By Anthony Selvanathan
Special to the Herald
Happy New Year, dear readers of the Herald!
By the time you read this, the poinsettias will have begun to wither, Christmas trees will have been hauled away or packed into storage, and parish life will feel noticeably quieter. The Epiphany house chalking is still faintly visible above some doorways, but the church has returned, almost without ceremony, to Ordinary Time.
Ordinary Time can feel like a lull at first, but it is not a letdown. Its name comes not from “ordinary” as in insignificant, but from ordered time, the steady and faithful unfolding of the church’s life.
It is the season that occupies most of the liturgical year precisely because it most closely resembles our own. This is where faith is shaped not by intensity, but by consistency.
For many of us local Catholics, this shift comes as January brings a return to the familiar. Daily routines resume, and traffic once again crawls along our morning and evening commutes. Folks return to work after their holiday time off, and schools go back in session.
Things at parishes slow down, and the emotional momentum of Christmas fades. Prayer can feel simpler, even distracted. Sunday Mass can feel quieter and less full.
It is easy to wonder whether something meaningful slipped away with the decorations.
It is also during this season when many people quietly drift away from the church. Most people do not leave in protest or anger; their faith in the Lord has not disappeared. Rather, the rhythms that once sustained it begin to fray.
Life presses in. Responsibilities multiply. Faith is not rejected; it is simply crowded out as other commitments begin to take precedence over Sunday Mass. Ordinary Time reveals this temptation gently and without accusation by asking us to live out our faith when nothing about it feels especially inspiring.
And yet, this is precisely where something important happens. Ordinary Time asks us to stay.
Staying the course rarely feels dramatic. More often, it looks like fidelity, the kind we recognize in a long marriage — not sustained by constant emotion, but by commitment renewed over time. It is also found in friendships, vocations and responsibilities that are chosen and honored day after day.
In a culture that prizes novelty, speed and visible results, this kind of staying can feel almost countercultural.
In Hawaii, where parish communities are often experienced as ohana, staying carries weight. Our presence is noticed; our absence is felt. This is because the church is not only the building where we gather, but the people who gather within them.
We are living stones of the church, forming together the Mystical Body of Christ. Faith here is lived not anonymously, but relationally, through consistency, shared responsibility and a sense of belonging rooted in ohana.
The Jubilee of Hope, which recently concluded, reminded the church of the hope Christ offers the world. That hope, lived as a virtue, calls us to endure through patience, repetition and trust that God is at work even when the signs are subtle.
Ordinary Time invites us not to look back, but to continue forward. It calls us to persevere with patience, to remain faithful when progress feels slow and to trust that God is at work even when growth is unseen.
This is how hope takes root, not in moments of excitement, but through steady faithfulness lived day by day. As a new year begins, I think there is no better place to start.