- Ordinary Time
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- Ordinary Time
Eastern Ordinary Time is a season of the Christian liturgical calendar, in particular the calendar of the Roman rite and related liturgical rites. The English name is intended to translate the Latin term Tempus per annum (literally "time through the year"). Ordinary Time comprises the two periods — one following Epiphany (feast or season), the other following Pentecost — which do not fall under the strong seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter.
The weeks in ordinary time are numbered, although several Sundays are named for the feast they commemorate, such as Trinity Sunday (first Sunday after Pentecost) and the Feast of Christ the King (last Sunday in OT), and, in some places, the Feast of Corpus Christi (second Sunday after Pentecost).
The liturgical color normally assigned to Ordinary Time is green.
Contents
Periods of Ordinary Time
In the Roman Catholic Church, Ordinary Time begins on the day following the Baptism of the Lord (liturgical colour: white), the feast which normally falls on the Sunday after Epiphany (January 6) (white). American Catholics have altered the calendar so that Epiphany always falls on a Sunday (first Sunday after January 1); in those years when the Epiphany falls on January 7 or January 8, the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated on the Monday immediately following the Epiphany. In the Church of England, Ordinary Time begins on the day after the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Candlemas).
Ordinary Time continues until Ash Wednesday (violet), which marks the beginning of the Season of Lent (violet). Thus for Roman Catholics the period of Ordinary Time between Christmas and Lent may last from four to nine weeks, depending upon the dates of Epiphany (American Catholics) and Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is a moveable feast based on the date of Easter (white). In the Church of England the first period of Ordinary Time is somewhat shorter — indeed it may be as short as a single day if Ash Wednesday falls on its earliest possible date of February 4.
Ordinary Time resumes on the Monday following Pentecost (red) and continues through Saturday afternoon before the first Sunday of Advent (violet), some five to six months later, always including the entire months of July, August, September and October and most or all of June and November (some years include small portions of May and December). The last Sunday before Advent is celebrated as the Solemnity of Christ the King (white) and in the Roman Catholic Church always takes the place of the 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
The actual number of weeks of Ordinary Time in any given year can total 33 or 34. When there are only 33 weeks (which is more common[1][2]), the week that would normally follow the resumption of Ordinary Time following Pentecost Sunday is omitted. For example, in 2011, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday was the 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time, but the day after Pentecost Sunday began the 11th Week in Ordinary Time.
In the Church of England, a similar situation arises with "Sundays after Trinity", as Sundays in the second period of Ordinary Time are termed (until the final four, which are termed "Sundays before Advent"). The total number of Sundays varies according to the date of Easter and can number anything from 18 to 23. When there are 23, the Collect and Post-Communion for the 22nd Sunday are taken from the provision for the Third Sunday before Lent.
In the Orthodox Church and in the Eastern Catholic Churches, Sundays are all numbered after Pentecost which runs through the following year. Orthodox do not have ordinary time.
Feasts that pre-empt Ordinary Time
Weeks of Ordinary Time - movable by Lent - movable by Easter Week Beginning on or after 1 Jan 7 2 Jan 14 3 Jan 21 4 Jan 28 5 Feb 4 6 Feb 11 7 Feb 18 8 Feb 25 9 Mar 4 (3 in leap years) 6 May 8 7 May 15 8 May 22 9 May 29 10 Jun 5 11 Jun 12 12 Jun 19 13 Jun 26 14 Jul 3 15 Jul 10 16 Jul 17 17 Jul 24 18 Jul 31 19 Aug 7 20 Aug 14 21 Aug 21 22 Aug 28 23 Sep 4 24 Sep 11 25 Sep 18 26 Sep 25 27 Oct 2 28 Oct 9 29 Oct 16 30 Oct 23 31 Oct 30 32 Nov 6 33 Nov 13 34 Nov 20 In addition, certain solemnities and feasts that fall during Ordinary Time will pre-empt numbered Sundays in the series when the observance in question falls on a Sunday. On pre-empted Sundays, the liturgical color green is replaced by the color of the feast day. These feast days include, in the Roman Catholic calendar, any day that is a holy day of obligation, along with certain other special days, such as the Presentation of the Lord (or Candlemas, February 2, white), the birth of John the Baptist (June 24, white), the Solemnity of SS Peter and Paul (June 29, red), the Transfiguration (August 6, white), the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (or Holy Cross Day, September 14, red), Solemnity of All Saints (November 1, white), All Souls Day (November 2, violet or black[3]), and the Dedication of the Basilica of St John Lateran (November 9, white).
Other solemnities which outrank Sundays of Ordinary Time vary from parish to parish, such as the feast of the patron saint of a parish and the feast of the dedication of the parish church.
In addition, if a Solemnity or feast that outranks a Sunday of Ordinary time, such as those mentioned above, should occur during the week, a priest saying mass for a congregation has the option of observing it on a nearby Sunday. Such a celebration is traditionally called an "external solemnity", even if the feast in question is not ranked as a solemnity. If an external solemnity is celebrated on a Sunday, the color of that celebration is used rather than green.
Use of the term
Before the liturgical reforms of 1970, there were two distinct seasons in the Roman Breviary and Roman Missal known as the season after Epiphany and the season after Pentecost respectively. Liturgical days in these times were referred to as the -nth Sunday after Epiphany or Pentecost, or Feria II,III,IV,V or VI after the -nth Sunday. With the reforms came the introduction of four liturgical weeks, the 6th through 9th weeks of Ordinary Time, which could fall either after Epiphany or after Pentecost, making the old numbering scheme unusable, and the term tempus per annum was used to describe both of these seasons. Before the reforms till the present, the term tempus per annum has been used to describe the season of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary that is not part of Advent or Christmastide, and so tempus per annum extends from Matins on February 3rd to None on the last Saturday before Advent.
Following the lead of the liturgical reforms of the Roman rite, many Protestant churches have also adopted the concept of Ordinary Time, along with the Revised Common Lectionary.
Kingdomtide exception
Some Protestant denominations (most notably the United Methodist Church) set off the last 13 or 14 weeks of Ordinary Time into a separate season, known as Kingdomtide.
See also
Notes
- ^ Lectionary Calendar and Movable Feasts
- ^ There are 34 weeks of Ordinary Time in years with dominical letters A or g or some combination containing A or g, i.e., Ag, bA, or gf. All other years have 33 weeks of Ordinary Time, with the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, or 10th week dropped from the calendar that year.
- ^ In the United States, white may be used in place of violet on All Souls Day.
External links
Categories:- Liturgical calendar
- Catholic liturgy
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