INTRODUCTION
Christ’s saving work is celebrated in sacred memory by the Church
on fixed days throughout the year. Each week on the day called the Lord’s Day the
Church commemorates the Lord’s resurrection. Once in a year at Easter the
Church honors this resurrection and passion with the utmost solemnity. In fact
through the yearly cycle the Church unfolds the entire mystery of Christ and
keeps the anniversaries of the saints.[1] The Catholic liturgical year revolves around two feasts:
Christmas and Easter. They are high holy days because they commemorate the
birth and Resurrection of the Church’s founder, Jesus Christ.
In Church language, liturgy is the public worship given to God. The
anamnesis of the paschal mystery holds a primordial place in the church. The
saving event of Christ; his passion, death and resurrection are the basic and
central celebration in the Christian worship. This remembrance of the saving
event of Christ is celebrated in the church with a specific programming as
stipulated by the church. Thus this anamnestic celebration unfolds in the life
of the church over the course of days, weeks, months, and the entire year. Thus
the unfolding of the memorial event of the celebration of the paschal mystery
is ordered by the church systematically and the result of this ordering gave
birth to the liturgical year of the church. Thus, the liturgical year is the
commemorative celebration, over the course of a year, of the saving deeds which
God has accomplished in Jesus Christ.[2] As
such, the liturgical year is the annual cycle of seasons and feasts that
celebrates the Paschal mystery (Christ’s Life, Death, Resurrections and
Ascension). The unfolding of the entire Christian story makes its power available
once again in each retelling.[3]
However, the liturgical year in the church have the primary purpose
of creating a participative celebration and profound understanding of the
entire mystery of Jesus Christ; starting from his incarnation, birth, passion,
death, resurrection and ascension. Extending also to the Pentecost, and
continues in the expectation of his coming back in glory. Thus, the liturgical
year is not merely to mark the passage of time. Thus, Through the Liturgical
Calendar Christians express their faith in Christ their saviour. Each season of
the Liturgical year celebrates an important aspect of Christ’s life.
CONTENT
The
structure of the liturgical year contains two main elements which is the temporal
cycle which contains the larger seasons and major feasts of the Lord, such
as Christmas and Easter, and the sanctoral cycle which consist of the individual
feasts; largely those of Mary and the saint. In addition, parts of the temporal
cycle are tied to the lunar calendar and so are not observed the same date each
year.
Liturgical days: The smallest unit of the liturgical year is the liturgical day.
The days are made holy and sanctified through the Eucharistic celebration and
the liturgy of the hours. The liturgical days are divided into four degrees of
celebration: the solemnities, feasts, Obligatory memorials, and optional
memorials. However, the source and center of the liturgical year is the paschal
mystery which is celebrated everyday by the church with special importance and
priority to the first day of the week which is regarded as the day of the Lord,
the first of all holy days; Sunday. The first and original feast day to evolve
in the liturgical year when the paschal mystery was actualized in its fullness
is Sunday.[4]
The liturgical year contains Solemnities, feasts, memorials.
The
Christian celebration of the feasts as thankful commemorations of the saving
deeds of Jesus Christ is something that must be constantly repeated if the
church is to be faithful to its role of proclaiming salvation an making it
present or actualizing it. It was appropriate to take cosmically determined
cycle of a year and assign a fixed place in it to the individual commemorative
celebrations. To this effect, the liturgical year is the sum total of all the
liturgical feasts that have found their appointed place in the annual cycle.[5]
Holy Days Of Obligation:
Holy Days of Obligation are the days other than Sundays that we celebrate the
great things God has done for us. On Holy Days of Obligation, Catholics attend
Mass. The Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference has decided that the only
holydays of obligation to be observed in Australia are the solemnities of the
Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary.
Feast
Days: Within the organisation of the
Liturgical year the church celebrates and commemorates many special days known
as feast days. These relate to the lives
and death of the saints, the events in the life of Jesus and his mother Mary.
They are organised according to dates and the major festivals of the church
throughout the year.
SPIRITUALITY
The
theological and spiritual significance of the liturgical commemoration of the
paschal mystery is that these saving mysteries of Christ offer the faith
perspective through which believers deal
with, and give meaning to, the fundamental mysteries of human life and
salvation, particularly the vocation, suffering, and death. The actualization
of Christ’s paschal mystery in the liturgical assembly underscores intrinsic
ecclesiological aspects of the liturgical year. Times, feasts, and seasons for
celebration are observed so that through the liturgy the Church can be drawn
into Christ’s Paschal mystery.[6] It
provides particular occasions and whole seasons to ritualize the significant
movements in our Christian life. It is through this cyclical process that the
Church renews itself again and again.
The liturgical year is divided into two basic celebrations: Christ
our light which is celebrated or runs through Advent,
Christmas, Epiphany, and the Baptism of the Lord, and Christ our life
which runs through Lent, Easter, Ascension (40 days after Easter when Jesus
ascended into heaven, body and soul), and Pentecost (50 days after Easter when
the Holy Spirit came upon the 12 Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary). The
spirit of the liturgical year takes us from innocence to awareness, from
foolishness to wisdom, from weakness to strength, from pain to compassion, from
fear to faith, from defeat to victory, and from loneliness to friendship.
During the different seasons of the liturgical year, the Church, in
accord with traditional discipline, carries out the formation of the faithful
by means of devotional practices, both interior and exterior, instruction, and
works of penance and mercy.[7] In
the Liturgical Year every season or feast day has its own unique symbols and
colour which help us to explore and be involved in the mystery of the
incarnation, birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The liturgical
seasons provide us with a way of looking at the same mystery from different
aspects in order to learn something new each time we experience them. Year
after year it invites us to deepen our relationship with Jesus. The Scriptures
take us through the Liturgical Year on a three year cycle. The Church
designates readings to be used for each day on a three year cycle. We have
Liturgical Years A, B and C. We look at Jesus and our own lives through the
Gospel of Matthew (Cycle A), Mark (Cycle B) and Luke (Cycle C). The Gospel of
John is included at particular times in all three cycles. The liturgical year
is one way that we can interpret the Scriptures, enabling us to integrate our
life experience with the life of Jesus. It is how we express our identity as
Christians.[8]
Each
season in the Liturgical calendar has a particular theme. Each season has a
particular liturgical color. Each season concentrates on different parts of the
Bible. Each season has different religious practices, and symbols. There is a
spirituality attached to each season of the church as organized in the
liturgical calendar. This spirituality of each season according to the
liturgical year is thus: Advent: The
Experience of Desire, Christmas: The
Experience of Discovery, Lent: The
Experience of Rescue, Easter: The
Experience of Transformation, Ordinary Time: The Experience of Journey.
HISTORY OF
FORMULATION
We
regard the first Sunday of advent as the beginning of the liturgical year. This
is not always the case; the Christian countries in the middle ages were not in
agreement even on the beginning of the civil year. The very concept of the
liturgical year took time to appear. However, as the custom grew of placing the
text of the first Sunday of advent at the beginning of the liturgical books
(tenth-eleventh century), the idea gradually took hold that the annual cycle of
liturgical feasts began with the first Sunday of advent. The mystery of the
weekly Passover celebrated even during the apostolic times permeated the entire
annual cycle. An annual Passover soon followed and gradually developed into the
Easter cycle with its period of preparation. The annual commemoration of the
birth of Christ also developed into a cycle of feasts with its period of
preparation. Thus these two cycles became the pillar of the liturgical year.
Then the intervening thirty-three or thirty-four weeks are devoted to the
mystery of Christ in all its aspects and became known as the ordinary time.[9]
DIFFERENT
SEASONS
The
Holy mother Church is conscious that she must celebrate the saving work of her
divine spouse by devoutly recalling it.[10]
To this effect, the church has divided the year into seasons. When we think of
a year or a calendar, we think of it in the light of the different seasons, and
each season have its particular feel, its custom and activities that are
associated to it. We associate colours to these different seasons.[11] The
notion of time helps us celebrate life by marking and recalling the important
dates and events in our lives. Time has an important place in our spiritual
life: it helps us reconnect with God. The Liturgical year or Church calendar
helps us too to celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is
called the paschal mystery. The Paschal mystery is celebrated through specific
seasons. There are five specific seasons in the Church’s calendar: Advent,
Christmas, Ordinary Time, Lent/Triduum and Easter. Thus the Liturgical year is
a cycle of seasons repeating itself at the end of each cycle. The Church year
or cycle begins with Advent and ends with ordinary time. The liturgical year
beginning in advent must be for week prior to the solemnity of the nativity of
Jesus Christ on the 25th of December. In dividing the year into
seasons, and punctuating them with liturgical feasts, the liturgical aspects of
the seasons are expressed through the texts, music, structures of various
public worship services.
These
liturgical seasons determine what turn the celebration of the paschal mystery
is to take, determining what rites to follow and which rituals to carry out.
The liturgical year within each season provides what readings that are going to
be used in the liturgical services of the Eucharistic celebration. The
organization of the liturgical year articulates the solemnities, feasts and
commemorations celebrated during each season. The liturgical calendar
determines the colour of vestments to be used during liturgical celebrations.
To this effect the colour designation for each of the seasons are: purple for
Advent and Lent season, white for Christmas and Easter, and green for the
Ordinary time of the season.
ADVENT: like the Easter cycle, the Christmas season is preceded by a
period of preparation. The season of advent is the beginning of the liturgical
year. This is a time of anticipation, preparation, joy and hope. Within this
season, we strengthen our understanding of the mystery and joy we celebrate at
Christmas. It prepares us for the celebration of the memorial event of God
coming to live among us in the flesh; the incarnation. However, this
preparation is not geared only towards the immediate end which is Christmas,
but it is also a preparation for the coming of the Lord at the end of time.[12]
The word advent is from a Latin word ‘adventus’ which means
‘coming’. At first this meant the annual coming of the gods into their temple
or the coming of a ruler or king to a part of his kingdom. Such an appearance
of the gods or rulers was considered to be a time of grace and of largesse.
However, in the contest f the church, advent refers to the four week season
beginning with the ‘evening prayer one’ of the Sunday that is falls on or is
closest to 30th of November and ending with the ‘evening prayer one’
of Christmas. [13]
Considering what is celebrated in this season, what happens at this season
plays an important role in the life of Christians.
The
observance of advent dates back to 490. During this period the bishop of tours,
perpetuus encouraged his faithful to fast three times from November 11th
to the feast of nativity. The colour of Advent is violet or a shade of purple.
A widespread practice during Advent is the use of an Advent Wreath. A new
candle is lit on each of the four Sundays of Advent. However, it is important
to note that the candle lit on the third Sunday of Advent is rose or pink
symbolising joy. The candle lit on Christmas day is white. The lit candles are
to remind the Christian that Christ is the Light of the world. The advent
wreath contains three purple candles and one rose or pink candle. Advent
calendars are often used to focus on how we prepare for Christmas.[14]
CHRISTMAS: During the Christmas season we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ;
the first movement in the theological understanding of Christ’s redemptive
action. Christmas is the season in the liturgical year that remembers and
celebrates God with us: Emmanuel. It includes the Feast of the Holy Family, The
Feast of the Mother of God and concludes with the Epiphany. It is the season
where we focus our lives on reaching out to others in peace and goodwill. The
Church chooses white for the Feast of Christmas. White is the colour of purity and new
life. White is appropriate for a new
born infant. The Christmas season runs from evening prayer I of Christmas until
the Sunday after Epiphany or after 6 January, inclusive. On Christmas itself,
following an ancient tradition of Rome, three Masses may be celebrated: namely,
the Mass at Midnight, the Mass at Dawn, and the Mass during the Day.[15]
The
celebration of this season in the scriptures is found in the infancy narrative
as given by the gospel writers. Hence these narratives become the basis of the
sequence of the feasts of the Christmas season. The origin of this season is
based on two hypothesis, the first being the calculations and speculations of
some Jewish and early Christian traditions which thought the 25th of
March as the first day of creation and considered it as the date of Christ’s
conception. The second is based on the history of religion. The Christmas is
celebrated on the 25th of December because on the same date, the
Romans celebrate the feast of the invincible sun or unconquered sun. The
Christians gradually Christianized this feast.[16]
This feast dates back to the year 336. However,
No one knows the exact day of Jesus’ birth, but the Church picked
December 25 (close to the winter solstice and after the shortest day of the
year) to celebrate the birth of Jesus by using a calendar date that coincides
with the increase of daylight. The birthday of St. John the Baptist is
celebrated on June 24, shortly after the summer solstice and after the longest
day of the year, when daylight begins to decrease.[17]
The Christmas
season invites us to reconciliation, acts of kindness and peacemaking.
LENT: The historical development of this season started with the
tw0-days fast of mourning on good Friday and holy Saturday which was extended
in the 3rd century to the whole of the holy week.[18] This
season was instituted by the church for the preparation of the most important
feast of Christianity; Easter. This is a time period of forty days. The season
of Lent is a period of fasting, penitence, and self-denial traditionally
observed by Christians in preparation for Easter.[19] This
is a season within which the community of the faithful prepares and chastises
themselves in anticipation for the preparation of the paschal feast. This
season begins with the Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. Ash
Wednesday is a day the faithful as signed with ashes on their forehead
as a sign of mourning for sins and a reminder of the nothingness of man. From
history of religions we can affirm that ashes were accepted as a sign and
symbol of penance and of mourning. This practice is equally found in the Old
Testament. The season of Lent contain important period that is known as the
Holy week, within which is the Holy triduum. The holy triduum is the heart of
the Paschal feast, this period in particular presents to us an experience of
our Lord who suffered, died and resurrected. The triduum consist of the Holy
Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
The
varied aspect of Lent as we know it took shape in various centers of early
Christianity, because very early we recognized our human need for a season to
put ourselves in touch with these everyday realities. During the fourth century
in the west, several practices came together to form lent.[20]
Christians are asked in this season to do modest mortifications and acts of
penance during Lent for the purification of the body and soul. Lent is a time
of confession, fasting, abstinence, more prayer, more Bible and spiritual
reading, and more spiritual and corporal works of mercy. This is the season in
which the Church celebrates the passion and death of Christ. Thus in this
season the Church calls on us for repentance, conversion and penance. In this
season too, we are encouraged as Christians to engage ourselves in prayer,
fasting and almsgiving.
EASTER: this is the most important season in the life of the church. In
this season the church celebrates the triumph of Christ over death. The story of Christ’s death and resurrection is told, with
minor variations, in each of the four Gospels. The events are said to have
occurred nearly 2,000 years ago during the eight-day period now commemorated by
Holy Week and Easter Sunday. According to the Gospels, Christ was crucified on
the evening of Passover and on the third day rose from the dead. This season
starts on the eve of the Holy Saturday and ends with the feast of the
Pentecost. Within the Easter season are two very important feasts which are the feast of the Ascension
of the Lord and the feast of the Pentecost. The Pentecost
is the crowning of the work of redemption, fifty days after the resurrection of
Christ. This is a feast that commemorates the decent of the Holy Spirit on the
Apostles; the birthday of the church. It marks the beginning of the spread of
the good news beyond the boundaries of Galilee. The fifty days from Easter
Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or
better as one great Sunday.[21]
The perception of these feasts as elements of the Easter celebration goes back to
about the fourth century. This is the season the Church celebrate the
resurrection of the Lord; his triumph over the power of death. In this season
we are invited to a new life and witnessing to the resurrection of Christ, and
sharing the faith, the good news of the resurrection with others.
ORDINARY
TIME: This is the season in which we commemorate the public ministry of
Christ. The spirituality of this season is thus the discipleship; following
Jesus’ teaching in the routine of our everyday life. This season comprises of 33
or 34 weeks which falls into two consecutively numbered sections: the first
runs from the Monday after the feast of the baptism of the Lord to Ash
Wednesday, and the second from the Monday after Pentecost to advent.
CONCLUSION
When
we think about a year we often think of it in terms of its seasons. Each season
has its particular feel, its own customs and activities that we associate with
it. We adapt or change according to the season. Thus the unfolding of the
memorial event of the celebration of the paschal mystery is ordered by the
church systematically and the result of this ordering gave birth to the
liturgical year of the church. The liturgical year is the official calendar for
the Church
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
THOMAS J.
TALLEY, The Origins of the Liturgical Year,liturgical
press, Collegeville (MN), 1986.
2.
MICROSOFT® ENCARTA® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA:
Microsoft Corporation, 2008.
3.
ADOLF ADAM, Foundations of Liturgy: An Introduction
to its History and practice, liturgical
press, Collegeville (MN) 1992.
4.
RICHARD MCBRIEN Ed., Encyclopedia of Catholicism,
Harper Collins, San Francisco 1995.
5.
MICHAEL DOWNEY ED., The Disctionary of catholic
Spirituality, theological Publications, Bangalore 1995.
6.
Sourcebook for Sundays and seasons: An Almanac of
Parish Liturgy, Liturgy Training Publications, Chicago (IL) 1994.
7.
ORLANDO
O. ESPIN Ed., An Introduction Dictionary of
theology and Religious Studies, Liturgical Press, Collegeville Minnesota,
2007
[2] A. ADAM, Foundations of Liturgy: An
Introduction to its History and practice, liturgical press, Collegeville
(MN) 1992, 276.
[4] M. DOWNEY Ed.,
The Dictionary of catholic Spirituality, theological Publications,
Bangalore 1995, 607.
[5] A. ADAM, Foundations
of Liturgy: An Introduction to its History and practice, liturgical press,
Collegeville (MN) 1992, 276-277.
[6] M. DOWNEY Ed.,
The Dictionary of catholic Spirituality, theological Publications,
Bangalore 1995, 607.
[7] Second Vatican Council, Constitution on
the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, art. 102-105.
[8]
Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Teaching and celebrating the
liturgical year, www.cyberfaith.com/liturgical_year .cfm , 4,
retrieved 8/6/2019.
[9] A. ADAM, Foundations
of Liturgy: An Introduction to its History and practice, liturgical press,
Collegeville (MN) 1992, 282.
[10] M. DOWNEY Ed.,
The Dictionary of catholic Spirituality, theological Publications,
Bangalore 1995, 606.
[11] Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Teaching
and celebrating the liturgical year, www.cyberfaith.com/liturgical_year .cfm , 3,
retrieved 8/6/2019.
[13] O. ESPIN Ed., An
Introduction Dictionary of theology and Religious Studies, Liturgical
Press, Collegeville Minnesota, 2007, 15.
[14] John GALLEN SJ, Advent:
The Experience of Desire, catching fire website, 2010.
www.catchingfire.bcehosting.qld.edu.au/Home
[15]
https://www.archbalt.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/GeneralNormsLiturgicalYear.pdf
[16] I.
Anthony, the liturgical seasons in the church: unpublished lecture
(Ibadan 2017)
[17]
https://www.dummies.com/religion/christianity/catholicism/spiritual-seasons-of-the-catholic-church-calendar/
[18] Adolf Adam, Foundations of Liturgy: An
Introduction to its History and practice, liturgical press, Collegeville
(MN) 1992, 295.
[20] Sourcebook for Sundays and seasons: An
Almanac of Parish Liturgy, Liturgy Training Publications, Chicago (IL)
1994, 80.
[21] General
Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar, number 22.
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