Ignatian Meditation: Ordinary Time

Jesus of the Gospels can confuse me. He can baffle and bother me, challenge and confront me. He calls me to notice my choices and how I am living my life. He causes me to ask questions and become more aware of what is going on, all sign that I am trying, and growing in, living my life of faith.

In this Ordinary Time of our Church year, the scriptures of the growing season draw me closer to Jesus. My everyday way of praying helps me to enter the stories and allow the heart and mind of Jesus to enter into me. The “me” decreases and love and light increases, growing more fully in me and in the world.

Today, I ponder, “Who is this Jesus?” and “Who am I because of him?”

Through the Ordinary

It is through the ordinary, through the ordinary eyes and hands,

through our flesh and blood and the flesh and blood of our children,

that a Great Power comes into the world.

Through simple lives, humble and forgiven,

the Spirit races through the world touching everyone, t

ouching everything with a sovereign dignity,

with a forgetfulness of self, surrounding all with an incomprehensible

Silence that for those who hear it becomes the sound of spirits singing.

And it does not matter whether we move forward or backward in time,

Flesh and blood are there, and the Silence, and the immense Song,

which we, too, can sing if only we allow it to

enter our ordinary bodies and

change us into something entirely new.

-Pat Twohy, SJ

Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea,

where he spent some time with them baptizing.
John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim,
because there was an abundance of water there,
and people came to be baptized,
for John had not yet been imprisoned.
Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew
about ceremonial washings.
So they came to John and said to him,
“Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan,
to whom you testified,
here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him.”
John answered and said,
“No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.
You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the Christ,
but that I was sent before him.
The one who has the bride is the bridegroom;
the best man, who stands and listens for him,
rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice.
So this joy of mine has been made complete.

He must increase; I must decrease.”

Jn 3:22-30