The Ordinary Days of the Church

 The Catholic Church's calendar time is always a mystery.  It's really dependent on when full moons occur.  Sometimes it sounds so pagan to me, but then again, I love the moon.  Why?  Because it's the closest Heavenly Body to Earth and you can look at with the naked eye without harming your eyes.  Remember, don't look at the sun without good protection from ultraviolet rays.  Although, in that regard, I did that one time in grammar school.  That was enough.

According to a www.catholic.com article, we see that "On the Gregorian calendar (the one that we use), Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after March 21. Easter thus always falls between March 22 and April 25."  So, this year of 2025, astronomers, in paying attention to lunar cycles and phases, determined that Easter would be on April 20th.  That's pretty late to say the least.  But then that makes us work backward in time to see how the rest of the Church calendar is going to "add-up."  For instance, let's stick with this year -- 2025.

We find that the date of Easter is April 20th.  So the first full moon is either on or after March 21.  Go backward 40 days to find Ash Wednesday -- Palm Sunday is the weekend before Easter, five weeks of Lent, and then the Saturday, Friday, Thursday before the 1st Sunday of Lent, and finally, Ash Wednesday.  This year that makes March 5th.  Taking that into consideration and what the date of Advent was on December 1, 2024, there were 4 Sundays, Christmas, the Feast of the Holy Family, Epiphany, and finally yesterday was the Baptism of the Lord -- January 12, 2025.  So what does the Church do between the end of the Christmas season and before Lent begins?  We have what is known as Ordinary Time.

Now -- there is no such thing TECHNICALLY as the First Sunday of Ordinary Time liturgically.  The day AFTER the Baptism of the Lord, Ordinary Time begins.  So this coming Sunday, January 19th, is the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time.  And that will continue until Tuesday, March 4th (the Tuesday of the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time).  Once Ash Wednesday happens, Ordinary Time is put on hold for another computation.  How does the Church figure out the date for the First Sunday of Advent?  Well, that one is thanks to the government in America.  The date of Thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday in November.  Advent begins three days later.  So the last Sunday of Ordinary Time for the liturgical year -- the 34th Sunday -- is the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Now start counting backward again from 34.

When does the Easter Season end?  Pentecost Sunday.  Then there are two other special Sundays to follow, but it is the Monday after Pentecost when Ordinary Time resumes, and this is the longest stretch of time in the whole Church calendar.  This year Pentecost is June 8th and Thanksgiving is November 27th.  So the 34th Sunday of Ordinary Time is November 23rd, the 33rd Sunday is November 16th,...,the week following Pentecost is the 10th Week of Ordinary Time.  So it's as if we go through a time warp where the 9th Sunday and Week of Ordinary Time doesn't exist.  You won't hear the prayers that the Church has written for it at all.  So why is it there?  Because the way Earth and seasons go, it could at some point happen in a given year.  I can't tell you the last time it happened.  And there have been years when weeks 6-9 might not "exist" either.

As Bob Seger once sang "Shame on the Moon."  Yet, she is a lovely sight to behold.  Oh, and crazy as the calendar is, God is the one who gave all of the astronomers and theologians all of the knowledge and wisdom of how to make sense of it all.  It's not random.  There is always purpose!