Catholic Outlook Magazine | Ordinary Time| 2023 Issue

The Good News of Ordinary Time
STORY FR DAVE AUSTIN OSA
We’re in that part of the year known as Ordinary
Time. Fr Dave Austin OSA tells us how ‘ordinary’
Sundays are so much more than downtime.
Our experience of liturgy this year has been very rich
– the Christmas Season, Lent, Holy Week and the
Triduum, the Easter Season, then the great feasts of
Pentecost, Holy Trinity and the Body and Blood of
Christ – bold reminders of our Catholic Faith! Each
expands our understanding of the Paschal Mystery
which we celebrate every Sunday.
The liturgical year honours the Mystery of Christ in its
fullness, so Ordinary Time is definitely not ‘ordinary’!
‘Ordinary’ – from the Latin ordo – refers both to a
counting or numbering and an order – the counted
weeks. Ordinary Time occurs twice each year in
the liturgical calendar – beginning after the Baptism
of the Lord in January and ending on the Tuesday
before Ash Wednesday, and then from the Monday
after Pentecost until the Saturday before the First
Sunday of Advent.
This year, we celebrated the Second to the Seventh
Sundays in Ordinary Time between the Baptism
of the Lord and Ash Wednesday. Ordinary Time
resumed on 29 May and included the Sunday
Solemnities of the Trinity and the Body and Blood of
Christ on 4 and 11 June respectively. The Sundays in
Ordinary Time then continue with the 11th Sunday on
18 June.
Ordinary Time is not an invitation to put our feet
up and have a rest from serious liturgy – definitely
not ‘downtime’! As we continue to celebrate the
Paschal Mystery, these Sundays are by no means
‘ordinary’ or unimportant. Ordinary Sundays
have been described as ‘simply and gloriously only
Sunday, the Lord’s Day’. Sunday defines who we
are as the Christian Community.
Green vestments are worn except on feast days and
Sundays when a major Feast of Our Lord, Our Lady
or Holy Day occurs. This year, the Transfiguration of
the Lord on 6 August replaces the 18th Sunday in
Ordinary Time. The Feasts of All Saints and All Souls
in November help us connect with the Communion
of Saints and with those who are with the Lord and
whom we carry in memory. Why not sing the Litany
of the Saints as we gather for Sunday Eucharist
around that time? Then there is the Book of the
Names of the Dead that can be reverenced in some
way in the Mass.
Reflection on Jesus’ encounter with the two disciples
on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24) is helpful here.
As their conversation unfolded, the disciples’ sad
story of their loss of Jesus in death became their
‘faith story’ as Jesus broke open the Scriptures for
them and their eyes were opened as they recognised
Jesus in the Breaking of the Bread. This describes
well the dynamic we are invited to experience
throughout the Liturgical Year. We grow in selfknowledge
as we engage with both our sad stories
and joyful stories and they become part of our
personal and communal ‘faith story’.
All liturgy celebrates Christ’s saving work, the
Good News of his Death and Resurrection.
God’s Word is proclaimed and preached and we
listen to the Sunday readings in the three-year cycle,
with the focus on a different Gospel each year. In
2023 (Year A), Matthew’s Gospel exposes us to
Jesus’ life and ministry – the Sermon on the Mount,
the spread of God’s Kingdom, miracles and parables,
the beginnings of the Church, our call to love ‘the
least of these…’, and Jesus’ death and resurrection.
The final Sunday in Ordinary Time is the Solemnity of
Christ the King.
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