Peter, the impulsive fisherman who denied Christ and was forgiven. Paul, the zealous persecutor who was turned around on the road to Damascus. Neither was a likely candidate for greatness. Both became foundations of the Church.

There’s something steadying in that. Faith doesn’t ask us to be flawless before we’re useful, or certain before we’re called. It asks us to keep turning back, the way Peter did, the way Paul did — again and again, toward the one who never stops calling us by name.

Ordinary Time has a way of teaching this same lesson quietly. Not through dramatic conversions, but through the small, repeated choice to show up, to keep faith, to begin again tomorrow what we didn’t get right today.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)