I think it is the second week of ordinary time. Yesterday was the second Sunday in ordinary time.
The quick answer is that if you have a basic understanding of the liturgical calendar - Lent, Tridium, Advent, Christmas, etc. - you can simply look in the table of contents for “The Proper of Time” and it will get you to the “Propers” - those things which are proper to each Mass or those things which change from Mass to Mass. In our case, Ordinary Time starts on page 837.
This isn’t the first time I have heard this complaint, that moving from the missalette in the pew to a more formal, perpetual missal is daunting. A couple of us from my Church are getting together to discuss this over coffee next week. One guy is completely stumped. The missalette in the pew is temporary, designed to be thrown out at the end of the liturgucal year or liturgical season, so it simply has dates. But the MTF/Scepter Missal is perpetual, and it can be frustrating. To me it is a joy to learn something new about it and how to use it.
If you completely loose your place, here is what to do…
If you look on page xxxiv through xxxvii, you will see the tables of the liturgical calandar. That is where you want to look when you can’t find the what day it is as long as it is not a feast for a saint. It will also get you real close to the right page in the book. Simply look at the top of the tables for the column for the current year and then look down that column for the nearest
previous Sunday. If you can’t find it, keep looking down the column because it is not listed in date order but by season. Don’t worry about it - just keep looking down the column for the current year until you find the previous Sunday, which for today (Monday, January 16, 2012) is January 15.
Once you find the previous Sunday, look to the left most two columns and they will tell you the week and the page number for that previous Sunday. Remember that the week starts with Sunday and ends with evening prayer on the following Saturday.
So in our case, on page xxxvi, under the 2012 column, about four rows down, it shows Jan 15th as the nearest
previous Sunday. Looking to the left of that shows that we are indeed in the 2nd week of ordinary time (yea, darn traditionalists just HAD to put the week in roman numerals, didn’t they?
). Just to the left of the week number for that Sunday is the page number for that Sunday. In this case, page 858 is listed for “II Week Ord. Time”.
So just flip to page 858 and we are on the Monday
after that Sunday - Monday of the Second week in Ordinary Time. You also have to know if we are in year I or II for weekdays or year A, B or C for Sundays and that is at the top opf the table, right under the year.
It get’s more complex for for solemnities and the proper of saints but the the tables on pages xxxiv through xxxvii are where you want to start when you are completely lost on plain old weekday Masses which are not feasts or solemnities…
I am a visual thinker. See if the pic doesn’t help.
In our case, today, January 16, 2012, it is Monday of the Second Week of Ordinary Time in year II and the correct page for the propers is a few pages past The second Sunday in ordinary Time which is on page 858.
Hope this helps!
-Tim-
