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Life is tough. Nuns are tougher.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Don't Tell ME What to Do!

I feel remiss in not keeping you posted on the calendar. It seems I am always behind the eight ball. It's puzzling because I love the Church calendar, which, if followed, will tell you what to do and think about every single day.

Some people don't like to be told anything. They bristle at the idea. But our path is that of humility and obedience. Following along the calendar days is the easiest breeziest way to figure out what to do.

It's like Weight Watchers!  They don't tell you what to eat. They just give all the food you might want points and you can decide how to eat your points. You can have a big old piece of cake. But not dinner. You can have a reasonable dinner and a little something sweet.  But you might have to walk more.

So every day, the Church gives you some points and you can figure out how to use them. There are reading from the Bible, Old Testament and New, to think over, several saints who have feast days to inspire us, which Mysteries of the Rosary to say, and a general overview, like Advent, Lent, etc.

We just got done with Christmastide. It's a long celebration that ends with the Baptism of Jesus. I can only hope you were following along, since I was no help whatsoever.

Now we're back in Ordinary Time.  It's not all that ordinary, since we're following the teachings of a very radical philosophy that asks us to have compassion and forgiveness at all times, even in heavy traffic at rush hour.  But we're not having any extra cake right now.

We all just did that. Right around the corner, we'll have the opportunity to walk it off, as Lent starts early this year, Easter coming at the end of March as it does. So there's a little heads up from me. IN the meantime, we've put away the lights and the Magi, written the thank you notes.

The priest at Mass will be wearing his everyday green. The Rosary is Glorious. We're making a big pot of chili with chicken and apple sausage.


2 comments:

Daily Grace said...

The chili looks very nice!

Sister Mary Margaret said...

Of course, "Ordinary" time does not mean "regular" time. In this case, the word "ordinary" comes from the same root as "ordinal" as in "counted." These are the numbered - or counted - Sundays. For example, the 8th Sunday in Ordinary (ahem... Counted) time.
The other Sundays are named after feasts, so they are not numbered. It would be easy to think "Special vs Ordinary" as opposed to "Named vs Numbered," so it is easy to see why people assume that "Ordinary" just means "regular" and leave it at that.