Today we celebrate the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. You may be noticing for the first time this weekend the change in the Church’s art and environment to mark the transition from the Christmas season. You might also be asking yourself a question: What happened to the First Sunday in Ordinary Time?
The answer is there isn’t one. The Christmas Season typically concludes on a Sunday, with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. As Christmas and Mary, the Holy Mother of God both fell on Sundays this year, this meant the Baptism of the Lord was celebrated on Monday, and Ordinary Time began on Tuesday – Tuesday of the First Week of Ordinary Time.
So to make sense of why there isn’t a First Sunday, it might help to think of today as Sunday of the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Sunday of course being the first day of the week. It is from these numbered weeks that Ordinary Time gets its name (think ordinal numbers); not from any suggestion that it is not a special or interesting time.
Liturgy 