Liturgical Seasons : Advent | Christmas | Ordinary Time | Lent

A detail from a painting by Giovanni Cimabue, in the lower level of the Basilica at Assisi.

The National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi in San Francisco

Liturgical Seasons

Advent

Christmas

Ordinary Time

Lent

Easter

Advent

The liturgical year begins with Evening Prayer I of the First Sunday of Advent. The season of Advent continues through the four Sundays of Advent and ends at Christmas Eve.

Advent, therefore, is first of all a time of preparation for Christmas. Even though Christ was actually born over 2000 years ago, during Advent we prepare our hearts to “receive” Jesus into the world each year as a light to the nations, at a time when our calendar is reaching its darkest period. Advent is also a time of looking forward to Christ’s Second Coming in the last days.

The Lectionary for Mass, which cycles through three liturgical years (A, B, and C), changes to a new year at Advent.

The third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday. It takes its name from that Sunday’s traditional reading from the Epistle to the Philippians (now read only in Year C) which begins with Gaudete in Domino semper (“Rejoice in the Lord always”).

The liturgical color for Advent is violet, a deep bluish red (often mistakenly called “purple”) symbolizing mourning and penance. On Gaudete Sunday, however, rose-colored vestments may be used for this joyful day. Hence the one rose-colored candle among the other three violet candles of the Advent wreath.

Christmas

No one knows the actual date on which the Child Jesus was born. The date on which the Church observes his birth has more symbolic value than anything, coming five days (five being the number of the physical senses) after the winter solstice. Thus we celebrate the Word become flesh, coming to dwell among us as the light of the human race, just after the darkest point of the solar year. And so Christmas is a holy day second only to Easter in the Roman calendar.

The Octave of Christmas (octave means eight; hence the octave of Christmas lasts for eight days) begins with Christmas day and ends after the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.

Then the liturgical calendar focuses on the next immediate Sunday, counting off days before and after it: Epiphany. Epiphany commemorates the recognition of Jesus as the Son of God by the three Wise Men (and by extension, by all nations). Also, by tradition, the movable feasts of the current liturgical year are announced to the people on Epiphany (Ceremonial of Bishops, 240).

The season of Christmas ends on the Monday after the Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord, which signifies the purification of the world, through Christ himself.

Aside from the fact that Epiphany—which comes twelve days after Christmas—used to mark the end of the Christmas Season, the “Twelve Days of Christmas” are not really any part of Catholic liturgy. The song of that name actually derives from a time in England from 1558 to 1829 when it was illegal to be a Catholic, and so the song contains a hidden catechism of Catholic theology.

A Partridge in a Pear Tree: Jesus Christ

Two Turtle Doves: The Old and New Testaments

Three French Hens: The Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity)

Four Calling Birds: The Four Gospels / The Four Evangelists

Five Golden Rings: The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch”

Six Geese a-Laying: The Six Days of Creation

Seven Swans a-Swimming: The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit / The Seven Sacraments

Eight Maids a-Milking: The Eight Beatitudes

Nine Ladies Dancing: The Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit

Ten Lords a-Leaping: The Ten Commandments

Eleven Pipers Piping: The Eleven Faithful Apostles

Twelve Drummers Drumming: The Twelve Points of Doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed

—Fr. Hal Stockert
www.cin.org/twelvday.html

The liturgical color of the season of Christmas is white, symbolizing purity and joy.

Ordinary Time

Two periods in the Roman calendar are called Ordinary Time. The first period “begins on Monday after the Sunday following 6 January and continues until Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, inclusive ” (Ceremonial of Bishops [CB], 378). The second period begins “on Monday after Pentecost and ends before Evening Prayer I of the First Sunday of Advent” (CB, 378). This time is called “ordinary” because it is, well, ordinary; that is, not part of any special liturgical season. Of course, many feast days and solemnities occur in Ordinary Time: the Most Holy Trinity, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Saints Peter and Paul, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, All Saints, and All Souls, for example.

Weekdays during Ordinary Time on which no solemnities, feasts, or memorials of saints fall are called ferial days.

The liturgical color of Ordinary Time is green, symbolizing life and hope.

Lent

The liturgical season of Lent lasts for 40 weekdays in remembrance of the 40 days and nights that Christ spent fasting in the desert, tempted by Satan. The beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday, is therefore dependent on the date of Easter. (Go ahead, count for yourself. Counting Ash Wednesday as number one, and skipping all Sundays, you will end up on Holy Saturday as number 40.)

Lent is a time of penance, so that the faithful may share in the joys of Easter Sunday with purity of heart. The three traditional forms of penance, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, “express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1434). For those adults preparing for Baptism at the Easter Vigil, Lent focuses on inner and outer scrutiny. For the baptized, Lent calls us to contemplate the redemption wrought for our sake by Christ’s passion; and it admonishes us to contemplate the effort we put into accepting that redemption. In our Baptism, this redemption was planted in us when we promised to renounce sin and Satan and to live a chaste, holy life in devout service to Christ. Our salvation depends on our fulfilling those promises.

Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.
Therefore, put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.
So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of two minds. Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.
—James 1:14-15, 21; 4:7-9a, 10.

Because of the austerity of Lent, Alleluia is not said in prayer or sung in liturgy. The Gloria is not sung at Mass during Lent except for the few feasts and solemnities which may occur then. During Lent, “the altar is not to be decorated with flowers, and the use of musical instruments is allowed only to support the singing” (Ceremonial of Bishops, 252).

The liturgical color of Lent is violet, just as for Advent. Rose-colored vestments, however, may be used on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, called Laetare Sunday from the first words of that day’s Introit at Mass, Laetare Jerusalem (“Rejoice, O Jerusalem”).

Easter

The season of Easter begins at the Easter Vigil. But before that, the week previous to Easter is called Holy Week; it begins with Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday). On Passion Sunday the Church celebrates Christ’s riding into Jerusalem on a road strewn with cloaks and leafy branches (Mark 11:8; cf. Matthew 21:8, Luke 19:36, John 12:13), as he set about to accomplish his paschal mystery. The week culminates with the Triduum (a Latin word for a three-day period) that includes Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter itself.

The Triduum begins with the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. The next day, Good Friday, is the most somber day of the liturgical year, for it commemorates Christ buried in his tomb. The tabernacle is empty, the altar is bare, statues of saints are removed from the church (or veiled), and the holy water fonts are dry—and no Mass is celebrated. The Good Friday liturgy begins with the proclamation of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to John, it continues with the veneration of the Cross, and it concludes with a simple Communion service with the Eucharist reserved from Holy Thursday’s liturgy.

The Triduum intensifies at Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday, a liturgy that begins in total darkness until the Gloria returns with a thunderous roar of bells and Alleluias. Christ is risen!

Easter is such a special time that it continues not just for the eight days of the octave of Easter (all celebrated as solemnities of the Lord), but for 50 days (including Sundays and counting Easter Sunday itself) of the season of Easter. The season of Easter comes to a close, and Ordinary Time returns, on the Monday after Pentecost Sunday (from the Greek pentekoste, fiftieth day) on which we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-13).

The liturgical color of the season of Easter is white, symbolizing purity and joy. Red, the color of passion, is used on Passion (Palm) Sunday and Good Friday. Red, symbolizing fire, is also used on Pentecost Sunday.