Here is 'The Messenger' downloable for free: October Magazine.
-----
Dear brothers and sisters,
Sometimes life feels like a long slog. We look back to Easter, even to the Summer holidays, and it seems ages ago already and yet as we look forward to Christmas it seems even further away, despite what the shops try to tell us! Between now and then everything can just feel like hard work, not to mention dull, even monotonous. The spiritual life can feel like that too. We have the high points in the year, Easter and Christmas, but most of the time we’re in what the Church calls Ordinary Time, which is a great title, because that’s exactly how it feels ordinary, monotonous, a long slog. We can start to feel like Sundays are better spent in bed… prayer time is better spent watching the TV… bible reading, well the latest novel would be better. Ordinary Time, definitely; boring time, quite possibly! And yet it is in these ordinary periods where the real work is done. When I was at university I used to run miles and miles. As I look back I remember the high points, running along the tops in the Peak District or finishing a log run for the Army Reserves. These were like Christmas and Easter, marvellous high points to look back on. However, where I got fit to make it to the top, was in the short training runs during the week; and how I got to the tops of the peaks was the miles of uphill running I did beforehand. It was in the training runs on the cold, wet mornings, and in the uphill miles which preceded the tops where I was tempted to give up, tempted to do something else, anything else. Yet it was in those training runs, in the ‘ordinary’ times that I got fit, mentally and physically, so as to actually make it to the tops, to the ends of the runs, and be in a position to enjoy it (rather than collapsing in a heap unable to breath). It is the ordinary times we must endure, even find ways to love, in order to get fit, physically, psychologically, and yes, spiritually. How can you keep going through the ordinary times? How can you make the most of your prayer time so that you grow spiritually, yes, but also enjoy your time with God. Maybe find someone to pray with? Perhaps find somewhere else to pray? Maybe try a different liturgy, or a different devotional book, to lead you through a book of the bible? All of these, of course, I will be happy to help you to find (there is nothing more encouraging to a priest than to have one of his congregation ask for help to pray). However, after we’ve adjusted our routine, changed our place, picked a new devotional, we then do need to put in the hard work. To be disciplined in showing up to prayer time, in making space for silence, and reflecting on the Scriptures. This is now the time to put in the effort, so that when you arrive at Christmas, you won’t be spiritually exhausted, but spiritually fit. Friends, let’s make the most of the ordinary in Ordinary Time, and so push forward in the spiritual life, to the benefit of ourselves and to the glory of God. Amen.
God bless,
Fr Mike.