The liturgical year consists of the cycle of seasons in Christian churches that determines when spiritual feast days are to be observed. During this cycle selected portions of Scripture are to be read tracing different aspects of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in history.
When believers are not preparing for or celebrating events such as Advent, Christmas, Lent or Easter they are in a season which is called Ordinary Time.
Traditionally high church traditions set Ordinary Time as those days which fall after Epiphany and after Pentecost, respectively. Pentecost is celebrated fifty days after Easter and commemorates the out pouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church (See: Acts 2).
By reflecting upon how Jesus Christ interacted in our world so long ago, an invitation to the Savior to work in our own lives can become a reality.
8 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.
22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him. (Matthew 4:8-22).
Welcoming Christ into our daily lives brings a spiritual dynamic for which each of us was born. It has been said that in this fallen and pain filled world is Jesus Christ ever present empathizing with our hurts and willing to comfort and to heal.
23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan (Matthew 4:23-25).
Life begins with the pain of child birth and the bestowal of a fragile life to be nurtured and loved. But inevitable each life will some day end in physical death. It is the cycle of life and death that the living Christ is always needed and should be welcomed.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.[a] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).
And throughout the journey of Ordinary Time, we can “live and move and have our being” in the Creator and Redeemer who made us to fellowship with Him (Acts 17:28).
It was Augustine the great theologian and Bishop of Hippo who captured so poignantly how restless we are when not drinking in the divine presence of the Lord.
In this life long trek children learn and play, grand parents tell stories of the past and special friendships are cultivated.
And just as we see how Ordinary Time is not in fact ordinary, here is what C. S. Lewis had to say about those we met in it: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption” (Weight of Glory).
Each moment we live can be an opportunity to invite the living Christ to transform our hearts and relationships into something with eternal beauty and joy.
In what ways have you invited Jesus Christ to be a part of your everyday life?
A Day with C.S. Lewis 
I think patterning is an important part of inviting God in to our day-to-day lives. To me, that is one of the advantages of following the liturgical year – there are constant reminders about God, His Word, His plan for the world, and His offer of redemption and transformation.
Your question, though, relates to what I do personally to invite Jesus into my everyday life, so I will share some thoughts: In addition to a daily devotional and Bible study times, some of the habits of life that are helping me to live more mindfully are (1) keeping and consistently reviewing a prayer journal. I so need the reminders of what God is revealing to me or nudging me to do or become, (2) reviewing each day to remind myself of God’s activity in my life,and (4) setting a time at the beginning of each year to revisit the major events of the previous year and understand where God has opened or shut doors and where He has obviously spoken to me or intervened on my behalf.
All of these practices feed into moment-by-moment living in terms of praying continually, confessing sin immediately, being thankful always, and not running ahead of God’s leading. Having said all that, let me be clear: I do not do this anywhere near as well as I would like to, but I do see God’s hand at work in my life bringing me closer and closer to the long-range goals that these practices reflect.
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Bev: Thanks for sharing these practical insights on monitoring your relationship with the Lord. With Christ welcomed into our daily experience life is never ordinary.
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Love these thoughts on “ordinary time.” Thanks for the continued instruction.
Yes, so much of the Bible is about what is ordinary, but as has been well said is tied as in related to the gospel fulfilled in Jesus. So all of life somehow can be baptized so to speak in the gospel: Jesus himself, and the Triune God in and through him.I think of the witness of Brother Lawrence in The Practice of the Presence of God.
I type thoughts every day except Sundays, usually in the morning. And I try to be in the word throughout the day, along with my regular reading of scripture. From that I hopefully am growing in the new life, in prayer, confession of sin, fellowship, etc.
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Ted: Thanks for the thoughts. I have been journaling since 1990 and find it quite helpful. We forget much and also lose perspective on the past.
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Early morning quiet time with a scripture reading plan, praying the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me a sinner” with my prayer rope, reading THE MORNING OFFERING devotional book and visiting this blog site each day are some of the ways I’ve invited Christ into my everyday life recently.
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Despina: So glad this humble attempt at a blog site has become part of your devotional life. The Eastern Orthodox Way is evident your spiritual walk. Thanks for sharing.
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Another way of inviting Christ into everyday life is attending services at church. Last night at Vespers for Forgiveness Sunday we heard the chanters sing,
“Verily, Adam sat opposite paradise bewailing his nakedness and crying, Woe is me, the robbed one, who hearkened to the evil deception, and was driven away from glory. Woe is me, who through simplicity of heart became naked, and am now perplexed. Wherefore, O paradise, I shall no more attain thy bliss, nor behold my Lord, my God, and my Creator; for I shall return to the earth from which I was taken, and I shall cry to Thee, O compassionate One, have mercy upon me who am fallen.”
These words choked me up last night because I know this heart-wrenching sorrow that grips the soul when you come to your senses and admit your sin.
Forgiveness Sunday is the day that time will be given in the service for everyone in the church to ask forgiveness of one another because without forgiveness of sins, there is no salvation. Everyone lines up and asks “Forgive me my brother or sister for I have sinned,” and they respond with “the Lord forgives and I forgive you” and then you go to the next person in line and repeat this exchange until you’ve asked and received forgiveness from everyone in the service. It is an humbling preparation as we enter this most sacred time of the year.
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What a remarkable vehicle “Forgiveness Sunday” is. We used to have “Friendship Sunday” as an evangelistic tool. Great to see a special emphasis on forgiveness.
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One of the closing hymns in the service recognizes and praises Mary with the words, “O most pure one, when Christ the Lord, my Creator and Savior, came forth from thy womb, putting me on, He did free Adam from the ancient curse.”
Inviting Christ into my everyday life is putting Him on. He “put me on” that I might put Him on.
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