The school year is ending as Ordinary Time resumes after the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (6). We pray next fall brings safe, healthy classrooms full of students once more: Ordinary Time writ large and more beautiful than we knew.

God’s love flows downward, a liturgical theologian has written, and our thanksgiving flows back upward.

Ritual is a peculiar activity to engage in, truth be told. It is rarely organic; it does not spring wholly from instinct but must be chosen, interpreted, and imbued with significance. Religious ritual often includes antique words, symbols, and gestures that require conscious deliberation and participation to appreciate fully.

Holy cards, the kind often distributed at wakes, were popular when I was young. Teachers would give them out as rewards for jobs well done. The images on them were usually of the Blessed Mother, a saint, or the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The artwork was often maudlin. 

Ed and Lois loved to dance. They had met at a dance, fell in love, got married, and waltzed around together for 35 years. They were pretty good at it, too. They even entered amateur dance competitions and whirled around the dance floor together with a number pinned to the back of Ed’s tuxedo.

As children of God, we turn to our loving Father for mercy and forgiveness.

Receive Communion every time as if it were the first time.