"Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer…" These hit lyrics, introduced by Nat King Cole in 1963, are not the definition of our summer liturgical experience. While we may not experience the rituals and festivities of the other seasons, Ordinary Time II offers us "the wisdom of routine", as Joan Chittister, OSB, calls the chapter on this season in her book entitled The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life. In this chapter, Sr. Joan writes that "[i]t is what we do routinely, not what we do rarely, that delineates the character of a person” (page 183). Ordinary Time provides us with the opportunity to extend the messages of the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter into our regular, daily life; we have the time to work out what being a Catholic Christian, a follower of Jesus, really means. This isn’t lazy, hazy or crazy at all! It’s hard work, and we can approach it knowing that we have the Holy Spirit, whose coming to us we celebrated on the feast of Pentecost, to guide and support us.

Mini Reflection: What’s so special about Pentecost that it wasn’t until this moment — and not any of the equally world-changing moments that came in the weeks before it — that the Apostles became the Church? Leaving the Room

I was a full-grown adult before I realized that Pentecost is known as “the birthday of the Church,” and it only resonated with me because someone showed up to a church function with cake and candles. Leave it to buttercream frosting to drive home a theological reality I had been missing for 25 years.

The famous 20th century St. Padre Pio said once that he would wait outside the gates of heaven until the people in his life had entered. I’m not sure that I, or frankly many people I know, would say that and mean it. Yet that is precisely the kind of attitude we see in Jesus as he prays for us in the Gospel today. Having celebrated the Ascension of the Lord just a few days ago, we now hear the Son of God at the Last Supper pray to his Father “that they may be brought to perfection as one” (John 17:23). What does this mean for us?