Ordinary Sundays?
I have never been a fan of designating so many Sundays of the year as “Ordinary Time”.
I suppose I think if something is ordinary it’s dull, mundane, not terribly special.
(See below for the audio version of this post.)
What the Church calls “Ordinary Time” doesn’t commemorate the big-time events like Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection. So it must be “ordinary” in the sense that it’s a time when we just need to patiently wait for the big feasts.
I know the common explanation is that they are called “ordinary”, not the diminish their importance, but simply to identify one from the other.
Fr. Jeffrey Kirby offers a different way of looking at these Sundays in “Ordinary Time”.
During Ordinary Time, the Church’s prayers and selections of readings from the Sacred Scriptures have believers accompany the Lord Jesus in his public ministry.
Accompanying Jesus in his public ministry
He writes that, spiritually speaking, ‘Ordinary Time’ is anything but
During Ordinary Time, the Church’s prayers and selections of readings from the Sacred Scriptures have believers accompany the Lord Jesus in his public ministry. The Church selects healings, signs, and essential teachings from the life of Jesus Christ so that followers can be reminded, reaffirmed, consoled, and challenged in how they are living the Christian way of life.
Through Ordinary Time, the community of disciples is once again told by the Lord to forgive, accept others generously, be healed and serve as instruments of healing, seek peace, live humbly, pray and trust in his care for them.
Ordinary Time can serve as a welcome signpost along the path of our discipleship and of our lives. It can be an opportunity for us to put urgent things in check so that they don’t dominate our existence and a sacred time for us to renew and cherish important things so that our lives can flourish and we can enrich the lives of others. This examination of discipleship and of life, and the resolutions drawn from it, is a favorable chance to live in the present moment.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton understood “ordinary times”
Sr. Regina Bechtle SC, offers St. Elizabeth’s understanding of the word “ordinary”. She writes…
…That tender God was revealed to her not in fireworks or bells and whistles. No, the making known of God happened in the most ordinary of ways and places.
At the kitchen table, the writing desk, the home of a friend, God’s tender face was revealed.
In the bedroom where her children were conceived and born, and at the bedsides of the sick and dying, God’s tender touch was revealed.
In the cramped rooms where poor widows and children lived, in the classroom where she heard the lessons of lonely children, God’s tender heart was revealed.
Certainly, the powerful, luminous Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament focused and summed up all of God’s revelations to Elizabeth. But – especially as we gather here in the house where she used to live – she would want us to know that her dearest epiphany moments would always breakthrough in the most ordinary of ways and places.
Further questions
- What has been my attitude toward “Sundays in Ordinary Time”?
- Have I been aware of these times as “accompanying Jesus in his ministry”?
- Can I see God present in the “ordinary times of my life”?
Click below for an audio version of this post…
As a person who thrives on routine, I love the ordinary because it fosters routine. I also love the annual walk with Jesus through the life of being a disciple made possible through the Ordinary Time cycle of readings. I was taught that “ordinary” is an inaccurate translation of the Latin; that it should be “ordinal” since these are the weeks of the year that we simply count. I’m no scholar of language but I love counting things (This follows from my tendency towards obsessive-compulsive behaviors.) So, candidly, I’m happy to dive into discipleship which is lived in the normal, average, and everyday most of the time and to count my way from the Baptism of the Lord (1st Sunday of Ordinary Time) to Christ the Kind (Last Sunday of Ordinary Time) while making room for the “interruption of three months– Ash Wednesday to Pentecost. Thanks, John, for this good reminder of one of the supports to our growth in holiness.
I’m just curious, was it Fr. Oscar Miller, C.M., who taught you? Thanks.
I take it, too, with Mark, that “Ordinary Time is called ‘ordinary’ not because it is common but simply because the weeks of Ordinary Time are numbered” (https://www.learnreligions.com/ordinary-time-in-the-catholic-church-542442).
But even so, that these weeks get only numbers does suggest that they are dull and not special. So, you are right, John. And even more right when you point out that there are special things in the ordinariness of these Sundays.
I like what Sr. Regina says. I remember reading a key address that she also gave, where she spoke about “small beginnings,” “without the pealing of bells.” And all this sends me back to Gaudium et Spes 38, which reads, in part: “He cautions them at the same time that this charity is not something to be reserved for important matters, but must be pursued chiefly in the ordinary circumstances of life.”
So, many times, it’s not about spectacular things. It may simply be about giving “a cup of cold water to one if these little ones,” or a warm smile, a sweet gesture, “a good word” (SV.EN X:268).