Adult Christian Education
The Symphony of the Christian Year
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The Symphony of the Christian Year
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The Sixth Season: Season after Pentecost (Ordinary Time)
After the Day of Pentecost, we return to Ordinary Time—the Season after Pentecost. It generally covers about half the year, taking us back to Advent, where the cycle begins again. In this lengthy season, we remember again the presence of God with us in the everyday; the breathing in and breathing out of each morning and evening.
This season’s focus urges us to consider our response to God’s call, and ponder what it means to be a community of God’s people following in the way of Jesus; partners in God’s liberating justice, extravagant compassion, and universal grace. The challenges this season brings are anything but ordinary.
We hear the voice of the gospel writer insisting that God’s good news in Jesus is about unlimited grace, extravagant compassion, radical liberation, and universal acceptance. Looking inward, we hear Jesus’ call to compassion and God’s call to be agents of transformation. Looking outward, we grow in discipleship, faithfully following the way of Jesus, which liberates people from onerous barriers that discriminate, divide, and burden. God’s presence, God’s reign, includes God’s compassionate and liberating justice. Toward this vision we are called to embrace Jesus’ radical teaching and example, and practice the presence of God in everyday living—in ordinary time.