Page 10 - St. Joseph Messenger November 2020

The Liturgical Season of Ordinary Time

Not so ordinary after all!

T
he liturgical season of Ordinary Time is
divided into two time periods in the year:
between Christmas and Lent and between
Easter and Advent. The total duration of Ordinary
Time is 33 or 34 weeks depending on the Church
calendar. This is a good chunk of time that is de-
voted to Jesus’ teachings and his miracles. So how
could this time be “ordinary”?

Well, it’s not really ordinary; in fact it’s quite
extraordinary considering that we find so much of
Jesus’ public life in this period. Thus, the loaves
and fishes of Jesus’ miracle have become one of
the symbols of Ordinary Time.
The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes
The liturgical color for ordinary time is green Lambert Lombard
because it is the color of hope. And what hope we Oil on panel
have in God’s son who was sent to save us from Rockox House, Antwerp
original sin! Ordinary time is there for us to be
able to give thought and prayer to what Jesus Again, how can Ordinary Time be ordinary when it
is full of feast days and holidays? The Feast of the
accomplished in his public life. It is a time in Baptism of the Lord, which ordinarily occurs on
which we can cultivate spiritual growth. the Sunday after the Solemnity of the Epiphany of
the Lord is the First Sunday in Ordinary Time.
According to the USCCB*, Christmas Time and That’s quite a significant start to this season of the
Easter Time highlight the central mysteries of the year.
Paschal Mystery, namely, the incarnation, death
on the cross, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus
Christ, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pente- Ordinary Time is then broken up by Lent and East-
er and resumes on the Monday following the Feast
cost. The Sundays and weeks of Ordinary Time, of Pentecost. It concludes on the Saturday after-
on the other hand, take us through the life of noon before the first Sunday of Advent (this year
Christ.
th
celebrated on November 29 ).

We can look at Ordinary Time as the period on the
Church calendar that allows us to participate in the
ordinary (as well as the extraordinary) parts of the
life of Jesus. He is our example. He is the one
whose life we should study. He is anything but
ordinary. SJM

Symbols of Ordinary Time * USCCB stands for the
Loaves and fishes and the Chi Rho United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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