Society of Saint Gregory

Hello brethren,

After the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time we'll begin the season of Lent. Are there any Sundays in Ordinary Time that due to the Lent-Paschaltide season will never really occur?

In short, No.

This year we get up to Sunday 5 in OT before Ash Wednesday and resume towards the end of May with Sunday 9 in OT (yes, I know that OT restarts after Easter in Week 7 this year, but Pentecost and Trinity take precedence).

Next year, with Easter some 3 weeks later, we get to Sunday 8 and resume in Week 9 (Pentecost and Trinity meaning the first Sunday in OT is Sunday 11 in mid-June).

We lose weeks to make sure that Christ the King comes in the right place just before Advent (always useful), but which are dropped depends upon when Easter falls.

However, the last two or three times that we've been in Year A, we've only had up to about Sunday 5 in OT before Lent. You have to go back to 1993 to find us with a relatively late Easter. We got up to Sunday 7 in OT then... and next time around (in 2008) Easter is just about at its earliest (23 March) and we'll only squeeze in about 3 Sundays in OT in before Lent. (This is a particularly bad year, because unusually, my birthday falls in Lent - perhaps I'll have a "sack-cloth-and-ashes" party ). And, to cap it all, in 2011 (if we get that far) Easter is just about the latest it can come (24 April) so there'll be four/five extra Sundays in OT before Lent...

Back to your original question: eventually we get them all.

There is a page on the Liturgy Office Website which gives range of dates on which Sundays can occur.

Not that exciting, but sometimes useful!

Martin