Dear Parishioners:
Our first snowstorm has come and gone! It didn’t help our attendance at Sunday morning Masses. However, the Vigil Mass on Saturday was very crowded. We must thank Paul Anderson and our OLM maintenance team, who worked hard to clear the snow and enable those who came to Mass to arrive and leave safely.
A few people always ask if Mass is still celebrated when it snows. At OLM, the answer is yes! Mass is always celebrated, even in the snow. The commute from the Rectory to the Church isn’t long, and we don’t even have to go outside, so we priests can always make it to celebrate the Mass despite the weather. Some other parishes have multiple locations for Mass; thus, priests cannot always get there in snowstorms. We are blessed at OLM to have two priests and a short commute!
The Church looks bare as the beautiful Christmas decorations and trees are gone. It looks “ordinary,” which befits the liturgical season. It is Ordinary Time when we wear green vestments and celebrate every aspect of the life of Christ. In common use, ‘ordinary’ refers to something plain or unexciting. For that reason, many people hear ‘Ordinary Time’ and immediately think of the season as such. But that understanding doesn’t reflect the true meaning of the season.
Ordinary time should be a time for spiritual growth when the mystery of Christ is called to penetrate ever more deeply into history until all things are finally caught up in Christ. The goal toward which all of history is directed is represented by the final Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Solemnity of Christ the King.
Ordinary comes from the Latin ordinalis, meaning ‘numbered’ or ‘ruled’. This title refers to the ongoing and rhythmic nature of the season. Just like everyday life, there is a rhythm to the days and the weeks. We have holidays and special occasions that we look forward to and change the pace, just like we have holy days and feasts in the Church year. But those special occasions aren’t the whole picture, just like there is more to the life of Christ than what we celebrate in other liturgical seasons.
The Season of Ordinary Time has two parts, but it remains one season. The first part begins now, right after the feast of the Epiphany. It runs until Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins. The second part begins the Monday after Pentecost and runs until the First Sunday of Advent. This part is typically about twice the length of the first.
Like all liturgical seasons, Ordinary Time is meant to be lived! We aren’t passive receptors of the liturgy. We are called to full and active participation in the life of the Church and her liturgy! Our full participation in the Season of Ordinary Time means participating in the everyday life of Jesus.
The Most Reverend Richard Henning, D.D., S.T.D., Bishop of Providence
Next Sunday at the 5:00 pm Mass, Bishop Henning is celebrating the Annual Diocesan Respect Life Mass here at OLM. We gather as a local Church to pray for an increase in respect for all human life from conception until natural death. I hope you can join with Catholics across the Diocese for this Respect Life Mass.
Human life has become cheap in our culture. Attacks upon the sanctity of life are viewed as routine and “ordinary.” This is seen in legal abortion until birth for the unborn, legal assisted suicide and euthanasia for the terminally ill, unjust war and weapons that indiscriminately kill innocent civilians, violent racial hatred and religious persecution, rampant gun violence and crime, growing violence in our schools and sporting events, refugees and migrants left to die and the poor told to fend for themselves. All these things are apathetically accepted as routine.
These comprise what Pope Francis calls “the throwaway culture.” He states: “Human life is sacred and inviolable. Every civil right is based on the recognition of the first fundamental right, the right to life, which is not subject to any condition, of a qualitative, economic, and certainly not of an ideological nature. Too often, human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a ‘throwaway’ culture which is now spreading. In this way, life too is easily discarded.”
Be well. Do good. God Bless! Pray for life.