Our Sacred Roots: The Priesthood of All Believers

T he M anifestation of C hrist

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• Transfiguration Sunday : This feast day “recalls the Transfiguration of Christ on the last Sunday of Epiphany (which is the Sunday before Ash Wednesday , the beginning of our Lenten journey)” [Robert Webber]. The glory of Christ manifest in this world – to us and through us. The first period of Ordinary Time (meaning ordinal [ numbered ] time , not plain or common time ) begins in many Western liturgical settings on the day after the feast of the Baptism of the Lord (which normally falls on the Sunday after Epiphany). This period continues to the Season of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday . While there is some varia tion among traditions as to when the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated, this first cycle of Ordinary Time begins in many Western churches on the day after the Epiphany of the Lord . In a spiritual sense, the Church Year’s weeks are “numbered,” counted in anticipation (in the first cycle) toward our journey to the Cross, and in the second period of Ordinary Time, from the coming of the Holy Spirit to the return of Christ in glory.