The DC area continues to be under a winter freeze during these first couple of weeks of 2025. As I walk gingerly over icy sidewalks near midnight, I see them as smaller steps in a bigger journey. In the next few days, we will exit the Christmas season and enter a period we call ''ordinary time''. It occupies the larger part of the church calendar year, broken up into smaller sub-parts.
These changing seasons repeat over and over for us and we know not which season will be our last. We press forward, day by day, trying our best to find meaning in these lessons and appropriate these meanings to our life journey.
Ordinary time starts in 4 days- January 13th. It continues until Wednesday, March 5th, when Ash Wednesday starts the penitive season of Lent. Lent continues until Wednesday, April 16th when we enter the shortest but most intense season- The Triduum.
On Sunday, April 20th, Easter Sunday begins the Easter season which will last until Pentecost Sunday, June 8th.
Monday, June 9th looks to be a special and solemn day for me.
On my late father's birthday, I look to begin the next, most extraordinary cycle of ordinary time in my life. This period will come to a climax in September when I leave for the trip of dreams, the trip of a lifetime.
It will be less than 100 days to takeoff on June 9th and I will be praying for my dad's intercession. That's June 9th and I look forward to it. Today is January 9th and things are cold and desolate and icy. Yet, that's how this life goes. On the cold days, we long for and prepare for the warm days but we keep marching with the same resolve and steely determination. We prepare.
Today, I am happy to say that I was able to pay the final $800 of the nearly $11,000 "official costs" of this quest to connect with my faith. I say "official cost" because the real cost, all things considered, is likely close to $20,000. The trip is paid off and I secured my Visa.
I now focus on the business of our 501 C3. We will grow this year, like never before, God willing.
As incomprehendible as cost the numbers of the trip are to me, they fade to black as the names of some of the destinations roll through my mind...
Nazareth
Galilee
The Mount of the Beatitudes
The Mount of Transfiguration
Bethlehem
Jerusalem
Fatima
Santarem
Salamanca
Avila
Loyola
Lourdes
These were sites of miracles. These were the sites of places that give meaning to our entire existence far beyond the snow and Ice crunching under my feet in the biting wind and the empty desolation and silence of a lonely midnight winter walk.
Hope keeps us moving forward. day after day, season after season until one day, we hopefully embark on the trip of all trips- to the Heavenly Jerusalem.
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