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This is the last week in Ordinary Time for a while. Next week, believe it or not, Lent begins. But let’s not leave the graces of Ordinary Time too quickly. As many liturgical scholars will point out, the term “Ordinary” comes not from the idea that the days are uneventful or boring, but that the weeks are “ordinal,” that is, counted, from the first week of Ordinary Time to the 34th week. Still, it’s not hard to connect ordinary time with the days outside the great feast days of Easter and Christmas, as well as the liturgical seasons of Advent and Lent. And ordinary times are indeed more “ordinary” than those days and seasons. 

This week might be a good week, then, to think about the ordinary blessings in your life. Maybe that could be a focus of your Daily Examen this week. What things do you completely take for granted? What things, if they were suddenly taken away, would you miss? How about something as simple as a place to live, a warm bed, running water, a job or a family? Or your health? Can you still see or hear? Others in the world can’t. More basically, what about simply being alive? Maybe you could take this week to focus on the places in your Ordinary Time, and Ordinary Life, for which you should be grateful but maybe could be more grateful for!