By Steve Raml, Director of Liturgy & Music
Making Ordinary Time Less Ordinary
This is a very strange year, liturgically speaking. NINE times during 2025, a Sunday in Ordinary Time is superseded by a special feast.
Every year, the Baptism of the Lord always takes the place of the 1st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Right out of the Christmas season, we jump from Epiphany and the coming of the Magi to see the infant king to Jesus as an adult, standing before John the Baptist in the Jordan River, asking to be baptized. This actually becomes another manifestation of Christ, revealed to shepherds at Christmas, to the Magi (and thus the world) at Epiphany, and now very publicly, as we all hear the voice of God saying “This is my Beloved Son.”
Then, just as we were starting the Ordinary Time after Christmas, we celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Taking the place of this year’s 4th Sunday, this feast brings us back to the Christmas story, as Mary and Joseph “present” Jesus in the temple. The concept of such a presentation comes from 1 Sam 1: 24-28, where Hannah offers the child Samuel for sanctuary service.
According to Jewish law, the firstborn male child belonged to God, and the parents had to “buy him back” by paying five shekels to a member of the priestly family, but Luke’s Gospel doesn’t spell this out. The offering Luke describes, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” is actually a sacrifice for the purification of the mother, according to Mosaic law (Lev 12: 2-8). That’s why this feast was originally known as “The Purification of the Blessed Virgin”.
As Jesus is presented, we meet Simeon, whose joy at seeing Jesus and knowing God’s promise to Israel was being fulfilled led him to sing a canticle that begins, “Now, Master, let your servant go in peace..” “Now, Master” in Latin is “Nunc Dimittis”, and inspired by a line In that hymn, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles”, the Church developed a custom in the 11th century of blessing candles on this feast. So it became known by yet a third name: “Candlemas”.
By whatever name, it is a relatively ancient celebration, as we have historic evidence that the Church at Jerusalem observed this feast as early as the first half of the fourth century.
We always break the numbered Sundays to celebrate Lent and Easter and pick up the numbering after the Easter Season. Since that timing shifts every year due to the date of Easter, we seldom have Ordinary Sundays numbered 9 through 12, but those could be possible if Easter is late or early.
After Pentecost closes the 50 days of celebrating Easter, our Ordinary Time begins with two other fixed feasts, Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi. Trinity Sunday is always the Sunday after Pentecost, and it celebrate the Church doctrine that was set at the very first Ecumenical Council. Think of it as the Vatican II of the early church. This council was convened by the Emperor Constantine in the year 325 AD because of the Arian heresy that denied the divinity of Jesus. It “regarded the Son of God as standing midway between God and creatures.” (The New Catholic Dictionary).
Called “The Council of Nicea”, the gathered bishops adopted the doctrine of the divinity of Christ which “expressed the identity of the Son in essence, nature, substance with the Father.” (again, from the New Catholic Dictionary) Their decision has held in all orthodox Christian churches to this very day. We proclaim this doctrine of faith every Sunday in the Nicene Creed.
And the Church set the very next Sunday to celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ, our belief in the real, physical presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This teaching grew out of the teaching of the Gospels and letters of St. Paul.
We know this each Sunday as we receive Communion. However, the reception of communion by the laity had greatly diminished by the end of the fourth century and continued this decline until, in the year 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council made a rule: Go to confession and communion at least once a year at Eastertime. As reception of communion decline, adoration of the Eucharist took its place. The practice was known as “ocular communion.”
The feast of Corpus et Sanguis Christi came about at this time. It was established in 1246 by Bishop Robert de Thorte of Liege at the suggestion of St. Juliana and extended to the whole Church by Pope Urban in 1264.
In the Eucharist, the Pope said, “Christ is with us in His own substance.” For “when telling the Apostles that He was ascending into heaven, He said, ‘Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world,’ thus comforting them with the gracious promise that He would remain and be with them even by His bodily presence.” (August 11, 1264).
It is important to note that today, the text and prayers of the celebration do NOT emphasize the adoration aspect, but focus on eating and drinking of the Eucharist, through which we offer to God “a solemn pledge of undivided love…. a life poured out in loving service.” (Opening Prayer)
For the first time since 2014, we celebrated the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul on June 29, bumping the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time. This feast honors the two great apostles: St. Peter, one of the Twelve and the chief of the Apostles, the Rock upon which Christ built His Church, and St. Paul “called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1) and Apostle to the Gentiles. Together they are honored as founders of the Church of Rome, having been martyred there during the reign of Emperor Nero. One tradition holds that they were martyred on the same day, which is highly unlikely.
Still, they are celebrated in a single feast, because as St. Augustine of Hippo said in 395, “Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.”
Moving to the fall, we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which falls on September 14, which would have been the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Early in the fourth century St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. According to legend, Helena discovered that a temple to the Greek goddess Aphrodite was built over what Christians believed to be the tomb of Christ. She had the temple destroyed and beneath the ruins, workers found three crosses which they believed were the ones on which Jesus and the two thieves were crucified.
Helena and Constantine ordered that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher be built over the site of the discovery, with a portion of the Holy Cross placed inside. The Cross immediately became an object of veneration and was lifted high, or exalted, so all could see it.
This feast celebrates our belief that this instrument of torture, designed to degrade the worst of criminals, has instead become the instrument of our salvation; for by Christ’s death on the Cross, we gain eternal life.
We always celebrate the Feast of All Saints as a Holy Day of Obligation, but this year November 1st falls on a Saturday, so the obligation is lifted. However, the next day, November 2nd, the Feast of All Souls, will be on Sunday this year, instead of the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Ironically, this memorial of all who have passed away, is not a day of obligation. But since Sunday is always a day of obligation, All Souls will be one this year. This celebration was first established by St. Odilo of Cluny in 998 and was soon spread across Europe by other monks in his order. It was accepted in Rome in the 14th century.
One week later, on November 9th, the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica replaces the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Most Catholics probably think of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome as the Pope’s main church. While the Pope may celebrate many big masses of the year at St. Peter’s, it is the Basilica of St. John Lateran that is truly the cathedral of Rome, and thus, the Pope’s cathedral.
The feast honors this Basilica, which has an inscription over the main door that reads “Most Holy Lateran Church, or all the churches in the city and world, the mother and head.” So it’s our “mother church” and a reminder that the Church is truly “Catholic” or universal.
Finally, we close Ordinary Time every year with the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe, on the 34th Sunday of Ordinary Time. The association of Christ with the title “King” can be found in texts throughout the New Testament: “King of Ages” (1 Tim 1: 17) “King of kings” (1 Tim 6: 15 & Rev 19:16) “King of Israel” (John 1: 49) “King of the Jews” (Matt 27: 11) “King of the nations” (Rev 15: 3) “Ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev 1: 5).
Placing this feast at the very end of the Church Year creates a very strong eschatological tone, set up by several weeks of readings about “the end time” and “the day of the Lord.” It also brings the church year full circle, from the First Sunday of Advent and our longing for a coming Messiah to the final coming of Christ the King.
I am always reminded by Ordinary Time that “our days are numbered”. But this year, we take several breaks in those numbered Sundays to focus on celebrations that are truly extra-ordinary.
