It is a hard art to learn,
catching quiet
by palms raised
cupped in
air shifting location
here and there like
trying to guess the pattern of falling leaves,
and hoping to feel
the soft descent of moments
when silence slips
between sounds.
This ordinary time is
gifted with days,
weeks of mundane grace
routinely following the liturgy
of hours anticipating creation
tuning its prayer and praise to the
rhythms of incarnate love.
I am used to the uproar,
the Holy drama,
the appetite’s gnarled discord
of fasting and feasting on borrowed time,
the knocking of angels,
the blubbering piety of waiting,
appointed seasons for guilt and grief,
tears of joy and disbelief,
the birth of miracles, the passion of virgins,
the mourning of a love so divine.
This ordinary time is gifted in its quiet, marked passing
Christ slips about
calling and baptizing,
sending and affirming,
pour in his Spirit like water
into broken cisterns,
sealing cracks and filtering our senses,
that we may savor the foolish
simplicity of his grace.
Passing Ordinary Time by ENUMA OKORO
{Photos taken in Capernwray, England}
I’m cupping my hands to hold the wonder of ordinary. Won’t you join me?