On Ordinary Time

Coming to the end of the Advent and Christmas Seasons, we begin “Ordinary Time.” It is not a season, like Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. It is just a way of describing the weeks between seasons. The word, “ordinary” means regular, plain, run of the mill. It has another meaning as well. It means “counted.” “Ordinal” numbers are first, second, third, etc. The week after the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord begins the count, until the First Sunday of Lent. The weeks of Easter follow and the count resumes after the Solemnity of Pentecost. During this year, we are following Cycle C of Sunday Readings which takes us through the Gospel of Saint Luke. During the weekdays we are following the Year I cycle of readings.