A New Season in the Church Year

by the Rev. Jeff Goldone, Interim Priest

We are now officially in the season of Summer on our secular calendar and this coming Sunday officially marks the season of Ordinary Time on our church's liturgical calendar. Once we have celebrated the Advent, Christmas and Epiphany seasons, and then move through the Lent, Holy Week, and the Easter season, we find ourselves in the "ordinary time", or the "after Pentecost" season. This liturgical year we will be in ordinary time for 23 weeks or 23 Sundays after Pentecost.

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We follow the calendar with different liturgical colors throughout the church year. Those colors and seasons are as follows:

• Advent - purple or blue
• Christmas - white
• Epiphany - white
• Lent - purple
• Holy Week - red
• Easter - white
• Pentecost - red
• Ordinary time - green

I find the descriptive word "ordinary" quite misleading. We tend to define ordinary as something simple or plain or common or unimportant. The word "ordinary" used here comes from the ordinal numerals by which the weeks are identified or counted. But the season we now enter is far from ordinary. It's a time when we stop celebrating some of the important events in the life of Christ (birth, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension) and focus more on growing our faith and putting it into action; doing the work God has called us to do. The liturgical color green symbolizes that growth, new life, and hope. It invites us to focus on the teachings and ministry of Christ and his call for us to discipleship; growing into the Christians God has intended us to be. It's a time when we are asked to live out our faith in our everyday lives, learning from Jesus' example and working towards building the Kingdom of God in our work and in our play. Our Gospel readings from Luke over these next several months will reflect the many different aspects of Jesus' life and ministry that will provide us with a deeper understanding of our faith and opportunities for growth in our faith journey. I'm excited that we will be on this faith journey together throughout this summer and fall seasons.
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I pray our ordinary season will be a time of great growth and a deepening of our dedication and commitment to moving closer to Christ and our faith and trust in him. A happy and blessed "ordinary time" to all of us!