Dear Parishioners of Mary Immaculate and St. Rose,

      The Christmas decorations are all put away and the church suddenly looks bare and plain.  The children are back in school.  Life is back to normal and we are in what is known as ordinary time.

      I always think that is a rather ironic title, because we still have many things going on and the calendar is still sprinkled with feasts, but ordinary simply means we are not in a specific liturgical season.

Each day as I go through the ordinary living of daily life, I think that this is what God entered into when Jesus was here among us.  For the first thirty years of His life, Jesus, for the most part, must have lived a very ordinary life.

Each day there was the daily rising, morning ablutions, breakfast and then doing the work of the day.  For the poor of first century Palestine, most of the daily activity centered around providing food for the family table.  That was done either directly or by working at some humble task to earn a living.

For the Holy Family, work would have centered around the carpentry of Joseph.  He worked day in and day out to provide for His family.  When Jesus was old enough He would have assisted Joseph.

In the evenings, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus would have shared a meal and carried on conversations as they did some sort of task that could be accomplished as they sat and talked.  In these quiet conversations, Mary and Joseph must have grown in their love of God as they listened to Jesus.

In a similar way, we honor God and grow in holiness as we go about the day to day tasks of our lives.  Most of us do not encounter the Lord in voices from Heaven or visions, but in the quiet of our hearts as we do our work, spend time with our families and friends, or just take care of our homes.

May these days of “ordinary time” provide moments of grace.  May you know God is with you as you go about your day.

Msgr. Cox