From Easter to Advent
The time in between is anything but ‘Ordinary’

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
June 7, 2007

The feast of Pentecost brings a close to the seasons of Lent and Easter, the summit of the Church’s year. What follows is the long stretch of time leading up to Advent.

It’s called Ordinary Time, a term that can be easily misunderstood, said Larry Fraher, an instructor at the Kino Institute.

“Ordinary Time has been described as not ‘ordinary’ per se, but as the time for training and building up for the mission of the people of God,” he said. “It’s preparation to be Christian in the world.”

The confusion may come from the connotation “ordinary” has in English. Far from denoting a sense of the hum-drum or banal, the term is derived from the Latin word ordinal, which simply means “numbered.”

Ordinary Time, then, is a series of numbered weeks that don’t fall into the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent or Easter. The season begins the day after the baptism of the Lord, which is usually a week after Epiphany, and pauses at Ash Wednesday, when the Church enters into Lent.

The season is picked up again after Pentecost and lasts until the first Sunday of Advent.

It’s also a relatively new liturgical season. Before the Second Vatican Council, there was no such thing as Ordinary Time.

The weeks between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday were filled with Sundays after Epiphany and a series of Sundays in preparation for Lent called Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima Sundays. The names respectively refer to the 70, 60 and 50 approximate days each Sunday is before Easter.

The Sundays connecting Pentecost to Advent were simply referred to as Sundays after Pentecost.

Sr. Ginger Downey, OLVM, interim director of the Office of Worship, said the Church decided to create Ordinary Time as a way to give cohesion to the time not spent preparing or celebrating the central mysteries of the faith, Easter and Christmas.

“How do we celebrate Christ’s life in our own lives in the everyday ways?” she asked. “How are we commissioned and sent forth on the missionary journey of Christ?”

She said the answer can be found in the way Ordinary Time is organized. Instead of hearing readings and Gospel passages that relate to a specific theme as they do during the other seasons, Catholics hear continuous readings throughout Ordinary Time.

For example, this year, the Gospel at nearly every Sunday during Ordinary Time will be from Luke. The epistles are also proclaimed in a continuous manner.

“You get the feel of the whole book” this way, Sr. Ginger said. “You can build throughout.”

This can help Catholics focus on the totality of Christ’s life and mission, allowing them a comprehensive perspective of the central texts of the faith.

It also prepares them to put those readings into action, Fraher said.

“It’s during Ordinary Time that we’re going to be hearing the instructions to life as a Christian,” he said. “The epistle and Gospel readings will be about how a Christian works and lives in the world.”

He contrasted this outward focus to Lent’s more interior action.

“In Lent we talk about doing things for the sake of building up our personal spiritual lives,” he said. “During Lent, that’s more of an internal focus. Ordinary Time is going forth and proclaiming the Gospel.”

That’s why Fraher thinks another good name for the season would be “mission time.”

“It’s the challenge to fulfill one’s mission as a Christian in the world,” he said.

That challenge is aided by the solemnities that help begin Ordinary Time after Pentecost. The Church celebrates Trinity Sunday a week after Pentecost. Corpus Christi Sunday follows and then comes the Sacred Heart of Jesus feast.

These feast days are a way of “celebrating the fullness of the revelation that’s come to us through Easter and Pentecost,” Fraher said. “Now we know the fullness of Jesus Christ and we know the fullness of the sacramental life of the Church in the Body and Blood of Christ.”

These celebrations can serve as a sort of “bridge” into Ordinary Time, he said.

“We’ve come to an understanding of what we are about. We celebrate that understanding and we go into our lives as mission,” he added.

Fraher suggested a few habits that can highlight this “mission time” for Christians.

“When we go to the grocery store, buy an extra case of bottled water and take it down to Paz de Cristo or Andre House,” he said.

“It’s the idea that we’re not just going to Mass every Sunday. We’re called to live out our Christianity in the world,” Fraher said. “And that’s what Ordinary Time trains us to do.”