In our latest blog, Revd Kat Campion-Spall, Associate Vicar of St Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol, considers the blessing of living in 'ordinary times'.
The church has now entered the long season of ordinary time which will see us through the summer and well into the autumn.After the wonder of Christmas, the solemnity of Lent, the darkness of Good Friday, the joy of Easter, and the fire of Pentecost, its now, just… ordinary.It does seem a little strange to have a dedicated period of ordinariness, a kind of default season with no particular theme.But thats how life is too we have highs and lows, but a lot of the time, things just tick along.For many people living through suffering, stress or sorrow, ordinary is what they yearn for.Youve probably heard of the traditional Chinese curse, may you live in interesting times with the unspoken flipside of that, which we can presume would be given as a blessing, may you live in ordinary times.The second collect at Evensong, in a similar vein, prays that we may pass our time in rest and quietness.
But ordinary time isnt about nothing happening.The liturgical colour for the season is green a colour of life and growth.Although times of challenge and change in our lives do cause us to learn and grow, we also need times of rest, of quietness and ordinariness for the slow and steady rooting of our lives in God, and growth as Christian disciples.Ordinary time isnt a time to stop, but a time to steadily attend to the daily necessities of our lives of faith.
May we all live in ordinary times.