Current Liturgical Season: Ordinary Time
Ordinary time includes the Monday after the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord through the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, and the Monday after Pentecost through the Saturday before the First Sunday of Advent.The term Ordinary Time refers to the numbered weeks following Pentecost (ordinary from the Latin word ordinalis meaning “ordered in a series”). Ordinary Time provides an extended season taking up the entire second half of the Christian calendar that offers us a time of growth and maturity of faith. The first half of the calendar is full of events and Holy Days focused on the season cycles of Christmas (Advent, Nativity, Epiphany) and Easter (Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost). The second half is about living in the light of these realities. You will begin to notice that the Gospel readings are all from either Jesus’ teachings or his parables. The concept is growth in faith. Ordinary Time is when we develop our understanding of who Jesus is by way of his teachings.
The color for Ordinary Time is green which is intended to evoke the sense of growth and new life that are connected to this season. Plants and trees don’t grow fast. It takes sustained sunlight, nutrients, and water to grow. We invite you to enter into this season with that in mind. We call this season “ordinary” but the work of the Spirit in our lives during this time is anything but ordinary!