By Sister Barbara Valuckas, SSND
Having recently celebrated the Feast of the Blessed Trinity, we Catholics have entered a period called “Ordinary Time.” But what does “ordinary” mean?
First, Ordinary Time is called “ordinary” not because it is somehow lesser than the other liturgical seasons, but - according to church historians - simply because the weeks of Ordinary Time are numbered. The Latin word ordinalis refers to numbers in a series. It marks a time when we are neither feasting nor fasting. (Wikipedia)
But Ordinary Time is much more than numbers on the calendar.
When our SSND 2019 Trinity Symposium opened up our understanding of Trinity, it helped us see how the other liturgical seasons - Advent and Christmas, then Lent, Easter and Pentecost - culminate in the great mystery of the Trinity.
It's as if these celebrations are a progressive banquet, leaving us spiritually sated and in need of a long period of rest. Ordinary Time, then, allows us the rest we need to digest the richness we have received.
Perhaps we also need this time and space now because what we are experiencing in our world is increasingly disorderly.
The chaos of personal and political divisions and the increase in the number of destructive wars seems to directly contradict the call to loving relationship embodied in the Trinity.
Individual relationships are splitting apart because of political differences. Citizens are literally killing each other over them.
In the June 14, 2025 issue of National Catholic Reporter, Mary M. McGlone writes: “Human beings are images of God, the always interrelating, ever-loving Trinity.
Entering into God’s joy in communal existence is the why and goal of our lives. As Jesus said in so many ways, the more we love, the more we relate, the more we enter into his participation in the Trinity.”
It’s all connected. We are all connected.
It's God's ordinary, everyday, radical gift to all.
Happy Ordinary Time.
