February 29th

Pope Gregory XIII established the calendar we currently use to count our days, weeks, and years, back in 1582.  And there have been calls for its reform more or less continuously ever since. There are differences in the details, but in general the reform advocates say that every month should have the same number of days, and every date should fall on the same day of the week.

These appeals for a new ordering of days always fail, partly because humans resist change, and partly because an unchanging calendar seems a little too rigid, a little too perfect. Logic and perfection have their place, to be sure, but so do flexibility and imperfection. February 29th is a good date to celebrate the latter.

And how appropriate that it falls during this holy season of Lent, a season that challenges us to look at the patterns of our life, and to evaluate the effectiveness of those patterns at assisting us in our pursuit of the life that is to come. 

And once we have done the evaluation, inevitably we are called to make changes. 
We are called to think outside the usual box that our days and weeks and years tend to become.  We are called to shift priorities and focus more completely on those things that truly matter, those things that will help us, and those in the world around us, to come one day to the glories of the Resurrection.

May our Lenten practices truly help us in this process, so that our every thought, word and deed might indeed draw us closer to the Father's Kingdom of true and lasting peace.