{"id":546,"date":"2019-04-08T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T10:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/?p=546"},"modified":"2020-04-02T10:08:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T15:08:44","slug":"pondering-the-ordinary-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/?p=546","title":{"rendered":"Pondering the Ordinary Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<audio id=\"wp_mep_1\" src=\"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/m4a\/Journey%20Notes%2034%20Pondering%20the%20Ordinary%20Steps%20Accomp.m4a\"     controls=\"controls\" preload=\"none\"  >\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t<\/audio>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\njQuery(document).ready(function($) {\r\n\t$('#wp_mep_1').mediaelementplayer({\r\n\t\tm:1\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen']\r\n\t\t,audioWidth:,audioHeight:\r\n\t});\r\n});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s begin with a statement of the obvious.\u00a0 Every person living today was born.\u00a0 Since birth is an event common to every single person, it might be considered one of the most ordinary of all experiences.\u00a0 Try telling that to a new mother, though.\u00a0 As &#8220;ordinary&#8221; as the concept of birth may be, there is no such thing as an ordinary birth.\u00a0 Each birth is unique, and every child is precious.<\/p>\n<p>Mary, the mother of the Christ child, treasured the birth of her first son.\u00a0 So many wondrous things happened, but the gospel of Luke recorded something ordinary.\u00a0 When Jesus was born in a stable something very predictable happened.\u00a0 Shepherds came.\u00a0 What could be more ordinary in a stable than encountering people who care for animals?\u00a0 Of course shepherds came!\u00a0 But Mary listened as they told her that they had come for extraordinary reasons.\u00a0 They saw angels.\u00a0 They heard angels.\u00a0 They obeyed angels.\u00a0 And they found Christ, just as the angels had said.\u00a0 Luke says that Mary treasured up all of these things&#8211;the ordinary and the extraordinary&#8211;and pondered them in her heart.<\/p>\n<p>Everywhere we turn, the ordinary intersects with the extraordinary. <em>Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence<\/em> celebrates the story of Jesus&#8217; birth. It is a Eucharist hymn from the Liturgy of St. James.\u00a0 It was translated into ordinary language (English) by Gerard Moultrie and is usually sung to the melody of an ordinary French folk tune. The Eucharist is the formal name for the service of communion, which honors Jesus&#8217; instruction at the Last Supper to break bread in remembrance of Him. It takes ordinary bread and wine and shares them in an extraordinary way. Look for both the ordinary and the extraordinary in these words:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Let all mortal flesh keep silence,<br \/>\nand with fear and trembling stand;<br \/>\nponder nothing earthly-minded,<br \/>\nfor with blessing in his hand,<br \/>\nChrist our God to earth descendeth,<br \/>\nour full homage to demand.<\/p>\n<p>Mary followed her path to Bethlehem and found many things to treasure and ponder in her heart, but especially the visit of ordinary shepherds.\u00a0 On your journey to the foot of the cross you will follow the stories of Mary and Bethlehem, too.\u00a0\u00a0As you do, ponder the extraordinary mysteries and love of God in every ordinary step.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9g7W-aWo8xY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong>Follow the Path!<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><em><strong>CARadke<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>[Use with <em>Something to Ponder<\/em>, day 34 of <a title=\"Order your copy of A Labyrinth Pilgrimage today!\" href=\"https:\/\/www.createspace.com\/3366946\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>A Labyrinth Pilgrimage<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s begin with a statement of the obvious.\u00a0 Every person living today was born.\u00a0 Since birth is an event common to every single person, it might be considered one of the most ordinary of all experiences.\u00a0 Try telling that to &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/?p=546\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts-about-the-journey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1100,"href":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions\/1100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crosslabyrinth.com\/JourneyNotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}