Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People
 
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
 
Returning to Ordinary Time Should be Far from Ordinary
The word “ordinary” is perhaps an unfortunate translation. It really means “ordered” time in the sense that it follows a sequential order - think of the word “ordinal.” When the church is in “ordinary” time this simply means the sequential order of time outside of the other liturgical seasons.  The new name for this season comes to us after the introduction of the New Order of Mass after the Second Vatican Council.  It is not meant to mean boring or regular or default.  It is not meant to imply we can take a break in our spiritual lives as if all the heavy lifting is only done through Lent and Easter.  There is still work to do - prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and penance.
 
Returning to ordinary time is coinciding with our “return to normal.” I struggle with this phrase.  I know we want to return to celebrating Mass “like normal,” which is laudable, but I wonder if behind the word normal people mean comfortable.  As far as the wider Church is concerned, do we want to return to normal?  If normal means the way things were before the lockdown, then we are saying we want to return to a church in decline.  The statistics are scary in the United States. Between 1970 and 2018, annual figures for Catholic marriages in the United States fell from 426,309 to 143,087; infant baptisms from 1.089 million to 615,119; students in Catholic elementary and secondary schools from 4.4 million to 1.8 million; and elementary and secondary school students in parish religious education from 5.5 million to 2.9 million. The number of diocesan and religious priests dropped from 59,192 to 36,580; religious sisters from 160,931 to 44,117; and the rate of weekly Mass attendance from 54.9 percent to 21.1 percent. In addition are the years of abuse, cover-up, and corruption by priests and bishops and even cardinals.  One of the few categories with a significant upward trend was “ former Catholic adults,” who increased from 3.5 million in 1970 to 26.1 million.  Think of that! We are producing more former Catholics than actual Catholics!  That is what normal Catholicism has become. I do not want to return to that.  The reasons behind all this and the solutions are beyond my capabilities to fully grasp.  This is something I’ve been pondering during some of our “down time” and will continue to ponder as we move forward.  But I ask you as well to ponder our return. What does this mean for us as a parish?  What can we do? What is God calling us to do? As always I am open to your input.
 
Allow me one more musing about “Ordinary Time.”  Some may remember what they called this time back in the day (and also currently the Extraordinary Form of the Mass).  Today would be the “3rd Sunday after Pentecost.”  While the term “Ordinary time” works, I must admit I like the traditional way of continuing to reference the important Feast of Pentecost.  So during the whole season we are wearing green, we are constantly reminded of Pentecost because only the Holy Spirit makes possible what we are doing. 
 
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Pfr