Our Journey into the Ordinary
June 10, 2014
Well, we’ve arrived. Fifty days (or actually a few more) after we first encountered the empty tomb; fifty days of thoughts, reflections, images, questions; fifty days of the reality that the exuberance of Easter Day does give way to the day in and day out of ordinary life – all which ask us to engage Easter as more than one day in the course of our year, but truly a way that changes us as we live into the great miracle and mystery of the Resurrection, day in and day out.
Thank you for journeying with us and for reading and sharing reflections. Hopefully, we’ll be back next year. And on occasion, posts will appear during the year so you know we’re still here. Many of the contributors have blogs and regularly write in other forums, so follow their posts in those forums to continue your reading relationship with them.
We now enter into the season of the year called Ordinary Time. We often make a great effort to say, “It’s called ordinary after ordinal, the use of numbers for the Sundays, not because it’s ordinary.” But why not both? After all, life is often ordinary. We get up, make our coffee, do what needs to be done for the day, return home, rest, and do it all again. Ordinary mortars the big moments of our life together into a whole. Jesus did some of his most amazing teaching while doing quite ordinary things like eating, walking, even spitting. Jesus’ ministry was actually quite ordinary as he was with people, day in and day out. The extraordinary events of Holy Week and Easter gave new meaning to the ordinary – for Jesus and for us.
The Christian year moves us forward and around in the magic of our ordinary lives. Our lives change for better and for worse; grief and joy move through our lives; exciting and boring things happen. Sacred seasons come and go. Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter have come and gone, and they will come again. Our lives will be different, maybe in small ways, maybe in significant ways, when we sing the seasonal Easter hymns, pray the prayers, and gather again for the next fifty days of fabulous. But in those days, we will live, we will be with Jesus on our journeys of faith. Some moments will be extraordinary, and many will be ordinary. Â God will be with us, journeying with us through them all. Day in and day out.
For that, we give thanks. Amen. Alleluia!
Millie Ericson
It has been, well, fabulous traveling through these fifty days with you. Thank you to all the bloggers for their insightful thoughts. They have lifted and challenged me each day. I will miss coming here each morning and certainly will pray you are back next year!
Denny Banister
Thank you very much. I have thoroughly enjoyd 50 Days of Fabulous, and have included many of the thoughtful expressions from the authors in my Bible study daily journal. Denny Banister, Jefferson City, MO
Susan
Lovely reminder about “ordinary” time. Curiously made me tear up…
Is there a list somewhere of which writers have blogs and how to connect with them?
Paul Kelley
Thank you all for providing reflections and a means of expanding one’s Lenten observance for all of us who tend otherwise to waste our hours on the computer.
Kristy
I enjoyed this, some days more than others. I tried following Maria Kane’s suggestion to quilt. I used scrapbook paper that looked like fabric, most of it was red and white, but I used it because it was available, not because I expected Pentecost to be the END. I went with some of the sermons I heard instead of some of the postings, and every thing had to be much condensed. The poster frame was 18″ x 24″, so I allowed 2″ x 4″ rectangles , but some days I used more than one. I used pictures, quotes, photographs, ribbon, fabric, rick-rack, the envelope flap from a special invitation (for follow Me), gobs of regular glue and some glitter glue.
But I was also journaling, sometimes just reporting on favorite posts, sometimes defending my odd ideas. I could have saved a lot of time and bother with the journal in the first place. I don’t think I’ll do the quilt ever again.
Favorite posts were the one on Mercy and the Beautiful Mess. In fact, I summarized the Beautiful Mess with “God is in love with us” . I’m glad ; that day was a disaster, that needed auto correct. And the next day I could be thankful for the unexpected, because with hindsight May 5th turned out very well.
So I thank you. Think of all the special things that will happen in ordinary time.
VT Patty
Thank you for this fabulous journey.
Peg S.
The priest at our church likes to call this the Green Season, which carries a nice promise of health and growth. Thanks for sharing these days of celebration by writing the blogs, choosing the art, or making the responses. Thanks for the moments of feeling “like a room without a roof,” as well as the aching moments of counterpoint. Bless you one and all.