Dear Friends

Welcome to February!

What an odd month this is - the shortest month of the year, even in a Leap Year. We would like to think that it marks the end of the extreme coldness of winter and perhaps we rejoice that the daylight hours lengthen. In some years, it brings very visible signs of Spring to come.

In the Christian calendar, February usually brings us to Ash Wednesday, and the start of Lent. However, Easter is quite late this year (20th April), which means that we get into March before the Lenten period begins.

When the current lectionary (appointed Bible readings) was compiled, the description given to Sundays that did not fall into preparatory periods (such as Lent) or festival periods (such as Easter) was ‘Ordinary Time.’ Consequently, the February Sundays are the 4th – 7th in Ordinary Time.

What do we do, then, with Ordinary Time? Is it a time to focus on something of special interest to us in faith? Is it a time for pause between the two great Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter and consider how to follow Jesus more nearly in our daily lives?

My thoughts go to the book of Ecclesiastes, which follows the books of Psalms and Proverbs in the Old Testament. The most well-known part of this relatively short book is found at the beginning of the third chapter. The opening words that comprise the first verse are these: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”

The following seven verses give us a number of options, often in opposing couplets, such as, ‘a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted,’ and we have choices set before us. The words may have been first written thousands of years ago, and yet they remain relevant to life today.

February is not quite seen as the time for spring cleaning, but the options set out for us by the ancient writer do give us cause to pause for thought. My suggestion to you is to reflect carefully and prayerfully upon the words of Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 in the ordinary time of February, then take to heart and into action one or more of the suggestions made.

Every blessing, David.