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In a modern world where the dynamic, fast-paced, and impressive nature and trajectory of technology dictate that each day seemingly brings a breakthrough or an app to make our lives easier, the term ordinary can seem wholly negative.
Professionally, we strive to go beyond what seems ordinary. In our personal lives, we seek out opportunities to engage our natural talents to distinguish ourselves, and we teach our children that there is nothing just ordinary about them. Because of the inadvertent mental conditioning we undergo around the word “ordinary,” the term itself becomes something we eschew.
But what if the ordinary isn’t meant to be fled from? If it is indeed the case that the Lord speaks to us in a still, small voice, wouldn’t it stand to reason that the ordinary is where we have the greater opportunity to experience the divine?
The Church dedicates the largest amount of time to Ordinary Time, not to feast days. There is nothing ordinary about the ordinary, and the approach of the next liturgical season should be anticipated with every bit as much reverence and excitement as any feast or penitential season.
Most Catholics are unaware of the etymology of the term ordinary as it pertains to Ordinary Time. We hear “ordinary,” and we immediately think “unimportant.” This is a natural conclusion to draw, as the word “ordinary” is not uncommon. In fact, after we have an ordinary day or week, we oftentimes feel relieved, as ordinary means uneventful and relatively peaceful.
However, the term “ordinary” as it pertains to the liturgical life of the Church, comes from the term ordinal. Ordinal means to exist in sequence, or to be numbered. The weeks in Ordinary Time sequentially recount the public life and ministry of Our Lord and are therefore anything but ordinary in the traditional sense.
The Church recognizes that most of our lives do not unfold on mountain tops or in raging seas, but in the relative quiet of routine and repetition. Ordinary Time reminds the faithful that holiness is not only reserved for dramatic moments. In truth, most of the time, sanctity is formed slowly, through consistency, discipline, prayer, and the unnoticed choices made day after day. In many ways, Ordinary Time is where the Catholic life is lived the most authentically.
On Ash Wednesday, Catholics are called to the public witness of their faith by the wearing of a small cross on their forehead. Throughout the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent, they are challenged to perform acts of sacrifice and service for the benefit of others, and to always point to God as the reason for their charity to give Him glory and to evangelize through actions. During Christmas and Easter, when churches are packed to the brim, the festive nature of the holidays lends an ease of public witness to the faithful, as it is culturally expected in the West during those times.
But what about Ordinary Time? The Church calls us to be every bit as charitable, joyful, reverent, faithful, and fearless in our evangelization as we would be in any other liturgical time. Let’s challenge ourselves to do just that.
First Challenge: Unseen Holiness Challenge
For one full week, we intentionally perform one hidden act of charity or sacrifice each day without telling anyone about it. The act itself does not need to be dramatic. In fact, the smaller and less visible it is, the more fitting it becomes for this challenge. A person might quietly clean up after someone else, pray intentionally for a difficult coworker, refrain from complaining, send an encouraging message, help a family member without seeking recognition, or spend time in silent prayer instead of scrolling through their phone. Praying the Liturgy of the Hours is also a fantastic way to add a new depth to our spiritual lives in a personal, quiet way.
The purpose of this challenge is to attempt to retrain our hearts away from the modern temptation toward recognition. We are dominated by a world that runs on “likes,” and it is time we, as Catholics, lead the spiritual revolution away from the addiction of over-visibility by pointing our lives towards the invisible and transcendent.
Contemporary culture constantly encourages people to document, announce, and display their virtues publicly. From what we had for breakfast to how we feel about polyester versus cotton clothing in the spring, we are constantly putting our thoughts out into the world through social media. However, Catholic spirituality often moves in the opposite direction. Christ Himself warns against practicing righteousness “before others to be seen by them” (Mt. 6:1 [NAB]).
This challenge helps reveal that holiness often grows most profoundly in patient, quiet faithfulness rather than public recognition.
Second Challenge: Sanctify the Routine
If the purpose of these challenges is to help us recognize the divine in the “ordinary,” then turning our most routine tasks into opportunities for prayer and an increase in personal piety is key to helping us on our way. In the second challenge, we choose one ordinary daily activity that normally feels repetitive or insignificant and intentionally offer it to God every day for two weeks. Some suggestions:
- Commuting to work
- Washing dishes
- Checking email
- Exercising
- Making meals
- Folding laundry
- Driving children to activities
- Going for a walk
Before beginning the activity each day, we can intentionally offer the action to the Lord. The purpose of this challenge is not to make the activity more exciting, but to recognize that ordinary life itself can become sacred when united to God. We can challenge ourselves to recognize that our relationship with Christ, His Mother, and the saints is not only to be cultivated during liturgical seasons that seem more profound or important than Ordinary Time. In fact, we are called to build up our lives in Christ at all times, even when things seem uneventful and ultimately mundane or unremarkable.
Both of these challenges should also include a sacrifice of some sort. Whether it is designating certain times of our day to refrain from phone usage or to take on more prayer, the effort to give something up should be undertaken in order to enhance the experience.
In the end, the extraordinary spiritual possibilities of Ordinary Time should never be overlooked, because God chooses to meet us precisely within our routines and daily flow. Most people will never experience constant mountaintops, dramatic conversions, or lives marked by public greatness or visibility.
In fact, in our better, more sincere moments, most of us would be relieved to hear that. Instead, life is largely made up of routines, responsibilities, interruptions, sacrifices, and countless unnoticed decisions made in kitchens, classrooms, offices, parishes, and homes. Catholicism insists that these ordinary moments are not impediments to holiness but invitations to form a deeper relationship with the Lord.
Christ spent the overwhelming majority of His earthly life not performing miracles before crowds, but living faithfully, obediently, and quietly. The saints themselves were rarely made holy in moments of wild, public spectacle, but instead through years of perseverance in prayer, discipline, charity, and humble service.
In a culture increasingly obsessed with visibility and acknowledgement, Ordinary Time stands as a profoundly counter-cultural witness to where our focus ought to be. It reminds believers that sanctity is not reserved for the few and at only the most dramatic of times; rather, it is offered daily to ordinary people willing to remain faithful in the small things.
Perhaps that is the deepest beauty of Ordinary Time. To recognize that God still transforms souls through the seemingly unremarkable rhythms of everyday life. That is anything but ordinary.
Photo by Grant Whitty on Unsplash
