On the day after Pentecost (Whitsunday), the church's calendar makes a sudden shift. Eastertide is over, Ordinary Time has begun. Rather than the progression of events from Christ's rising through his various post-resurrection appearances, then the Ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit on the Fiftieth Day, time in the church calendar becomes a succession of Sundays numbered or ordered after Pentecost—thus “ordinary” time.
Contingent on Easter’s lunar-determined position, this part of the Ecclesiastical Year has to be extra flexible. Rather than starting on a fixed date, it “floats” back and forth each year. To accommodate this, Ordinary Time begins on a given “Proper,” a week of readings and a collect for both the Eucharist and the Daily Office that are proper to that week. The Sunday of each “Proper” is described as being closest to a particular date. Thus, in years when Easter falls late, the week after Pentecost will use readings and the collect from Proper 4 or 5, but on years when Easter falls early, it might be from Proper 2 (or, if Easter is exceptionally early, Proper 1).
In this way, Ordinary Time is a bit like an accordion—stretching back and forth with Easter’s date and ending in November so that there are always four Advent Sundays prior to Christmas Day. The other period of Ordinary Time—the weeks after the Epiphany—does this in reverse, with the day of the week on which Christmas (and thus the Epiphany) falls setting its start, and Ash Wednesday (contingent on Easter’s date) forming the conclusion.
Once learned, this approach to time has spiritual benefit beyond its practical application: it reminds us that what we experience as the inevitable progression of time in this world is ultimately framed by eternity. For, just as the ordinary times of the Church Year begin and end with great feasts celebrating eternal truths, so our lives on earth are set in the midst of an eternal “before” and a heavenly “ever-after.”
In the great Seasons of the Church Year (Advent-Christmastide-Lent-Easter) we focus on the teachings of the catholic faith as found in the Creeds and especially on the centrality of the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery to the Christian community and believer.
In Ordinary Time we put the focus on the orderly telling of scriptural stories in the Daily Office and a deep examination of Jesus’ public ministry and teaching in the Sunday Gospel lessons. These stories give meaning and application to the eternal truths proclaimed in the creeds. They are the filling of the sandwich, so-to-speak. Being made in the image of God yet also born of earth, we need both the teaching and the application, the eternal and the earthly.
In all things, the Church Calendar is a tool by which we enter into the mystery of time and eternity. It gives meaning to our journey through life and also connects our daily, weekly, and annual rhythms with what transcends them. The Church Year shows that there really is no “ordinary” time in the sense we usually understand that term—only time lived in the presence of the Eternal God, consciously or unconsciously, purposefully or aimlessly, lovingly or pointlessly. The choice is ours.
