Why Ordinary time?

[benedictgal]

I was talking with my parochial vicar Friday evening. The subject of Ordinary Time came up because I told him that I had found something he had written in his previous parish’s bulletin about 12 years ago. I told him I really didn’t like Ordinary time because it was, well, ordinary. He told me, “So, you like theme parties, then?” I laughed and told him that whenever I feel that way, I look at what he wrote and shush myself.

Here is a snippet of what he wrote:

During this time, the Church does not contemplate the birth, death and resurection of Christ. Rather, she contemplates the entire mystery of salvation. We return to the ordinary routines and experience the Lord’s grace in the daily, the ordinary and the small. The Holy Family, who established itself in Nazareth many years after those great events which we just finished celebrating, centered itself on living a normal, everyday life. We should appreciate this aspect and look at it as important, just as the extraordinary. It is important to know that Jesus, the Savior of the world, experience the ordinary, everyday aspects of life. He learned his lessons about life by living in a family. In his work, in his meals, in his struggles, the Creator of the Universe, learned about His creation.

We should take a moment consider our daily lives. There will be fights, worries, tragedies, losses and sadness. But, the sun continues to rise…

…Christ experienced the same things that we experience in daily life. As Man, Jesus learned from his father (St.Joseph) to appreciate the small events of daily living. Jesus also made time to converse with God, His Father. We, ourselves, in faithful imitiation of our Lord, should dedicate some time to having a daily conversation with God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Let us learn to discern the presence of the Trinity in our everyday lives.

As I said earlier, these words were written 12 years ago. The bulltein is a little yellow and dog-eared, but, what he wrote still has relevence today. Of course, I am still counting down to Lent, but, I should continue to take his words to heart and learn to apapreciate Ordinary Time.

 

[Trishie]

God bless your priest for his insight, and God bless you for sharing this valuable insight wirth us, Benedictgal, of the value of ordinary life. My thoughts added to yours…

Jesus and ordinary life

Jesus, God and man, for most of Your life You lived amongst us in unobtrusive labour. Through Your witness, we are encouraged to value the mundane tasks and events that dominate our lives.

Let us not overlook the value and message of the silent gospel of Your years of ‘ordinary’ service, overshadowed as they are by the drama of those last three years. It is surely a powerful silent witness that You, God incarnate, spent thirty years apparently ‘marking time’ in ordinary activity…as helpless infant…as refugee…as child of a poor family…as village tradesman. Thus is the ordinary, unrecognised and unrecorded routine of our daily lives elevated and sanctified while yet in obscurity, when it is lived in accordance with divine will.

In response to Your quiet example and Your inspired Word, we desire grace to live and work lovingly amongst others, obeying Your will as expressed in our vocations and our individual natures. The brief account of Your infancy and childhood emphasises this lesson. Although at twelve You revealed Your unique nature, You returned to humble daily activity.

We observe Your favoured human Mother, in her option to reject or cooperate with divine will for her life. Her acceptance carried with it some treasured secrets, but largely the ordinary life of human motherhood and home duties commonplace in the lives of multitudes of women throughout the centuries. Surely, her faith and hope were frequently tested in remembrance of divine promise in the face of ‘ordinary’ realities. Ultimately, however, her choice led to mental and emotional martyrdom.

Jesus, along with every human, You faced the choice to employ or misuse, the life, the gifts, and the trust reposed in You. You could embrace or refuse the alluring, deceptive temptations of the devil—gaudy and dramatic with ambition, sensuality and worldliness. Rejecting these temptations, You remained faithful to the God’s will, despite hardship, disappointment and sorrow.

Following almost thirty years of humble obscurity, You began public ministry, openly teaching and exemplifying the truths of the eternal Father, and fulfilling the covenant. Even as You took up Your divine ministry, You remained loving, obedient, wise and trusting. You accepted the realities of Your humanity, not vicariously, but fully, sacrificing this humanity in the culmination of every human deprivation and suffering. Your entire being became ‘a living wound’. [Isaiah] Following annihilation in Your humanity, You resurrected, to consummate Your defeat of sin and death for humankind.

You are witness that each person must accept divine will in the realities and actualities of our personal existences as we follow You our Way to life. Jesus, grant us to shoulder our daily cross lovingly, cheerfully and creatively, regardless of how arduous or ineffectual our lives may seem to ourselves. Grant us to bear our cross, in ordinary times and in crises, with perseverance, hope and peace, so that You may use us to open heaven to others who live within our influence. Thank You, Jesus, key of our salvation!

 

[ericka1701]

Benedictgal and Trishie, thanks for sharing those thoughts with us here at CAF. Those are much better explainations of Ordinary time than I got when I was Presbyterian.

The “watered-down” Presbyterian explaination I got was that Ordinary time was the time to grow in faith, and that’s why the liturgical color was green, the color of growth. Which isn’t completely untrue… just lacking. Blessed be God for allowing others to sow the foundation that was later watered and tended to by even more humans and that led me to the Church founded by Christ.

God Bless!
Ericka

 

[benedictgal]

Thank you, Trishie, for adding that prayer. I told my PV that he should keep his homily notes and reduce them to writing. He really has some beautiful things to say.

As he noted in his bulletin note, there is much sacredness in ordinary time. He said that even ordinary things like the smell of coffee in the morning and the crisp cold winter air are things that we can appreciate. Of course, down here, we don’t have a real winter. It does get biting cold, but, considering that our summers are in the 100+ range, anything below 60 degrees is cold.

He told me that even the scriptures for Ordinary Time do have a powerful message.

 

[Phemie]

Doesn’t all this ignore the fact that ‘Ordinary’ in this case comes from ‘ordinal’ and means ‘numbered time’ rather than ‘not very special time’?

 

[KCT]

Doesn’t all this ignore the fact that ‘Ordinary’ in this case comes from ‘ordinal’ and means ‘numbered time’ rather than ‘not very special time’?

That’s how my pastor explains it.

 

[ASD]

Phemie;4683191:

Doesn’t all this ignore the fact that ‘Ordinary’ in this case comes from ‘ordinal’ and means ‘numbered time’ rather than ‘not very special time’?

That’s how my pastor explains it.

Based on OED entries and my own sense of the words, it seems like the two meanings are pretty closely related.

To say that today is going to be ordinary is to say that it’s just run of the mill, another turn of the wheel, just what one expects given the order of things, the way things are ordered. Like 6 follows 5, and 7 follows 6, etc.

That is, both numbers and non-feast days are described in terms of an unexceptional succession, what comes next in the regular course.

Ordinal (LL ordinalis, denoting order or place in a series; L. ordo, ordinis m.):

1. Comformable to order or rule; regular; orderly, methodical. Obs.
2. Marking position in an order or series; applied to those numbers which refer an object to a certain place in a series of such objects (first, second, third, etc) as distinguished from cardinal numbers (one, two, three, etc).

Ordinary (L. ordo, ordinis m.):

1. Comformable to order or rule; regular; orderly, methodical. Obs.
   …
2. Belonging to regular or usual order or course; having a place in fixed or regulated sequence; occurring in the course of regular custom or practice; regular, normal, customary, usual.

$ words
Copyright (c) 1993-2005 - Free for your use - Version 1.97Ed
For updates and latest version check erols.com/whitaker/words.htm
Comments? William Whitaker, Box 3036, McLean VA 22103 USA - whitaker@erols.com

=>ordo

ordo N 3 1 NOM S M
ordo N 3 1 VOC S M
ordo, ordinis N M
row, order/rank; succession; series; class; bank (oars); order (of monks)

Phemie and KCT: I hope you read this early enough to go to confession before Mass this morning and unburden yourself thus: Forgive me Father for I have sinned…I had the temerity to correct Benedictgal. <BANG!> (sound of book dropping on floor on other side of screen)

ASD​

$ su - Traditionalist && cd /home && chown -R EF:Traditions church
&& git commit -m"Tradtional Latin Mass: Translation and Grammar" gmr

 

[ProVobis]

I guess in the NO calendar, the Feasts of Epiphany and Pentecost took back seats to Ordinary Time. That said, it is a little confusing in the old calendar to have readings from Sundays after the Epiphany to be added to the Sundays after Pentecost.

 

[SMHW]

Based on OED entries and my own sense of the words, it seems like the two meanings are pretty closely related.

To say that today is going to be ordinary is to say that it’s just run of the mill, another turn of the wheel, just what one expects given the order of things, the way things are ordered. Like 6 follows 5, and 7 follows 6, etc.

That is, both numbers and non-feast days are described in terms of an unexceptional succession, what comes next in the regular course.

See, the problem I see with this is that in common speech we color certain words with a touch of emotion that the definitions may not. At least in American English, “ordinary” and “unexceptional” usually imply “unimportant”, “insignificant”, and “boring”. But the definitions of those words don’t actually say any such thing.

Ordinary time may be expected and it’s not an exception but it’s hardly unimportant or insignificant. And hopefully it’s not boring.

I’d like to think of ordinary time the way I think of breathing. Breathing is usually routine, ordered, and predictable. And that’s a GOOD thing. Unless there’s a good temporary reason, (like exercising), deviations from “ordinary breathing” are most likely problematic. Feasts, solemnities, seasons, etc, are the occasional deviations from the norm of our liturgical life which help us to stay fit for Ordinary time.

 

[tee_eff_em]

Doesn’t all this ignore the fact that ‘Ordinary’ in this case comes from ‘ordinal’ and means ‘numbered time’ rather than ‘not very special time’?

That is my understanding as well. It is *Ordinary Time *because it is *Ordered *(1st, 2nd, 3rd, …).

In Latin the the current season is simply *Tempus per Annum *-- Time throughout the year. Would that mouthful be preferred?

See, the problem I see with this is that in common speech we color certain words with a touch of emotion that the definitions may not. At least in American English, “ordinary” and “unexceptional” usually imply “unimportant”, “insignificant”, and “boring”. But the definitions of those words don’t actually say any such thing.

Ordinary time may be expected and it’s not an exception but it’s hardly unimportant or insignificant. And hopefully it’s not boring.

I hope that those who color the word so likewise do not find the *Ordinary *of the Mass to be unimportant, insignificant, nor boring. :ehh:

I think it is good that the Church uses words with specific meanings (indeed, could she do otherwise?), and we should not be afraid to catechize the faithful to them when necessary.

tee

 

[SMHW]

In Latin the the current season is simply *Tempus per Annum *-- Time throughout the year. Would that mouthful be preferred?

Hmmmm. “2nd Sunday of Time Throughout the Year”. That would take up more room on my calendar than “Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion”.

I hope that those who color the word so likewise do not find the *Ordinary *of the Mass to be unimportant, insignificant, nor boring. :ehh:tee

Indeed. (My suspicion is that the *ordinary *Catholic in the pews probably hears/sees the phrase “Ordinary time” far more frequently than he does the phrase “*Ordinary *of the Mass”.)

 

[ASD]

I’d like to think of ordinary time the way I think of breathing.

That’s pretty good.

In Latin the the current season is simply Tempus per Annum – Time throughout the year. Would that mouthful be preferred?

Definitely! That’s what I’m using from now on.

ASD​

Traditional Latin Mass: Translation and Grammar

 

[tee_eff_em]

Definitely! That’s what I’m using from now on.

If you wish. (I do sometimes – I have hacked my email to add X-Latin-Date: and X-Latin-Liturgical-Date: headers on my outgoing )

BTW, you can usually drop the Tempus. As I’d said, that is the name of the season. But today, for example, is Dominca II per annum (A.D. MMIX).

tee

 

[benedictgal]

When my friend was pastor of the parish where he wrote the bulletin, he would use the word “ordinal”, numbered, if you will.

Granted, there is only so much space one can use in a parish bulletin, I found (and still find) his remarks rather on target. There are two meanings to this particular season in the year; however, the fact that there exists elements in the ordered and in the ordinary is what is important to considere here.

 

[The_Prodigal]

Today at our parish’s EF mass we celebrated Second Sunday after Epiphany. Septuagesima (the pre-Lenten) season begins in three weeks in that calendar.

This morning and evening I prayed the current LOTH for the second Sunday in ordinary time.

And let’s not forget the many Catholic Churches using the Byzantine rite, with their own calendar(s?) as well.

The real “long haul” in ordinary time comes after between Pentecost and Advent, of course. The lead up to Lent is fairly short - it was REAL short last year, with Easter so early.

 

[Newbie2]

I kinda like OT; that’s where we live our faith, methinks…day to day…“just another Monday” kind of thing.