Christian Feasts in Ordinary Time
Christian Feasts in Ordinary Time – Seasons Punctuated by Glory
Though it may seem long and unadorned, Ordinary Time is anything but barren. Scattered throughout the green season are solemnities, feasts, and memorials. Each a burst of light revealing the glory of God in history and in the lives of the saints.
These interruptions are not distractions but invitations: to remember, to rejoice, and to re-anchor our lives in Christ’s story.
Let us explore some of the key feasts that illuminate this stretch of spiritual growth:
1. Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Feb 2)
Though it technically falls in the last stretch of the Christmas cycle, this feast often appears during early Ordinary Time. Recalling when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple, it invites us to see God’s presence in unexpected places, even in a fragile infant.
It is a quiet reminder in Ordinary Time: God is in our midst, often unrecognized.
2. Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Celebrated the Sunday after Pentecost, this feast shifts our gaze upward: into the mystery of God’s very nature. After the high drama of Easter and Pentecost, we enter the mystery of a God who is Love, eternally relational: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In the ordinariness of life, this feast teaches us that we are created for communion, and each daily act of love participates in the divine dance of the Trinity.
3. Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
The Sunday following Trinity Sunday is dedicated to the Eucharist: the real presence of Christ in our midst. While we receive the Eucharist weekly or even daily, this feast is a pause to behold the wonder of that reality.
Even in the ordinary, Jesus feeds us… just as He fed the five thousand on a hillside.
4. Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Typically celebrated on the Friday after Corpus Christi, this feast plunges us into the wounded heart of Christ. A symbol of divine love poured out. This isn’t sentimentality; it’s a call to love with depth, with suffering, and with mercy.
It reminds us in Ordinary Time: Christ’s heart beats in our world, especially where love is most needed.
5. Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6)
This mountaintop moment, when Jesus is revealed in glory to Peter, James, and John, is a flash of the divine in the midst of the mundane. In the long days of Ordinary Time, we are reminded: we live in light of glory yet to come.
6. Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary (August 15)
Mary, the first disciple, is taken body and soul into heaven. Her feast is a vision of our destiny—what Christ promises for all who follow Him. It’s a mid-season encouragement to stay the course.
7. Feast of All Saints (November 1)
A celebration of the great cloud of witnesses, this feast reminds us that sainthood is possible—and meant—for each of us. In Ordinary Time, we are not alone. The saints walk with us.
8. Solemnity of Christ the King (Final Sunday of Ordinary Time)
The final punctuation mark of Ordinary Time (and of the liturgical year) is the bold proclamation: Christ is King. Not just over heaven, but over every corner of our lives. It brings the entire liturgical cycle full circle, proclaiming that the one born in Bethlehem and crucified on Calvary now reigns over all creation.
It is a fitting end to a season that teaches us how to live the Kingdom in daily life.
Living the Green Season Well
So how do we live Ordinary Time meaningfully?
Here are a few invitations:
- Let the Gospels guide your growth. Choose one Gospel to read slowly, week by week, praying with its stories and teachings.
- Mark the feasts. Celebrate the solemnities and memorials with special meals, prayers, or devotions. Let them interrupt your “ordinary” in holy ways.
- Practice the ordinary virtues. Patience, kindness, faithfulness, humility… these grow best when life is not dramatic.
- Let your life be liturgical. Use the rhythm of the liturgical year to shape your home, your family routines, your personal prayer.
- Be faithful in small things. The spiritual life is built not just on mountaintops, but on countless acts of daily love.
Conclusion. No Time Is Ordinary
Ordinary Time is the season of the hidden God. The God who walks dusty roads, eats with sinners, heals quietly, and calls us to daily conversion. It is the season where the Word becomes flesh not in Bethlehem, but in your home, your office, your street corner.
It is not a break from holiness. It is where holiness grows, often unseen.
So let us not rush through these green Sundays. Let us live them. Cherish them. And let the feasts along the way remind us: even in the most ordinary days, God is present, and grace is at work.
“The years that are lived in routine are not lesser years; they are the fabric of holiness.”
– Anonymous Benedictine
