"Spiritual Sunday" #3 -- end of Ordinary Time

Technically, of course, ordinary time doesn't end until the First Sunday in Advent, which this year is November 30th. But because the last Sunday of ordinary time has a specific name (the feast of Christ the King), and because the "ordinary" refers not to "usual" but to "numbered" (see the link), I have a tendency to see these weeks as a little island of their own, past ordinary time (today is the 33rd Sunday) but not quite into the new liturgical year.

This feeling is aided, of course, by the purely political and increasingly secular holiday of Thanksgiving, which falls during these weeks. It is sad that Thanksgiving has strayed so far from its roots, and become a day mostly of family, food, and football. None of these things are bad, and even secularists tend to spend at least a couple of minutes thinking about what they are thankful for, but the concept of being thankful to Somebody Who provided these things seems to be missing.

So here I sit, in my little self-made no-times'-land, and think about the NEW coming: a new Thanksgiving to be thankful with family; a new liturgical year of celebrating the high glories and low humiliations of Christ's life and our salvation; a new chronological year with all it will bring (including a new grandchild); probably a new place to live, if the government ever finalizes the details of the planned buyout. New things to read, new recipes to try, new music to sing.

In general I, anxiety-prone as I am, am radically and often grumpily change-averse. But today, somehow, it just looks NEW. Bring it on!