As we begin the observance of a new liturgical year in the west on Saturday evening, this post serves to generally explain how the liturgical calendar of the Personal Ordinariates is constructed and how it works with the liturgy. Confusion arises because of the tendency for the Ordinariate liturgy to typically be offered with reverence and varying amounts of ritualism, as well as some elements in its Order of Mass which often causes it to be compared to the Tridentine Mass. These similarities can sometimes lead to the thought that the Ordinariate calendar is also similar to the Tridentine calendar, causing confusion at the times it departs from the Tridentine calendar, such as the placement of the feast of Christ the King taking place on the Sunday before Advent, rather than the last Sunday of October. The fact is that the calendar is somewhat of a mixture, but it is not arbitrary, and does have an organized system to it. Here I will lay out the manner in which it is constructed.
General Roman Calendar is the basis
The starting point for understanding this is that the Ordinariate calendar is based on the General Roman Calendar, that is, the calendar of the Novus Ordo liturgy, the same calendar that is officially used in relation to canon law, such as with fasting and abstinence requirements and holy days of obligation. The rubrics which govern precedence of which liturgical feasts are celebrated and when votive Masses are permitted are nearly identical to the Novus Ordo rubrics as well. The Ordinariate liturgy begins with this calendar and then makes several modifications to some organization systems and some additions.
Time during the year
One of the biggest differences in the organization of the calendars, and one that Ordinariate attendees (correctly) claim, is that we do not have a season known as “Ordinary Time” as the Novus Ordo does. This is correct as far as the name of it goes, as well as the way that this time is organized.
Ordinary Time in the Novus Ordo consists of thirty-four weeks which are organized into two sections. The week with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord is the first week in Ordinary Time, and this numbers the weeks of Ordinary Time up until Ash Wednesday. Then, after Pentecost, rather than continuing where the system was interrupted by Lent, it is determined in a reverse fashion: the week before Advent is always the thirty-fourth week of Ordinary Time, and then the calendar numbers the weeks backward until it runs into Pentecost.
The time known as “Ordinary Time” in the Novus Ordo is organized into three sections in the Ordinariate calendar: Time after Epiphany, Pre-Lent, and Time after Trinity. Time after Epiphany begins with the Sunday after January 6th being either the Baptism of the Lord or the feast of the Epiphany, which coincides with the First Sunday after Epiphany. Even though Epiphany may fall on January 7th or 8th some years in jurisdictions where it’s transferred, the Sundays after Epiphany count after the date January 6th and not the local feast of Epiphany; this keeps the Sundays organized and on the same dates throughout all the Ordinariates. These weeks after Epiphany continue in sequence until they are interrupted by Pre-Lent and do they do not resume at any point after Pentecost or before Advent.
The next section in “Ordinary Time” is Pre-Lent. This is an influence from the more traditional Catholic and Anglican calendars and not from the Novus Ordo calendar. It is a season of preparation for Lent, when the Gloria and Alleluia are not sung, the ministers vest in violet, but solo instrumental music is permitted. It is determined by counting back from Ash Wednesday to the previous Sunday, then counting back two more Sundays. This creates three Sundays in about two and a half weeks of Pre-Lent. The Sundays are called, from first to last, Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sunday, named for numbers, being an approximate number of days before Easter (70, 60, and 50).
The final section of “Ordinary Time” is the Time after Trinity. This begins counting the Sunday after Trinity Sunday as simply “The First Sunday after Trinity” and continues numbering each Sunday and week counting from there. Even if the feast of Corpus Christi is observed on that Sunday, it is still the First Week after Trinity for counting purposes. This time after Trinity keeps counting until it reaches Advent and simply cuts off at Advent.
The most important thing to note is that these counting systems are only used for the Missal’s propers and the Divine Office lectionary. However, the Mass readings match the Novus Ordo Ordinary Time readings. This creates a disconnect in Pre-Lent and Time after Trinity when the Novus Ordo readings are counted from a different reference point than the Mass propers; thus, the Mass propers have no intentional connection with the Mass readings.
Feasts of saints and other observances
The main special liturgical seasons outside of the “Ordinary Time” equivalents are constructed essentially the same as both the Tridentine liturgy and the Novus Ordo liturgy, with little addition. The next major component of the calendar is the various liturgical feasts and saints. Observances of saints usually fall on specific dates and the entirety of the saints on the universal General Roman Calendar is observed in the Ordinariates. Some feasts, mostly not of saints (but some saints), are observed on specific days of the week, such as the feast of Christ the King, and are observed the same in the Ordinariates as in the Novus Ordo.
The transferring of holy days of obligation still follows Church laws and each ordinary determines when these will be kept. So, if an Ordinariate keeps a holy day on the original day, it is not a feature of being privileged because it is an Ordinariate, but because the ordinary has determined that.
The Divine Worship Missal has also added saints that are not on the General Roman Calendar, typically because of their significance to the English patrimony, such as S. John Henry Newman, S. Edward the Confessor, or Our Lady of Walsingham.
Pope Francis’ new feast of Mary, Mother of the Church is moved from the day after Pentecost Sunday to the Saturday after the Sixth Sunday of Easter, because of the Ordinariates’ Pentecost Octave (next section). This makes the observance of the novel feast obligatory at some point.
Additional observances borrowed from tradition
There are three main additions to the Ordinariate calendar that have not been mentioned yet that either do not exist in the Novus Ordo or are not made explicit. It is likely the addition of these features that lead some to believe that the Ordinariate calendar is the same as the Tridentine liturgy, though as we have seen, it’s mainly modern with only specific traditional features added.
The first is the observance of the Octave of Pentecost. This octave simply does not exist in the Novus Ordo calendar. It is a borrowing from the Tridentine calendar, where it is one of the last three octaves (with Christmas and Easter) that managed to survive the pre-conciliar simplification of the Tridentine liturgy. The Ordinariate provides Missal propers for these days but no readings proper to each. The American Ordinariate’s ordo (at least) permits either the Pentecost Day readings or the readings of the corresponding weekday in Ordinary Time, modeled after the Novus Ordo which permits the repetition of the Pentecost readings on the Monday and Tuesday after Pentecost, extending this pattern to the rest of the week.
The second is the Ember days. These are quarterly days of traditional fasting and prayer for clergy and vocations and are mentioned in the Novus Ordo but not often practiced. They are on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the particular week. The Ordinariate Missal provides propers but no special readings, so for the Ember days in September after Holy Cross, the readings will come from the corresponding weekdays in Ordinary Time. The September Ember days are always from the Wednesday after Holy Cross Day; this may vary from the 1962 calendar as the method for calculating the Ember days was not always based on Holy Cross. The Advent Ember days in the Ordinariate Missal have been moved from the traditional days after S. Lucy’s feast (December 13th) to the first week of Advent. The reason for this is said to be to let the last days of Advent from December 17th to 24th be left alone to retain their special nature; whether the choice was an effective change is debatable.
The last of these additional categories are the Rogation days, four days during Eastertide for praying for good weather and harvest. Like the Ember days, these are not omitted from the Novus Ordo but are not often practiced either. The Ordinariate Missal provides no additional Mass on the major rogation day, April 25th, but just provides the Mass of S. Mark, and so this day is not specifically distinguished as a rogation day in the Ordinariates. The minor rogation days are the three days before Ascension Day and are given their own Mass in the Ordinariate Missal, but still not their own readings, and must take from the readings of the day.
Conclusion
While this is certainly not an extensive study of the calendar and liturgical books of the Ordinariates, I hope this provides a sufficient explanation of the main features of the Ordinariate calendar and its relevance to the Tridentine and Novus Ordo calendars. Feel free to provide any comments with questions on this or additional commentary I may not have covered. Have a blessed and holy Advent!
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