(RNS) — With Christmas season over, Christians move into what the church refers to as “Ordinary Time.” This is the time outside of Christmas season, Lent and Easter season.
“Ordinary” in English means “routine, usual, common.” In other words, nothing special.
But the name “Ordinary Time” originally comes from the fact that the weeks are numbered using ordinal numbers — like first, second or third. For example, last Sunday was the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. This year, there are six Ordinary Sundays before we reach Lent. We then do not return to Ordinary Time until after Pentecost; Ordinary Time then continues until Advent, for a total of 34 weeks in Ordinary Time this year.
But there is no reason that Ordinary Time must be ordinary. It can be special if we use it to deepen our experience of the Scriptures and prayer.
Catholics should be embarrassed by how little they read the Scriptures. According to Pew Research Center, only 12% of Catholics read the Scriptures at least once a week, compared with 52% of evangelical Christians. Do we really believe that the Bible is the word of God?
There was a time when Catholic clergy discouraged laity from reading the Scriptures because they feared it would lead to Protestantism. Catholics did not have to read the Scriptures, they said, because the clergy would tell them what to believe and do. In those days, Catholics had a fundamentalistic approach to the Bible, denying evolution and believing that the world was created in seven days.
This began to change under Pope Pius XII, who freed Catholic biblical scholars to reject fundamentalism and to embrace modern historical and literary tools in interpreting Scripture. This revolution in Scripture scholarship set the stage for the Second Vatican Council.
A general representation of the Catholic liturgical calendar. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia/Creative Commons)
During Ordinary Time, the church invites us to immerse ourselves in the Scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments. In 1969, the Catholic Church published a three-year cycle (A, B and C) of Scripture readings for Sundays. This became the basis for the 1992 Revised Common Lectionary used by many Protestant denominations, including Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ and some Baptists. This means that Christians of different denominations are hearing the same sampling of the Scriptures over the three-year cycle.
This year, we are in “Cycle A,” which uses the Gospel of Matthew. Cycle B uses Mark; Cycle C uses Luke. The first reading is an Old Testament passage that picks up a theme in the Gospel.
The second reading, on the other hand, is not thematically connected to the other readings but is from the New Testament letters. In the Cycle A, we first hear from 1 Corinthians, followed by Romans, Philippians and 1 Thessalonians.
The advantage of the Common Lectionary is that any congregation is not dependent on the minister’s idiosyncratic choices of Scripture readings. Instead, it gives the people a wide sampling of the Scriptures.
But adult Christians should not just listen to the Scriptures on Sunday; they should also read and pray over them during the week before going to church. We should not wait to hear what the minister thinks of the Scripture readings, we should reflect on them ourselves and listen to how the Holy Spirit is speaking to us through the Word of God.
When we do hear what the preacher says, we can mentally compare our own reflections with those in the homily. We may find that we both had the same idea, or we find that we responded in completely different ways. We may conclude that the preacher missed the point of the readings, or the preacher saw something we missed. Whatever the case, having read the Scriptures before going to church enriches our experience at the liturgy.
(Photo by Grant Whitty/Unsplash/Creative Commons)
There are many ways to find the Sunday readings as well as the daily liturgical readings — for example, at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website or through popular apps like iBreviary.
Amazon’s Alexa can also read you the Sunday readings; just say, “Alexa, play Catholic daily.” She will offer to read you the day’s readings or the day’s Gospel. If you tell her “Sunday readings,” she will skip to Sunday.
Other apps, such as Sacred Space (Irish Jesuits) and Pray as You Go (British Jesuits), give you commentary, reflections and even music along with the readings. There are lots of apps, so you need to find one that fits your spiritual needs.
Before reading the Scriptures, it is essential to stop, clear your head and place yourself in the presence of God. Say a simple prayer, like: “Father, send your Spirit into my heart so that I can hear what you want to say to me in your word today.”
After reading the Scriptures, you can meditate on the readings by asking yourself, “What do the readings tell me about the Father, about Jesus, about the Spirit?” Hopefully, you will see in the readings the compassion and love of God. Then you can ask, “What do the readings have to say to me in my life?”
Ultimately, our response should be prayerful. It may lead us to praise and thank God, or it might encourage us to apologize for our sins and ask for the grace to do better. Or it may call us to pray for other people and our world. What matters is that we have a conversation with God, first listening to what he says to us in his Word and then responding.
Many find that using their imagination to enter the Gospel story is more conducive to prayer than meditation. What matters is conversing with God in mind and heart.
Reflecting and praying the Sunday Scriptures need not be done alone. There is a richness that comes from reflecting on the Scriptures with others. This can be done in person or virtually on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. Those who find it difficult to organize a common time can do it through a dedicated Facebook page or group texts. I would suggest keeping the group under 30 people so the volume of messages does not overwhelm everyone.
It is possible to be an extraordinary Christian during Ordinary Time if we return to the Scriptures on a regular basis, share our reflections with one another and have an ongoing conversation with God.
