window depicted below is in the Catholic church of San Jose in the tiny village of Los Ojos, New Mexico, an hour north of us, off Highway 84.
The window at San Jose illustrates the “ordinary time” of the Holy Family of Nazareth: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, tending to their daily chores, leading relatively hidden lives and doing God’s will.
May we all do likewise in imitation of the Holy Family.
