Numbering of the Weeks of Ordinary Time

[Bizub4]

Hey guys!

I was looking over the liturgical calendar from the USCCB (usccb.org/calendar/) and was looking over how the numbering of the weeks of ordinary time carry over through Lent/Easter. If you look back in this past February, you’ll notice how we celebrated the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time on the 15th, with the 16th and 17th being ordinary weekdays of the 6th week. Fast-forward to May, and after Pentecost on the 24th, Monday the 25th is the Monday of the 8th week of Ordinary Time.

So my question is: what happened to the 7th week? I noticed that a week was skipped in 2014 as well (the 9th week). Is there a reason for this skip?

 

[Evan]

Before Lent, we start at week 1 and continue to Lent,

After Pentecost, we count backwards from the 34th week of Ordinary time (Feast of Christ the King) to Pentecost.

Depending upon when Advent starts, this may use all the weeks or we may lose a week as we will this year. And the number of weeks depend on what day of the week Christmas falls on.

 

[powerofk]

Before Lent, we start at week 1 and continue to Lent,

After Pentecost, we count backwards from the 34th week of Ordinary time (Feast of Christ the King) to Pentecost.

Depending upon when Advent starts, this may use all the weeks or we may lose a week as we will this year. And the number of weeks depend on what day of the week Christmas falls on.

Right. In 6 out of 7 years, we lose a week in Ordinary Time. The only years we don’t? When there are 53 Sundays during a liturgical year (which happen to be the liturgical years Christmas falls on a Sunday - which are followed by years when Christmas falls on a Monday). The last week of Ordinary Time is always the 34th week of Ordinary Time. But - there are usually only time for 33 weeks of Ordinary Time on the General Calendar. Why? Because - 52 weeks in a year. There are four Sundays in Advent, 3 Sundays during the Christmas Season, 6 Sundays during Lent (with part of a seventh week before the first Sunday), and 8 Sundays during the Easter Season. This makes for 21 Sundays, which total 31 Sundays left for Ordinary Time. But! As both the Christmas season and the Easter season end on Sundays, the weeks that follow The Baptism of the Lord (last day of the Christmas Season) and Pentecost (the last day of Eastertide) are considered part of Ordinary Time. As such, there are 33 weeks of Ordinary Time, but 34 counted weeks - so a week of Ordinary Time is skipped each year, and the week that is skipped depends on when Lent and Easter occur.

 

[FrDavid96]

Hey guys!

I was looking over the liturgical calendar from the USCCB (usccb.org/calendar/) and was looking over how the numbering of the weeks of ordinary time carry over through Lent/Easter. If you look back in this past February, you’ll notice how we celebrated the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time on the 15th, with the 16th and 17th being ordinary weekdays of the 6th week. Fast-forward to May, and after Pentecost on the 24th, Monday the 25th is the Monday of the 8th week of Ordinary Time.

So my question is: what happened to the 7th week? I noticed that a week was skipped in 2014 as well (the 9th week). Is there a reason for this skip?

Others have already explained the “how.”

The reason is that the last 2 Sundays of Ordinary Time (the 2 immediately before Christ the King) have the Final Judgement as their theme. The Church does not want to skip that theme, so when a Sunday of O.T. must be skipped, we do it in the middle of O.T. rather than at the end.