All right! Baptism of the Lord, and then let’s plunge into Ordinary Time.
Are you wondering how this works? How we have the Baptism of the Lord and then the next Sunday is the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time?
It’s a wording issue. Yes, the Baptism of the Lord, which is generally celebrated on the Sunday after January 6 (exceptions here), closes the Christmas season. As this piece says, the Vespers on the Baptism of the Lord ends with, “The end of Christmastide.”
And then the first week of Ordinary Time begins. So while we say, “The Second Sunday of Ordinary Time,” it’s more accurate to say “The Sunday of the Second Week of Ordinary Time” (as it is phrased with the other days of the week.) That would clear up the confusion.
Which, of course, says nothing about all of the other ways we configure the Christmas season: Octave, Twelve Days of Christmas…Forty days until Candlemas….
All right. Let’s talk Baptism of the Lord.
At the Jordan Jesus reveals himself with an extraordinary humility, reminiscent of the poverty and simplicity of the Child laid in the manger, and anticipates the sentiments with which, at the end of his days on earth, he will come to the point of washing the feet of the disciples and suffering the terrible humiliation of the Cross. The Son of God, the One who is without sin, puts himself among sinners, demonstrates God’s closeness to the process of the human being’s conversion. Jesus takes upon his shoulders the burden of sin of the whole of humanity, he begins his mission by putting himself in our place, in the place of sinners, in the perspective of the Cross.
From The Loyola Kids book of Bible Stories:
First and last page of the entry on Jesus’ Baptism – to give you a sense of what the entries are like.
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And then, related – from the Loyola Kids Book of Catholic Signs and Symbols – the entry on holy water in the context of the church.
The entries are arranged with a simple explanation on the left, with the illustration, and then a more in-depth treatment for older children on the right.
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