Winter Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Ordinary Time Year B

Each year of the three-year liturgical cycle is dedicated to one of the Synoptic Gospels. In Year B, it is Mark. Most of Mark’s Gospel is read from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (Mark 1:14-20) through the discourse on the coming of the Son of Man (13:24-32).

Mark’s Gospel is noticeably shorter than Matthew’s or Luke’s. As such, it would have been difficult to find enough material for all the Sundays if the church had not used texts that are parallel to those of Year A (Matthew). As an example, the reading of Mark is interrupted at the multiplication of loaves, Jesus’ walking on the water, and the cures of wrought in Gennesaret (Mark 6:35-56) and for five Sundays-from the Seventeenth to the Twenty-first, when we read the Discourse on the Bread of Life from John’s Gospel (John 6:1-69). We resume the reading of Mark on the Twenty-second Sunday (Mark-7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23).

The first lessons (First Readings), chosen in correlation with the Gospel readings are taken from nineteen of the forty-eight books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Job, Proverbs, Wisdom, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Amos, and Jonah.

The second lessons (Second Readings) are taken from three of Paul’s letters: 1 Corinthians (Second to Sixth Sundays), 2 Corinthians (Seventh to Fourteenth Sundays), Ephesians (Fifteenth to Twenty-first Sundays), and Hebrews (Twenty-seventy to Thirty-third Sundays).

Every year on the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time we read a passage from John’s Gospel. In Year B, it is the call of the first disciples-John, Andrew, and his brother Simon Peter (John 1:35-42).

As we progress through Mark, we will see that his style and manner is both driven and dynamic; both are obvious in the organization of his subject matter. He shows Jesus always on the go, unceasingly moving elsewhere, and urging his disciples to follow him without ever stopping and...