This week begins the ordinary season of our liturgical year. We return to the color green, which predominates most of our celebrations throughout the year. It is a return to our “normal“ celebrations. We are no longer in high season or preparatory season.
I wanted to talk a little bit this week about the concept of returning to normal, which I know is something on all of our minds in our daily life. Whether it’s pandemic, politics, financial concerns or social unrest, we long for normal. I’m pretty sure most of us know that we’re not called by God to ever move into the past, so we should be looking for a “new normal.“ I usually stay away from that phrase simply because for most people I think it feels like a diminished compromise from the past.
I hope we can muster, through faith, a new Hope in a better “new normal“ than what we have known before. We’re going to be managing vaccines and safe distancing as we slowly suppress the worst dangers of this virus. We will also be managing tension with friends as politics continue to try to tear us apart. And many of us will be managing the daily in and out of children in school, jobs and family, and all of the “normal stresses” of life.