“Now, what the Liturgical Year does for the Church at large, it does also for the soul of each one of the Faithful that is careful to receive the gift of God. This succession of mystic seasons imparts to the Christian the elements of that supernatural life, without which every other life is but a sort of death, more or less disguised.” – Dom. Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical YearTHE CHURCH'S YEAR OF GRACE
The Liturgical Year––also known as the Ecclesiastical Year, the Church Year, the Christian Year, and the Year of Grace––consists of a fixed annual cycle of holy Seasons, Feastdays, sacred Readings and proper order of celebrating the Mysteries of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Angels, Martyrs and Saints, which the Church commemorates in the Divine Liturgy (the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass), the Divine Office (the Liturgy of the Hours), and other forms of public worship and private devotion, thus consecrating them in a particular way to God’s service.
The principal purpose of the Liturgical Year is the praise of God in and through Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the sanctifying of the Church’s Faithful––the People of God. The Faithful who, by the remembrance and contemplation of the life of the Savior with all its Divine Mysteries and Grace, share in Our Lord’s Incarnation, Paschal Sacrifice and Divine Life, are stimulated to a more intense love towards Jesus and a closer imitation of Him, and thus occupy themselves at such times with pious devotions and spiritual exercises in His honor and for their sanctification.
Holy Mother Church is conscious that She must celebrate the saving work of Her divine Spouse by devoutly recalling it on certain days throughout the course of the year. Every week, on the day which She has called the Lord's day, She keeps the memory of the Lord's resurrection, which She also celebrates once in the year, together with His blessed Passion, in the most solemn festival of Easter.
Within the cycle of a year, moreover, She unfolds the whole mystery of Christ, from the Incarnation and Birth until the Ascension, the day of Pentecost, and the expectation of blessed hope and of the coming of the Lord. Recalling thus the mysteries of redemption, the Church opens to the Faithful the riches of Her Lord's powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present for all time, and the Faithful are enabled to lay hold upon them and become filled with saving grace.
In celebrating this annual cycle of Christ's mysteries, holy Church honors with especial love the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, who is joined by an inseparable bond to the saving work of Her Son. In Her the Church holds up and admires the most excellent fruit of the redemption, and joyfully contemplates, as in a faultless image that which She herself desires and hopes wholly to be.
The Church has also included in the annual cycle days devoted to the memory of the Martyrs and the other Saints. Raised up to perfection by the manifold grace of God, and already in possession of eternal salvation, they sing God's perfect praise in heaven and offer prayers for us. By celebrating the passage of these Saints from earth to heaven the Church proclaims the Paschal Mystery achieved in the Saints who have suffered and been glorified with Christ; She proposes them to the faithful as examples drawing all to the Father through Christ, and through their merits She pleads for God's favors.
Finally, in the various seasons of the Liturgical Year and according to Her traditional discipline, the Church completes the formation of the Faithful by means of pious practices for soul and body, by instruction, prayer, and works of penance and of mercy.
THE DIVINE ELEMENTThe Old Covenant, The New Covenant, and the Holy Spirit––from these three Sources comes the divine element, which we call the Liturgy. The Liturgical Year contains two parts: the Proper of the Season (the Temporal Cycle) containing feasts in honor of our Divine Savior, and the Proper of the Saints (the Sanctoral Cycle) containing feasts to Our Lady and the Saints.
Annually, through the Proper of Seasons or Temporal Cycle, the Church immerses Herself in the whole mystery of Christ, from the incarnation and birth until the ascension, the day of Pentecost, and the expectation of blessed hope and of the coming of the Lord.” Further, in the Proper of Saints or Sanctoral Cycle, She honors with special love Mary, the Mother of God, and celebrates the feasts of Martyrs and Saints who are already in possession of eternal salvation.
THE PROPER OF SEASONS The Proper of Seasons is composed of two parts, according to the two principal Feastdays of the Church Year: Christmas and Easter. The series of Christmas or Christmas Cycle begins on the First Sunday of Advent and ends with the Feast of Christ the King (Saturday before Septuagesima in the Old Calendar). The series of Easter or Easter Cycle begins on Easter Sunday and ends on the feast of Pentecost (or in the Old calendar, from the Easter Vigil to the day before Trinity Sunday, the Sunday after Pentecost).
The terminology of "Ordinary Time", used in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Novus Ordo), replaces the older language of the Seasons of "Time After Epiphany" and "Septuagesima" (pre-Lenten season), still used in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. "Ordinary" comes from the same root as our word "ordinal", and in this sense means "the counted weeks". In Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, these are the common weeks that belong to the seasons also known as the season after Epiphany and the same season after Pentecost.
The Proper of the Season shows us God the Son, the Redeemer of the world, as the long-expected Messias for all people: Birth, Infancy, Hidden Life (1st Series); next Jesus’ Works, His Preaching, His Sufferings and Death, His Resurrection and Ascension; lastly, the Church, founded by Jesus and governed by the Holy Ghost. The Church continues the work of Jesus till the end of the world, in all countries and among all peoples (2nd Series).
THE PROPER OF SAINTS The Proper of Saints follows the ordinary calendar and celebrates the heroic Christians who founded and glorified Holy Mother Church by their courage and virtues. The date of their feastday for all the Saints, Our Blessed Lady and St. John the Baptist excepted, is the day of their death, i.e., of their solemn entrance into heaven or, according to the classic expression of the Church, of their birth into heaven.
The Saints have been traditionally honored in the Church and their authentic relics and images held in veneration. For the feasts of the Saints proclaim the wonderful works of Christ in His servants, and display to the Faithful fitting examples for their imitation. Lest the feasts of the Saints should take precedence over the feasts which commemorate the very Mysteries of salvation, many of them should be left to be celebrated by a particular Church or nation or family of religious; only those should be extended to the universal Church which commemorate saints who are truly of universal importance.
According to the sacred council Vatican II, the Liturgical Year was revised so that the traditional customs and discipline of the sacred seasons would be preserved or restored to suit the conditions of modern times; their specific character is to be retained, so that they duly nourish the piety of the faithful who celebrate the mysteries of Christian redemption, and above all the paschal mystery. The minds of the faithful must be directed primarily toward the feasts of the Lord whereby the mysteries of salvation are celebrated in the course of the year. Therefore, the Proper of the Time [Season] shall be given the preference that is its due over the feasts of the Saints, so that the entire cycle of the mysteries of salvation may be suitably recalled.
SUNDAY Sunday (the Lord’s Day of the New Testament) was instituted by Holy Church in remembrance of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles; these two important Mysteries took place on a Sunday. Sunday also commemorates the creation of the universe. Hence Sundays are dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Indeed we have to thank the Holy Trinity for the creation of the world and the salvation and sanctification of souls. Sunday is a holy day, a day dedicated to Our Lord, on which we rejoice in Him and thank Him for His glorious gifts and works. Therefore, let us take care that the precept of God and Holy Church to sanctify Sunday is strictly kept by us and by our subordinates.
By a tradition handed down from the Apostles, which took its origin from the very day of Christ's resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal Mystery every eighth day; with good reason this, then, bears the name of the Lord's Day or Sunday. For on this day Christ's faithful are bound to come together into one place so that; by hearing the word of God and taking part in the Eucharist, they may call to mind the Passion, the Resurrection and the Glorification of the Lord Jesus, and may thank God who "has begotten them again, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto a living hope" (1 Pet. 1:3). Hence the Lord's Day is the original feast day, and it should be proposed to the piety of the Faithful and taught to them so that it may become in fact a day of joy and of freedom from work. Other celebrations, unless they be truly of greatest importance, shall not have precedence over the Sunday which is the foundation and kernel of the whole Liturgical Year.
THE LITURGICAL SEASONS AND COLORS
(ORDINARY FORM OF THE ROMAN RITE):
• ADVENT [Purple, except for Rose (optional) on the Third Sunday of Advent ("Gaudete Sunday")
• CHRISTMAS [White or Gold]
• ORDINARY TIME I (Time after Epiphany) [Green, except for special colors on particular feasts or occasions, as follows: White for Solemnities of the Lord and the Saints; major local feasts; funeral liturgies (Black also allowed); and Red for feasts of the Apostles, Martyrs, or the Holy Spirit.]
• LENT [Purple, except Rose (optional) on the 4th Sunday of Lent ("Laetare Sunday"), and Red on Passion/Palm Sunday]
• EASTER [Easter Triduum: White or Gold on Holy Thursday and at the Easter Vigil, Red on Good Friday; and Easter Season: White or Gold, except for Red on Pentecost Sunday]
• ORDINARY TIME II (Time after Pentecost) [Same as Ordinary Time I]
