Go Deeper in
Ordinary Time

We are now in the season of Ordinary Time, This is the main season of living and growing. After celebrating the impactful seasons of Christmas and Easter, we need time to process, unpack, and allow God’s quiet grace to work through out lives, transforming us each day to the fullness of being children of God. It doesn’t come easy and it is not all forward. The path is often up and down and forwards and backwards. But we know God writes straight with our crooked lines.

Consider taking time before Lent, to allow Christmas graces to grow deeper in our being. The joy and love we experienced in Christmas needs fertile soil to take root so they are not a flash in our life, but a treasure buried deep within us to bear fruit throughout our lives.

What are you joyful for? How do you cultivate joy in your life? How do you spread joy in other people’s lives?

Where have you experienced being loved? Where might you have missed love’s presence? How can you love others more and more?

This is the time to grow, not by brute force or harsh effort, but by surrendering to the loving, tender care of our God. Allow God’s peace in this time to help make you extraordinary. The world is in need of extraordinary you. God made you for a divine and benevolent purpose.

Besides the ministry activities found in our parish and archdiocese, here are some personal resources:

• Pope Leo - Magnifica Humanitas - Pope Loe’s Encylclical on how to safeguard humanity in the era of Artificial Intelligence. Key is recognizing how wonderfully we have been created in God’s image and not to tempted by AI’s optimization mentality. What may seem as limitations of humanity such as aging, illness, incapacities, and suffering, are not areas to optimize, but reflect the mystery of the cross and the power of love, trust, and faith.
  For a summary, check out Ascension Presses’ complete guide.

• Pope Leo - Dilexi Te - Apostolic Exhortation on love for the poor, released 4 October 2025.

• Pope Leo on AI - Pope Leo: AI must help and not hinder children and young people's development

• Pope Leo’s First Public Homily - for the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel May 9, 2025.

• Pope Francis Encyclical Letter: Dilexit Nos (On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ)

• The Forgotten Way by Matthew Kelly - you can pick up a copy of the book at our parish office (while supplies last) and use it to explore how to better follow the path to holiness by changing the way you speak.

40th Anniversary of DOMINUM ET VIVIFICANTEM

• Dominum et Vivificantem (On the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World) - This year marks 4oth anniversary on John Paul II’s encyclical on the Holy Spirit.

30th Anniversary of JP II’s Truth Cannot Contradict Truth

• Truth Cannot Contradict Truth - On October 22, 1996, John Paul II delivered a landmark message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences stating that scientific theories do not contradict religious truth and that evolution is “more than a hypothesis.”