Liturgical Calendar

[Lux_et_Tenebrae]

Hi,

I was just looking through the liturgical year calendar (to make a more concise chart), and I noticed there is no 8th week of ordinary time—anyone know why?

Lux

 

[AJV]

Hi,

I was just looking through the liturgical year calendar (to make a more concise chart), and I noticed there is no 8th week of ordinary time—anyone know why?

Lux

The length of Ordinary Time varies from 33 to 34 weeks depending on the year. In order to preserve the last few weeks especially, with their eschatological readings, usually one week is “snipped” when Ordinary Time resumes.

Thus if you were in the 5th week of OT on Ash Wednesday, when it resumes after Pentecost, you’d bypass the 6th and be in the 7th.

In the front of the Liturgy of the Hours or the Sacramentary (can’t remember whether the lectionary has it or not) you can see a little note about the “Sunday letters”. Years with Sunday letters A and g do not have any weeks of Ordinary Time snipped off. All other years do in the manner described above…

 

[Lux_et_Tenebrae]

Thanks—

I believe it has something to do with if Christmas falls on a Sunday. I knew it was 33 or 34, but never realized one was snipped from the middle.

Lux

 

[Spirithound]

It appears that there are actually 55 (I think) possible Sunday liturgies:
4 Sundays in Advent
Holy Family
Epiphany/Second Sunday after Christmas
6 Lent
7 Easter (including the Ascension)
Pentecost
Trinity Sunday
34 Ordinary time (including the Baptism of the Lord, Corpus Christi, and Christ the King)

Lent and Easter function as a movable block, and in different years covers different Ordinary Sundays in the 5th to 12th range. This year, we skip 8, 9, and 10.

 

[tee_eff_em]

It appears that there are actually 55 (I think) possible Sunday liturgies:
4 Sundays in Advent
Holy Family
Epiphany/Second Sunday after Christmas
6 Lent
7 Easter (including the Ascension)
Pentecost
Trinity Sunday
34 Ordinary time (including the Baptism of the Lord, Corpus Christi, and Christ the King)

Ordinary Time Sunday liturgies may also be suppressed in favor of Solemnities (either of the General or local calendar), Feasts of the Lord, and the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls).

Lent and Easter function as a movable block, and in different years covers different Ordinary Sundays in the 5th to 12th range. This year, we skip 8, 9, and 10.

Though it is correct that those Sundays of Ordinary Time will not be celebrated this year, only the 8th week is omitted entirely.

• The 7th week will end on the Tuesday prior to Ash Wednesday (24 Feb 2009)
• The Monday-Saturday following Pentecost will be the 9th week of Ordinary Time.
• Likewise, the Monday-Saturday following Trinity Sunday will be the 10th week of Ordinary Time,
• [In the US the 11th Sunday will not be celebrated, in favor of Corpus Christi. The Monday-Saturday following Corpus Christi will be the 11th week of Ordinary Time, which will be followed by]
• The 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sunday 21 Jun 2009

tee

 

[Spirithound]

Thanks Tee! That was really interesting. I had thought that the week after Pentecost would be “the week in/of Pentecost”.

 

[benedictgal]

Of course, the same question could arise with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. On Monday, we pick up at the First Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Like Tee said, Solemnities of the Lord and other major feasts supersede the Sundays in Ordinary Time, such as the Presentation of the Lord, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Exaltation of the Cross, the Solemnity of All Saints and the Solemnity of All Souls. This year, the Holy Father gave us the option to replace the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time with the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, since we are in the Pauline Year.

 

[tee_eff_em]

Of course, the same question could arise with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. On Monday, we pick up at the First Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Similarly, there is never a 34th Sunday of Ordinary Time – It is celebrated as Christ the King. But there is always a 34th week (following that celebration). And which is why a week is often omitted in the middle around Lent/Easter: So the year will end with the 34th week.

tee

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Thanks Tee! That was really interesting. I had thought that the week after Pentecost would be “the week in/of Pentecost”.

In the old calendar Pentecost had an octave which ended with Trinity Sunday. In the new calendar Pentecost concludes the Easter Season.

I miss the old Octaves.

 

[Lux_et_Tenebrae]

Hi again,
Thanks—I did know about the weekdays of ordinary time, since I sometimes pray the hours—sadly too infrequently.

I was wondering about the total skip. I thought it had something to do with Christmas on a Sunday, but that isn’t it. Perhaps the skipped week is needed when the extra day in the year falls on a Sunday?—but that would also include Christmas falling on a Sunday, so maybe that wouldn’t be it—Maybe when Jan 1 is a Sunday?

Lux

 

[Lux_et_Tenebrae]

Yep—I guess that’s it—I just checked the calendar for 2013, when Jan 1 is a Sunday, and there is no skip. In hind sight it is quite obvious :newidea:

Lux

 

[Robster7]

They drop certain weeks in the middle of ordinary time so that the church year’s final weeks of readings don’t get cut. In these weeks, the focus is on being prepared for the end times and Christ’s eventual return and triumph. The end times for all of us is our personal death for which we must always prepare. Although there will be an actual end of the world time, if it doesn’t happen before we die, it won’t matter; we will already have experienced our own “end time”; i.e., our death and judgement.

 

[Justin1224]

Yep—I guess that’s it—I just checked the calendar for 2013, when Jan 1 is a Sunday, and there is no skip. In hind sight it is quite obvious :newidea:

Lux

I refer to this type of year as a Liturgical Leap Year. It has a leap week like the regular calendar has a leap day, February 29. A Liturgical Leap Year has a full four week of Advent, Nov. 27th is the 1st Sunday and then Christmas Day is a Sunday. The year is 53 weeks instead of 52 so one of the counted weeks of OT is not omitted… Christ the King at the end of this Liturgical Leap year fall on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and then the next Liturgical Year begins on Dec. 3rd, Advent is only 3 weeks and a day because the 4th Sunday of Advent is also Chirstmas Eve.