Between the joy of Christmas and Lent’s bracing call to conversion, we get ... February, four weeks of the most gray and ordinary of Ordinary Time. Maybe we could just hibernate till Ash Wednesday — physically and spiritually.
But no! These ordinary days are where a life of faith is forged. In the second century, the bishop Polycarp was told to renounce Christ or be burned alive. He responded: “For 86 years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. ... Listen carefully: I am a Christian.” His glorious witness was the fruit of decades of faithful prayer, worship and service, day in and day out.
So go to Mass. Go to confession. Go to adoration. Do works of mercy. Start each morning with St. Francis de Sales’ prayer: “My God, I give you this day. I offer you, now, all of the good that I shall do, and I promise to accept, for love of you, all of the difficulty that I shall meet. Help me to conduct myself during this day in a manner pleasing to you. Amen.”
Northwest Catholic — February/March 2022