Last Sunday was the first Sunday of Ordinary Time. We had some snow and ice days last week. By Saturday everyone was dug out, but the temps were still frigid, in the single digits. We attended Saturday evening Mass, expecting that it would be sparsely attended. It wasn't, the church was nearly full.
The Christmas decorations had been put away, though there were still some poinsettias around the altar. People were wearing heavy coats and boots. Jeans and sweaters or flannel shirts were the attire of the evening. The choir wasn't the A-list; I don't think we have an A-list. Though everyone put forth their best efforts for the holidays. But the music was fine. It was all familiar songs that everyone knew, and there was a lot of congregational singing, raising a joyful voice to heaven. For the Creed there were cards in the pew racks, but most people didn't need to take them out. One of my favorite parts of the Mass is to hear the Creed recited in a full church.
The shepherds and wise men have departed, and the angels have gone back to heaven. The Holy Family gets a little time before they have to leave for Egypt. The Gospel fast forwards to John the Baptist, who has grown up in a hurry.
People go up for Communion, which is Viaticum, in the sense of food for the journey, though hopefully not the last journey yet. After the last hymn no one leaves until we all recite the little prayer of thanksgiving, which is a local custom.
It was dusk before we arrived, and now it is fully dark. Everyone tells one another, "Stay warm!" and "Be careful on the ice!"
My husband deaconed at this Mass and stayed to help Father button things up afterwards. Back in the sacristy Father said ruefully that he misplaced his homily notes, and had to wing it. We told him that he had done just fine, which he had.
It was a good finish for a cold winter night. For some reason the title of a book by Mary Pipher popped into my head, it was called "The Shelter of Each Other".
Well, not everyone is back in ordinary time. WKSU, public radio from Kent State University provides an extra "Holiday Classical" channel beginning in December. They cease it sometime in January. However this year it is still there.
ReplyDeleteI had written them several years ago asking for them to keep it through MLK day. Well we are past MLK day as well as past the twelve days of Christmas according to the Julian Calendar. Yet it still there.
Maybe people like myself are continuing to listen to it rather than going back to the regular Classical Channel. The selection has been exceptionally good this year. Unlike the regular classical channel there is no introduction and commentary to the pieces. Just the station id every twenty or thirty minutes.
If you would like to try it, click on this link
WKSU
At the top of the webpage is a gray bar, click on the down arrow on the extreme right which will allow you to choose the Holiday Classical stream among others.
Of course season used to extend clear to February 2, Candlemas, also know as the Purification of Mary or the Meeting of Christ with his people.
Thanks for the link, Jack. I will check it out.
DeleteThat's a nice meditation, Katherine. The Church Ladies calm down a lot after Christmas, and settle in to happy martyrdom about how hard they worked. The Confirmation class leader is making plans to resume activities now that everyone has settled into the post-holiday routine. Father has reached his goal of getting five new Knights of Columbus members, so guys are no longer ducking and covering when they see him coming. Most of those who winter in Florida are gone, and we no longer have to listen to them talk about how great it is not to shovel snow, drive on black ice, and jump start cars--as if these were bad things.
ReplyDeleteIn my head, it's Epiphany, which lasts until Lent, but nonetheless a time to focus what the Christmas season brought us in the way of little epiphanies.
After years of trying to cram two sets of families into a two-day stretch with a ton of people overeating and talking loud, it's now just us and The Boy. Everyone is dead or at a distance. It occurred to us that this is an opportunity for us to spend Christmas in a radically different way. We await inspiration!
"how great it is not to shovel snow." Your snowbird friends are probably on the west coast of Florida, but it's the same there as it is here, and right now the temperature outside is 49 degrees. It was 40 when I got up and 41 when I went out for the Wednesday meeting. The "heat" has been running all morning. I don't know where the "heat" comes from -- it's the air conditioner, somehow, not a Michigan basement furnace. So far it has generated enough warmth to made it comfortable in the car. The house, unfortunately, is somewhat bigger than a car. One of our granddaughters left Tapei, China last night on a 38 hour flight which brings her in tomorrow evening, when a warming trend ought to be kicking in. If you fly 38 hours to get to the beach, Florida ought to provide the weather for it. Florida is not delivering today.
ReplyDeleteBut no snow shoveling.
Tom, sounds like you have a heat pump system. So do we. I would bet that yours is working much more efficiently than ours this morning. I'm guessing our auxiliary back-up has been on since the 1st of December.
DeleteI have no idea where in Florida these people are. Why do they go? All they do is have "reunions" with other people from Michigan all winter.
DeleteI don't mind snow shoveling. I find it reassuring that I can still do it, albeit MUCH slower than I used to.
We have a forced air gas furnace in the Michigan basement and a window A/C unit we can drag into the bedroom if the temperature doesn't go below 70 at night. I don't know anything about pump systems.
Jean, They probably go to the Tampa Bay area -- Bradenton, St.Pete, Venice. The expectation for snowbirds is: Connecticut, New York, Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and a lot of Canadians to the East Coast. Western Pa, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and some Canadians to the West Coast. Interstate 75 splits a little north of Orlando, and one can sit an watch the license plate peal off, mostly toward Tampa. The eastern snowbirds mostly come straight down I-95. This gives us the worst driving habits from eight states and one foreign country every winter.
DeleteFor instance: If you see a Florida driver signalling for a turn, he probably is just compensating for the Pennsylvania drivers who don't know how to signal. The Florida driver will go straight ahead. The Pennsylvania driver will turn. The natives understand that.
Back to the subject: We abandoned Christmas after the Baptism on the 12th. The altar had been awash with poinsettias, and the altar servers had been wearing red cassocks. On the 13th, the black cassocks were back, the four (fake) Christmas trees were gone, the tapestries were green again. And attendees were invited to take he poinsettias if they wanted them. The stripping of the flowers involves no volunteer or paid work; they all walk out with the 8 a.m. congregation on Monday.
ReplyDeleteI don't get waiting for the Purification. This Sunday, the Baptist has lost his head, and Jesus is picking apostles. Candlemas this year is 19-to-22 years out of place chronologically.
The Byzantine tradition calls Candlemas the Meeting of the Lord with his people. That, of course, took place in the Temple. But exactly how old Jesus was when he met his people in the Temple varies across the Gospels. Luke has it taking place when he was an infant. John has Jesus purifying the Temple shortly after his baptism and calling of the disciples. Mark has the meeting taking place at the end of Jesus ministry when he arrives in Jerusalem. Wherever you put things in the narrative, he is the light of revelation to the nations and the glory of his people Israel
DeleteThis is not a Marian feast in the Byzantine tradition. It is a feast not simply of Jesus but of the people of God. I have an elaborate candelabra that holds 17 candles. I light it on Candlemas and Pentecost.
Many people I grew up with in my small (now a thriving metropolis of 2100, still with no stop lights) southwest Wisconsin town go to The Villages, which I understand is a sprawling serious of gated retirement communities in Sumter County (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Villages,_Florida).
ReplyDeleteThey all seem to be golfers and have found the ability to nest around each other while there. That's a long way to go to be around the people you are around the rest of the year, but ……...
Republicans love to campaign in the Villages.
DeleteWhat a wonderful reflection, Katherine. Whoever said that Ordinary Time is really Extraordinary Time was pretty smart. It's a great gift (which I wish I had) to be able to find extraordinary grace in quiet, normal things.
ReplyDelete