Ordinary Time of Church Year

The color green in the Church tells us that we are back in Ordinary Time. Actually the word “ordinary” does not mean routine but “counted” or ordinal” time. We enter into these 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th Sundays…all counted one after another. Winter Ordinary Time is just a few short weeks until we into the season of Lent. Summer and Fall Ordinary Time comprised the longest portion of the Liturgical Year, covering as much as six months of the calendar. Ordinary Time challenges us with the demands of building the Kingdom. We listen to the Word of God which keeps reminding us of our call as Christians to internalize the teachings of the Lord and to live out what we proclaim. The miracles and the parables of Jesus are, for the most part, the subject of the Gospel readings. The task that we are given is the same task Jesus has—to proclaim the reign of God in our midst—so this is hardly and ordinary mission. The prayers of the Mass ask for the gifts necessary to accomplish this task and they carry the same message: “Bring forth the Kingdom!”