Why is ordinary time numbered?

[The_Prodigal]

This question was suggested to me by another thread on liturgical time. What is the rationale behind numbering or counting the weeks (Sundays) in ordinary time?

 

[mercygate]

This question was suggested to me by another thread on liturgical time. What is the rationale behind numbering or counting the weeks (Sundays) in ordinary time?

Because they come one after the other: one, two, three.

Ordinal means “counted” or “numbered.”

I think the new system is screwy. We used to count

Advent
Christmas to Epiphany
Epiphany and Sundays after Epiphany (variable depending on when Lent begins). Now we start counting “ordinary” time here.
Lent
Easter (7 Sundays)
Pentecost
Trinity
Sundays after Pentecost starting with 2 (because Trinity is number 1).

That was a LOT less confusing than starting Ordinary time after Epiphany, putting it on hold, than going BACK on the Monday after Pentecost. In the current system you stop the pre-Lent Ordinary Time at a different number of weeks each year and re-start it where you left off. I really don’t have enough brains for this. :whacky:

 

[The_Prodigal]

Because they come one after the other: one, two, three.

Ordinal means “counted” or “numbered.”

Yes I understand that there is a succession in time and that “ordinary” in this sense means “numbered” !

So it’s just to keep track of where you are in the succession, and has no other significance. I see.

 

[mercygate]

Yes I understand that there is a succession in time and that “ordinary” in this sense means “numbered” !

So it’s just to keep track of where you are in the succession, and has no other significance. I see.

Bingo! (to use a Catholic term)

 

[frommi]

Because they come one after the other: one, two, three.

Ordinal means “counted” or “numbered.”

I think the new system is screwy. We used to count

Advent
Christmas to Epiphany
Epiphany and Sundays after Epiphany (variable depending on when Lent begins). Now we start counting “ordinary” time here.
Lent
Easter (7 Sundays)
Pentecost
Trinity
Sundays after Pentecost starting with 2 (because Trinity is number 1).

That was a LOT less confusing than starting Ordinary time after Epiphany, putting it on hold, than going BACK on the Monday after Pentecost. In the current system you stop the pre-Lent Ordinary Time at a different number of weeks each year and re-start it where you left off. I really don’t have enough brains for this. :whacky:

Something seems incorrect in your method…

We start counting ordinary time on the sunday after the Baptism of the Lord, which is always the ‘2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time’…then we suspend our counting until after Corpus Christi…then we resume counting with whatever number gets us to Christ the King in the appropriate number of weeks.

 

[puzzleannie]

This question was suggested to me by another thread on liturgical time. What is the rationale behind numbering or counting the weeks (Sundays) in ordinary time?

to keep track of them, so you know how many weeks of the liturgical year are left
frommi is not precisely correct. ordinary time resumes the Monday after Pentecost. see the ordo, the little book published by your diocese each year, (or a Catholic calendar, cheaper) to find out “where we are” esp. necessary if you are trying to pray LOTH

 

[mercygate]

Something seems incorrect in your method…

We start counting ordinary time on the sunday after the Baptism of the Lord, which is always the ‘2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time’…then we suspend our counting until after Corpus Christi…then we resume counting with whatever number gets us to Christ the King in the appropriate number of weeks.

We’re in Ordinary Time now, as of Monday Vigils. Corpus Christi was (properly) yesterday but will be celebrated in a lot of places next Sunday.

You’re right about counting OT after the Baptism of the Lord but as with Trinity Sunday, which doesn’t have a “number”, the OT “week” begins on the Monday following.