Do you sometimes feel that living during the Catholic Church’s Ordinary Time is a little less exciting? I’ve been there. It’s easy to get excited around major Catholic feast days when there is more preparation and celebration. I’ve been guilty of easily losing some practices I worked so hard to form during Advent and Lent. It can be easy to get distracted with trips, activities, the heat, and numerous other tasks that fill our summer time up. But just because it isn’t Easter or Christmas doesn’t mean there is less to celebrate, or less opportunities to grow closer to Christ. On the contrary, during this season we have the opportunity to grow even closer to Christ as we grow to learn more and reflect deeper about his ministry, miracles, and healing. During this time, we are called to honor him and allow him to be with us so we may grow closer to him. The season of Ordinary Time within the Church may feel very dry because it is a quieter time within the liturgical calendar, but just because the summer heat dries things up doesn’t mean our faithlife should be dry too.
The beauty of this liturgical season is that we get to accompany our Lord’s ministry. During Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, we focus on celebrating our Lord’s birth, death and resurrection, and ascension, all of which are extremely important to mankind's salvation. These seasons are a time for great growth as we focus on celebrating particular aspects of Christ. Each season is shorter and focuses on a major part of our Lord’s life, that we prepare ourselves for in order to receive him fully. However, during Ordinary Time we are still called to receive Christ and to grow closer to him by learning from his ordinary day to day. By following his ministry through scripture, we allow our Lord to speak to us and get to know him and Our Father better. It is a time for spiritual growth, a time of getting to know one another through prayer, the sacraments, and meditation. The season of Ordinary Time is a slower one that gives us the opportunity to focus on getting to know Christ and his teachings. A period where we are called to listen, reflect, and pray on what it is that Christ is calling each of us to do, to understand, and help others obtain. With a break from school and extracurricular activities, this is your time to really live the liturgical season within your home.
How can we bring this season into our home and family life at a time that is more relaxed and less structured? Continuing to receive the sacraments is always a good start. Attending daily mass, frequent confession, and prayer are all important practices that we should try to maintain regularly in our schedule. In the past, I felt like during the summer it was harder to do these, but have found in recent years that it was my laziness that kept me from them. The desire for using our abundant free time for ourselves can be strong. However, with a slower pace during the summer months, and less obligations and rigid schedules that keep us from attending frequent confession and daily mass, this is actually the best time to start these practices in your day to day. With children out of school and more flexibility in your routine, this is also a great opportunity for you to share these sacraments with them, if you don’t already do this as a family.
Some ways to make these sacraments more engaging for the whole family is to make an event of it. Perhaps, once a week, or when you can, choose to attend daily mass in a different parish than the one you regularly attend. Allow your children to pick one and even have them learn more about the history of that parish before you visit it. This can be a wonderful way to allow them to foster interest in learning more about the history of a parish, their patron saint, and to experience more frequently how the Catholic faith is “universal.” We easily grow accustomed to our own parishes' practices and culture, so having the opportunity to visit other churches helps open our eyes to how each church celebrates the same mass and practices while each having their own culture based on the community. You will find some churches have a larger community that allows for more parish activities, celebrations, or traditions. While you might discover a smaller parish allows for more intimacy with each parishioner and the clergy. Not to mention the opportunity for your family to explore the different types of architecture that exists so close to home. This isn’t just a spiritual experience, but a cultural one that you and your children can enjoy together.
Adding time for prayer as a family is one of the most beautiful ways to live the season of Ordinary Time as a family. Praying the rosary together after dinner, or at a time the family is typically together, can be one of the strongest and richest ways to bring Christ into your home. If you are wanting to freshen things up, try finding new places to pray as a family. Taking your prayer time outside can be a great way to find silence and to be closer to our Lord through nature. By immersing ourselves within God’s creation, we can allow our hearts to reflect and enjoy the wonder he has created for us and give thanks during that time of prayer. It is also a beautiful way to make prayer time more exciting for the whole family and allows for each member to look forward to a spiritual activity that is immersed in nature. These moments will also create fond memories for the whole family and are much more likely to encourage each member to want to grow in their faith because it is more engaging and attractive. This can be important with children when you are trying to instill a personal desire to grow and know our Lord better. Praying the rosary in your garden in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary is a beautiful and visual way to grow closer to our Mother. If your children are in need of releasing some energy, consider taking a walk or hike where you recite some of your favorite prayers, hymns, or listen to the daily readings. This activity is a great way to be active while allowing our spiritual self to be more still and focus on listening to Christ.
Summer can also be a great time for socializing with friends and family. With so many families also having less commitments and more flexibility, seeking to spend time with them while living the liturgical season can be a great way to share the faith with others. With summer nights, hosting a bonfire on special feast days, like the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, can be a fun way to bring family and friends together to create lasting memories while celebrating and honoring Catholic figures. In June, throwing a little dinner party on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus can be a fun get together, with coloring pages of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the kids and desserts in the shape of the Sacred Heart for kids big and small. You can find numerous feast days for saints throughout the course of the summer months. Celebrating a feast day with a fun meal or dessert and a special prayer of intercession to that saint can be fun things to help the family learn more about the many holy men and women we can module after. In August, we celebrate the Transfiguration and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Attending mass, cooking a fun meal as a family or inviting friends over for a bbq, and praying the rosary together is surely to bring everyone closer to our Mother and her beloved son. We may fall into the mindset that there isn’t much to celebrate during the summer months, not to mention the change in habits or routine that can negatively affect our spiritual life. Yet during this season of rest and personal growth, there is still so much the Church celebrates that allows us to continue to grow closer to our Lord through the abundance of feast days, scripture, and Mary, our mother.
Bringing the season of Ordinary time into your home decor is also a great way for you and your family to grow within your domestic church and get into the spirit of the season. The green of Ordinary Time symbolizes the spiritual growth we obtain as we grow to learn and know more about Christ, and can be a color you use throughout your home decor to encourage you to celebrate and live this season to the fullest. Setting up a home altar with green linens, a crucifix, and the bible opened up to the daily readings can become a wonderful space where each member of the family can come and seek to grow closer to our Lord. It can become a gathering space for prayer time together. Placing an image of Mary in a visible spot is a beautiful way to keep Our Lady close. Placing seasonal flowers next to her image is a nice way to bring some of nature's beauty into your home while paying homage to the Mother of God. You can even turn this into a weekly task that the children can accomplish by sending them out to the garden to collect fresh flowers to place next to Our Lady.
The key to making any liturgical season fun and enticing is to make small moments and feasts feel big. Taking the time to do a small celebratory act can make all the difference in turning a time that feels bland or dry into a time you eagerly anticipate every year. The season of Ordinary Time is just as special and rich as the other liturgical seasons. It brings us closer to Christ and helps us each to grow in our spiritual life. Just as the other seasons encourage us to work hard to obtain Heaven, so does Ordinary Time allow us to nurture and cultivate our interior self so that we may bear fruit. Even at a time where there is change in our day to day routine and that we find ourselves with more time, we are called to live this season to its fullest. When we choose to bring each liturgical season into our home and to share it with our family, we each allow for Christ to be in the center of our lives. We can quickly discover that each day has a cause worth celebrating and rejoicing, and not just one short season in the year.
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