Ordinary Time // Parent’s Guide

Do a Google search for “ordinary,” and you’ll find words like “commonplace, usual, normal, standard, typical, common, customary, habitual, everyday, regular, routine, day-to-day…no special or distinctive features.” But contrary to this meaning, Ordinary Time is not just a boring time of the year that we shouldn’t care about; it’s an important season in our liturgical year. Here the other seasons find their culmination. It’s not insignificant time lacking definition, but new, redeemed time defined by all Jesus has done—His birth, childhood, baptism, temptation, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of His Spirit—those events we specifically honor during the more exciting events on the Liturgical Calendar. The seasons are the story of God, and Ordinary Time is the story of the people of God (the Church) lived out in light of the gift of the Spirit we received at Pentecost.