From the Desk of Deacon Dave, O.F.S.

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

May the Lord give you His peace!

And just like that – we have completed our journey through the Christmas Season and find ourselves at the beginning of Ordinary Time in the current liturgical year, celebrating the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time this weekend! After the shortest possible Advent with the Fourth Sunday of Advent falling on December 24^th, we experienced a rather short Christmas season that ended with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord observed on Monday, January 8, 2024, rather than on the Sunday following the Solemnity of the Epiphany as frequently occurs. All the moveable feasts of the Church’s liturgical calendar take their direction forward and backward from the date of Easter each year which is always the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring equinox. 

As was solemnly proclaimed during several of our parish’s Epiphany liturgies on January 6^th and 7^th, Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord this year falls on March 31, 2024. Ordinary Time begins on Tuesday, January 9^th and continues through Tuesday, February 13^th, the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the season of Lent. (And yes, Ash Wednesday this year is on February 14^th, St. Valentine’s Day!) It will resume at the conclusion of the Easter season, that is, on Monday, May 20^th, the day following the Solemnity of Pentecost. 

The Church’s Universal Norms (#43) have this to offer about the meaning of Ordinary Time: “Besides the times of the year that have their own distinctive character (Advent-Christmas; Lent-Easter), there remains in the yearly cycle thirty-three or thirty-four weeks in which no particular aspect of the mystery of Christ is celebrated, but rather the mystery of Christ himself is honored in its fullness, especially on Sundays. This period is known as Ordinary Time.” Ordinary Time also takes its name from how we refer to the Sundays and weeks using ordinal numbers. An ordinal number indicates the position or order of something in relation to other numbers, like first, second, third, etc. For us Ordinary Time is anything but ordinary if by “ordinary” we mean regular, routine, boring, hum-drum since during Ordinary Time we are given the opportunity to personally encounter the Lord Jesus individually and communally, especially in Word and Sacrament when we gather to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. May our lives of lived faith – all we say, do, think and feel – truly honor the mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ whose incarnation and birth among us we have just celebrated with such joy and reverence! 

With a brother’s love in the Lord and Mary Immaculate,

Deacon Dave, O.F.S.
T    In Persona Christi Servi