THE LITURGICAL YEAR CELEBRATES THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST

Through preaching, the Church “announces” the “total mystery of Christ” (CD 12) and
“celebrates” it in the liturgy, making a sacred memory of it (SC 102). In this way, she makes
present every day the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3, 8 ff.; cf 1, 18; 2, 7): his saving
actions, in contact with which the faithful reach the grace of salvation. The liturgical year, which
has its “source” and its “culm” in the paschal mystery, is marked by five “periods” that have a
special relationship with the various moments of the mystery of Christ (SC 10; LG 11). In order
of succession they are these: Advent and Christmas; Lent and Easter; Ordinary time.
• Advent and Christmas Season
Advent is a time of preparation and has a double characteristic: it remembers the first coming of
the Son of God in humility and announces his second coming in glory. It is a time of active hope,
of longing, of prayer, of evangelization, of joy. Christmas is a time of joyful contemplation of the
mystery of the Incarnation and the first manifestations of the Son of God, who has come for our
salvation as “man among men.” During this time, Mary is celebrated in a particular way as
“Mother of God.”
• Lent and Easter Season
Lent is a time of preparation that leads to participating more intensely and gradually in the
paschal mystery. It accompanies the catechumens through the various steps of Christian
initiation, and the faithful through the living memory of baptism and penance. The culmination of
the liturgical year is Easter, from which the other periods draw their saving effectiveness, being
the fullness of the redemption of humanity and the perfect glorification of God: destruction of sin
and death and communication of resurrection and of life.
• Ordinary Time
In this long period, which runs through a first stage between Christmas until Lent and a broader
period between Pentecost and Advent, a global celebration of the mystery of Christ takes place,
reconsidered and deepened in some particular aspects. Sunday – “Day of the Lord” – is already
the “weekly Easter” and, therefore, a living graft into the central core of the mystery of Christ
throughout the year; but also the Weeks (33 or 34), through an intense and continuous journey
through the Bible, develop small cycles of deepening in the mystery of Christ, which are offered
to the meditation of the faithful in order to stimulate the action of the Church in the world.
THE COLORS OF THE ORNAMENTS
The changing colors that we contemplate in the priest's vestments, on the altar and on the
ambo are messages that we must learn to read; They express the meaning of the celebration
and prepare for the encounter between our inner world and God. In a way, it is as if our soul
were covered in these colors.

1. The color White is a luminous color that above all leads to thinking about
cleanliness, purity. It is the symbol of innocence; Just think about children's dresses for baptism,
first communion dresses, and wives' dresses. But white also indicates celebration, joy. In the
Church, this color is linked to the Resurrection, it indicates the victory of light over darkness.
During the liturgical year, the Church uses white especially at Christmas, Easter, and the feasts
of Christ the King and the Virgin Mary (for the latter the color blue is also used).

2. The color Red immediately makes you think of blood and fire. This color
symbolizes the passion and sacrifice of Christ, the martyrdom of the faithful and the Holy Spirit.
It is also considered a royal symbol; Think of the soldiers throwing a red cloak over Jesus' back
and calling him King (cf. Jn 19, 2). According to some passages in the Bible, the sins of men are
scarlet red. In the Church, red ornaments are used especially on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, at
Pentecost, on the Exaltation of the Cross and on the feasts of the martyrs and the apostles.

3. The color Green leads us to think of meadows. It is the color of serenity, of hope.
This color is mainly typical of the celebrations of the Liturgical Year during ordinary time (the 34
weeks located between the strong times of Christmas and Easter).

4 . The color Purple is the color of penance, pain or conversion, and is mainly used
in Advent and Lent. Purple ornaments are also used for funeral services.
 5. The color Pink is very particular and is used only on two occasions: Gaudete
Sunday (in Advent) and Laetare Sunday (in Lent). It indicates a pause of rest in a time of
penance.
It is easy, therefore, to identify the feelings that you want to express and the liturgical time in
which we find ourselves, depending on the color used in the Church.
 Definition strong times Other holidays Historical process Scheme
Definition
The Liturgy is the worship offered to God, through Christ and his Church. The celebration of
the Christian mystery is carried out over time, each year the main events of God's intervention
and his salvation in the history of man are commemorated.

God has entered human history to carry out a plan of salvation that culminates in the Death
and Resurrection of Christ; God --Jesus Christ-- has entered into man's time and sanctified it.
Man, therefore, celebrates every year the events of salvation that Jesus Christ brought.

The Liturgical Year is the celebration - actualization of the mystery of Christ in Time; that is,
the celebration and updating of the most important stages of the development of God's plan
of salvation for man. It is a path of faith that progressively brings us into the mystery of
salvation; that we Christians follow to realize in ourselves this divine plan of love that aims for
all men to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). Those who have
studied salvation history will understand the importance of the Liturgical Year in their journey
towards the Father.

The axis on which the Liturgical Year moves is Easter. Therefore, the main purpose is to
gradually accompany man towards an authentic conformation of Christ, dead and
resurrected.

The Liturgical Year cannot be a calendar of dates that are remembered with a certain
solemnity, but rather a journey of faith; path that must be followed as if in a "spiral", growing in
faith each year, with each event celebrated; growing in love for God and brothers; growing to
follow and resemble Christ more and more until he becomes configured with Him, -the perfect
man-.
Strong times:

This journey of faith, which progressively accompanies the Christian towards the authentic
experience of Christ, has several stages:

1. A preparation in Advent , as a time to awaken in faith in view of the encounter with

the Lord.
2. An acceptance of Jesus the Savior at Christmas and greater knowledge of Him,
through study and meditation.
3. A personal purification during Lent to reach the Easter experience of the Dead and
Risen Christ.

The apex of everything is Easter , with the great triduum of the Easter Vigil, which brings
man into the main mystery of our Redemption: the Resurrection of Jesus.

The celebration of Easter lasts fifty days, preceded by forty days of preparation - Lent -
ending with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the feast of Pentecost .

These are the so-called "strong times" of the Liturgical Year. In addition, there are another
thirty-four weeks that constitute the so-called Ordinary or Common Time . During this time, no
specific aspect of the mystery of Christ is celebrated, but an attempt is made to deepen the
meaning of the whole of Salvation History, especially through a continuous and fundamentally
chronological contemplation of the biblical message lived in its progressive development.

Other holidays
In the Liturgical Year there are other celebrations much better known to the people and that
have their importance although in a secondary way with respect to the previous ones. They
are festivals in which the Virgin Mary and some saints are celebrated; They are closely
related to the paschal mystery: the Virgin Mary is the most splendid fruit of the Redemption,
and of the other saints the Church proclaims the paschal mystery fulfilled in them.

They are not festivals alien to Christ or that distort the religiosity of the people, but rather they
are helpful to understand and live the paschal mystery of Christ, through which salvation has
come to us.

Christ, when founding the Church, gave it to the apostles and their descendants to take care
of its growth, giving them the same powers that the Father had given him: "As the Father has
sent me, so I send you" (John 20,21). For this reason, the liturgical celebrations that we now
have in the course of a year are not the immediate institution of Christ, but rather the fruit of
his action through the Church.

From the beginning the Church began to honor the memory of Christians who had offered
their lives to witness their fidelity to Christ. Theologically the cult of martyrs is related to the
Paschal Mystery of Christ. Saint Jerome, in the year 404, wrote: " We honor the relics of the
martyrs to worship Him whose martyrs they are."

Historical process
There was a historical process for the Liturgical Year to be formed as we now know it.

When the Apostles began their preaching, they did so around the Resurrection of the Lord –
Easter – this historic and transcendent event: "Christ, who was handed over for our sins, and
was raised for our justification" (Rom 4:25); It was what the apostles announced to the
people, along with the teachings and life of Jesus. Easter for Christians is a holiday not of one
day of the week, but of all of life.

According to historical data, the celebration of the "Lord's Supper", which is the actualization
of the Sacrifice of Christ, was daily for the first Christians (Cf. Acts 2,42-46; 5,42), although it
was also weekly, which does not coincide with the Jewish Sabbath, but with the first day of
the week, the day of the Resurrection of the Lord (Cf. 1Cor 16,2; Acts 20:7).

What was previously called "First Day of the Week", was later called "Lord's Day" or
"Sunday" (Cf. Rev 1,10) In other languages it is called "Day of the Sun", this is also
historical, since it is found in the year 165, which was called that because in Creation, with the
Sun the darkness dissipates, just as with With the Resurrection of Jesus the darkness of
death is dispelled.

The third stage consists of the annual celebration of Easter. The first annual Passover was
celebrated in Jerusalem around the year 135. This solemn celebration began in Rome some
thirty years later.

At the end of the 3rd century, Easter Day was extended for a period of fifty days. As such a
great festival required preparation, just as Sunday had a preparation in Vespers (vigil), so the
great celebration of Easter had its time of preparation in Lent.

Announcing and exalting the Resurrection of the Lord led the first Christians to a better
understanding of the mystery of salvation. They understood that to reach Easter, it was
necessary a whole life that began in time. So it began to be commemorated around Easter,
the festival of Christmas – the birth of Jesus.

The celebrations of the Christmas and Epiphany holidays had their origins in the 4th century.
And, as happened for Easter, the need was felt for a time of preparation that was called
Advent. This period before the Christmas festival appears in Rome in the middle of the 6th
century. Later this time of preparation was outlined as a time of waiting , as a solemn
celebration of Christian hope open towards the last Advent of the Lord, at the end of time.

Outline of the Liturgical Year

Advent 4 sundays
Beginning of the Liturgical Year
December 25 – January 6 Christmas 2 sundays
Sunday following January 6 Epiphany 1 sunday
Next Monday Ordinary Time 5 to 9 weeks
Ash Wednesday Lent 40 days
Holy Thursday to Holy Saturday Easter Vigil 3 days
Center of the Liturgical Year EASTER 50 days
Easter Sunday
next sunday Pentecost 1 week
next sunday Ordinary Time 21 to 25 weeks
Last Ordinary Sunday Christ the King End of the Liturgical Year

The liturgical year, origin and meaning

The celebration of the Liturgical Year is the
experience of the life of Christ, all its stages from
his birth to his death.

Origin of the Liturgical Year

Christian festivals have emerged gradually over the centuries.

These are born from a desire of the Catholic Church to delve
deeper into the various moments in the life of Christ. It began
with the festival of Sunday and Easter, then Pentecost joined in
and, over time, others. The missionaries, when evangelizing, introduced Christian festivals,
trying to give a different meaning to the pagan festivals of the town in which they found
themselves. We can compare it to a person who receives a gift with a beautiful wrapper, which
he keeps and uses later to wrap and give another gift. The Church took the external forms of
some pagan festivals and gave them a new content, the true Christian meaning.
The first party that was celebrated was on Sunday. Later, with Easter as the only annual festival,
it was decided to celebrate the birth of Christ on the winter solstice, a day on which many pagan
towns celebrated the rebirth of the sun. Instead of celebrating the “Sun of Justice”, the Creator
God is celebrated. Thus, little by little, the Liturgical Year was shaped with a series of solemn,
joyful, reflection or penitence celebrations.

The liturgy is the way we celebrate our faith. Not only do we have faith and live according to it,
but we celebrate it with actions of worship in which we manifest, communally and publicly, our
adoration of Jesus Christ, present with us in the Church. By living the liturgy, we are enriched by
the gifts that come from God's redemptive action.

The liturgy is the set of sensitive, effective signs of sanctification and worship of the Church. It
is the set of public prayer of the Church and sacramental celebration.

Liturgy comes from the Greek leitourgia , meaning public service, generally offered by an
individual to the community.
The Second Vatican Council in the “Constitution on the Liturgy” tells us:
“The liturgy is the exercise of the priesthood of Jesus Christ. In it, the sensible signs mean and
each one in its own way, carries out the sanctification of man and thus the mystical Body of
Jesus Christ, that is, the Head and its members, exercises complete public worship."

The liturgy is the sacred action par excellence, no prayer or human action can equal it because it
is the work of Christ and his entire Church and not of a person or a group. It is the source from
which all the strength of the Church flows. It is the primary and necessary source from which all
the faithful must drink the Christian spirit. The liturgy invites us to make a life-transforming
commitment, to realize the Kingdom of God. The Church is sanctified through it and there must
be full, conscious and active participation in the liturgy by the faithful.

Each liturgical celebration has a triple meaning:

1. Remember: Every important event must be remembered. For example, the anniversary of the
birth of Christ, his passion and death, etc.

2. Presence: It is Christ who is present in liturgical celebrations, granting spiritual graces to all
those who participate in them, in accordance with the ultimate purpose of the Church, which is to
save all men of all times.

3. Wait: Every liturgical celebration is a prophetic announcement of the hope of the

establishment of the Kingdom of Christ on earth and of reaching the heavenly homeland one day.

The Liturgical Year is the development of the mysteries of the life, death and resurrection of
Christ and the celebrations of the saints that the Church proposes to us throughout the year. It is
living and not just remembering the history of salvation. This is done through parties and
celebrations. The most important stages of the plan of salvation are celebrated and updated. It is
a path of faith that takes us in and invites us to delve deeper into the mystery of salvation. A path
of faith to travel and live the divine love that leads us to salvation.

The Liturgical Times

The liturgical year is made up of different liturgical times. These are times in which the Church
invites us to reflect and live in accordance with some of the mysteries of the life of Christ. It
begins with Advent, then comes Christmas, Epiphany, First Ordinary Time, Lent, Holy Week,
Easter, Easter Time, Pentecost, Second Ordinary Time and ends with the feast of Christ the
King.

In each liturgical season, the priest dresses in a chasuble of different colors:

White means joy and purity. It is used at Christmas and Easter time

Green means hope. Used in ordinary time

Purple means mourning and penitence. It is used in Advent, Lent and Holy Week

Red means the fire of the Holy Spirit and martyrdom. It is used on the feasts of the holy martyrs
and on Pentecost.

Advent is a time of waiting for the birth of God in the world. It is remembering Christ who was
born in Bethlehem and who will come again as King at the end of time. It is a time of change and
prayer to commit ourselves to Christ and wait for him with joy. It is preparing the way towards
Christmas. This liturgical time consists of the four weeks preceding December 25, covering the
four Sundays of Advent.

At the end of Advent, the Christmas Season begins, which goes from Christmas or Birth, which
is celebrated on December 25 and reminds us that God came to this world to save us.

The Epiphany is celebrated every January 6 and reminds us of the public manifestation of God
to all men. This concludes the Christmas season.

The First Ordinary Time is that which runs from the feast of the Epiphany to the beginning of
Lent . In the First and Second Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year, no specific aspect of the
mystery of Christ is celebrated. In both times, the different historical moments of the life of
Christ are deepened to delve into the history of Salvation.

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and lasts for the forty days prior to the Easter Triduum. It is
time of preparation for Easter or Passage of the Lord. It is a time of prayer, penance and fasting.
It is time for heart conversion.

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday . In the Easter Triduum,
his Passion, Death and Resurrection are remembered and lived together with Christ.

Easter Sunday is the greatest festival of the Church, in which the Resurrection of Jesus is
celebrated. It is the definitive triumph of the Lord over death and the first fruit of our
resurrection.

Easter Time is a time of peace, joy and hope. It lasts fifty days, from Easter Sunday to
Pentecost , which is the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. This
holiday is about opening the heart to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

After Pentecost follows the Second Ordinary Time of the liturgical year, which ends with the
feast of Christ the King .

The axis of the liturgical year is Easter. The strong times are Advent and Lent.
During Advent, Christmas and Epiphany the joyful expectation of the Messiah in the Incarnation
is relived. There is a preparation for the coming of the Lord at the end of time: “He came, he
comes and he will return.”
In Lent, Israel's march through the desert and Jesus' ascent to Jerusalem are relived. The mystery
of the Death and Resurrection of Christ is lived: “Conversion and meditation on the word of
God.”

During the Easter Season, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost are experienced in 50 days. The great
Sunday is celebrated: “He has died, he lives, Come Lord Jesus!

In ordinary times, the Church continues to build the Kingdom of Christ moved by the Spirit and
nourished by the Word: “The Spirit makes the Church the body of Christ, today.”

Changes in dates in some festivals of the liturgical year.

The liturgical year is set based on the lunar cycle, that is, it does not strictly adhere to the
calendar year. The most important holiday for Catholics, Holy Week, coincides with the festival
of "Jewish Passover" or Pesaj, which takes place when there is a full moon. It is believed that the
night the Jewish people fled from Egypt, there was a full moon which allowed them to do
without lamps so that the Pharaoh's soldiers would not discover them.
The Church sets its liturgical Year from the full moon that occurs between the month of March
or April. Therefore, when Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples, respecting the
Jewish tradition of celebrating the Passover - the passage of the chosen people through the Red
Sea towards the promised land - it must have been a night of the full moon. Fact that is repeated
every Holy Thursday .

The Church marks that date as the center of the liturgical year and the other holidays that are
related to this date change the day of celebration by one or two weeks.
The holidays that change year after year are the following:

· Ash Wednesday
· Easter
· The Ascension of the Lord
· Pentecost
· Festival of Christ the King

Now, there are liturgical festivals that never change their dates, such as:

· Christmas
· Epiphany
· Candelaria
· Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
· The Assumption of the Virgin
· All Saints' Day

YEAR OF THE LORD

CHURCH ROAD
“The celebration of the liturgical year has a peculiar sacramental efficacy, since Christ himself is
the one who in his mysteries, or in the memories of the Saints, especially of his Mother,
continues the work of his immense mercy, in such a way that Christians They not only
commemorate and meditate on the mysteries of the Redemption, but they are in contact and
communion with them, and through them they have life.” (Ceremonial of the Bishops, no. 231).

What is the Liturgical Year?

The Liturgical Year (or also known as the Liturgical Calendar) is

a cycle based on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
our Lord. By repeating itself every year, it helps us to be in
union with Him and grow in our faith. In this cycle we also honor
Mary, our mother, and all the saints. The Liturgical Year is
divided into five main liturgical seasons.

Within the Liturgical Year, we celebrate “The Lord's Day” every

Sunday, which is a “primary holiday” and “the foundation and
core of the entire liturgical year”:

“The Church, by an apostolic tradition, which originates from the

same day of the Resurrection of Christ, celebrates the paschal mystery every eight days, on the
day that is rightly called "Lord's day" or Sunday. On this day the faithful must gather so that,
listening to the word of God and participating in the Eucharist, they remember the Passion, the
Resurrection and the glory of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God, who "caused them to be
reborn to the living hope." through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Pet., 1,3).
For this reason, Sunday is the primary holiday, which must be presented and instilled in the
piety of the faithful, so that it is also a day of joy and liberation from work. "Do not put other
solemnities before it, unless they are truly of utmost importance, since Sunday is the foundation
and nucleus of the entire liturgical year."
Attending Mass on Sunday is certainly a duty, but how different it would be if we understood
and remembered that every Sunday we celebrate the Lord's Easter! Hopefully it is love and
gratitude that moves us to attend Mass and not feeling “obliged” to do our duty.

These are some definitions about the Liturgical Year:

“The Liturgical Year is the development of the various aspects of the one paschal mystery. This
applies very particularly to the cycle of festivals around the Mystery of the Incarnation
(Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany) which commemorate the beginning of our salvation and
communicate to us the first fruits of the mystery of Easter.”

“Holy Mother Church considers it her duty to celebrate with a sacred remembrance on certain
days throughout the year the saving work of her divine Spouse. Every week, on the day he
called "the Lord's day," he commemorates his Resurrection, which he also celebrates once a
year, along with his holy Passion, in the highest solemnity of Easter. Furthermore, in the circle
of the year the entire mystery of Christ unfolds, from the Incarnation and Christmas to the
Ascension, Pentecost and the expectation of the blessed hope and coming of the Lord.”

“Annual cyclical period during which the Church celebrates the history of salvation
accomplished in and by Christ and which it distributes in festivals and minor cycles.”

“The liturgical year – is the continued and progressive celebration of the entire plan of salvation,
so that it is at the same time evolution of the admirable works of God, filial worship of the Father
through the Son in the Spirit, instruction and sanctification of the Church; plot that offers the
broadest theme to all forms of the liturgical year, especially in the strong times of Advent and
Christmas, Lent and Easter, oriented to the celebration of the manifestation of the manifestation
of the Lord and his paschal mystery - Il rinovamento della Catechesi, 116, Rome 1070”

Something interesting about the Liturgical Year is that it is never the same because it is built on
the previous one in a new and renewed way. As our dear friend, Father Luis René Lozano, told
us:
“The liturgical year is a cycle, but a spiral cycle, you either go up or down, you cannot stay
stationary. This year's Advent, 2011, will never be the same as that of 2010, we are in another
spiritual state, either closer to holiness or lower. It is like a gigantic screw of a heavenly drill with
which we penetrate the mystery of Christ throughout the year.”

On one occasion I saw (Xhonané) a spiral Liturgical Year Calendar that caught my attention,
because I did not understand why they had done it that way. Now I see that the Liturgical Year
is a dynamic calendar, not a static one, because each year it is enriched and God continues to
speak to each of us in a personal and unique way.

What are the liturgical times?

1 - Advent (purple color) – Time to prepare for the Christmas party.

2 - Christmas (white) – Time to celebrate the birth of Jesus and prepare for his second
coming.

3 - Ordinary Time (green color) – Time to celebrate our faith in daily life in relationship with
Jesus Christ.

4 - Lent (purple color) – Time to prepare for the Easter Triduum and the Easter season.

- - Easter Triduum (red and white colors) – Time to meditate on the passion of Jesus and victory
over death – this time is between the 4th and 5th; They are the three days with their vespers
that precede and include Easter Sunday.

5 - Easter (white color) - Time to celebrate the glorious Resurrection of Jesus.

We will describe each one in more detail later.

What is the meaning of liturgical colors?

Our Church currently uses different colors for each of the liturgical times and celebrations, but it
has not always been like this. Pope Innocent II (1130 – 1143), at the beginning of the 13th
century, was the one who “added symbolic meaning” to this existing practice but which at that
time had no “own meaning.” Finally, Pope Pius V (1566 – 1572), granted it “a specific temporal
use”, formalizing the use of six colors:

White – “for the time of Easter and Christmas, for the feasts of the Lord, of Mary, of the angels
and of the non-martyr saints”, also for the impartation of the sacrament of Baptism, Communion,
Marriage and Priestly Orders. . It symbolizes “light, the divine, joy, purity, glory, grace.”

Red – “for Palm Sunday, the feasts of the Holy Spirit, the apostles (except St. John on
December 27),… the martyrs and evangelists,” Good Friday, and the feast of the Holy Cross. It
symbolizes “martyrdom, love.”

Green – “for the [ordinary] time during the year (periods after Epiphany and Pentecost).” It
symbolizes “hope.”

Purple – “for Lent, Advent, penitential days and [for] the dead,” for the sacrament of Penance
and Anointing of the Sick. It symbolizes “penance.”

Black – “for funerals and masses for the dead.” It symbolizes “mourning.” This can be replaced
with purple.

Rosa – “for some Sundays (Gaudete – third of Advent; Laetare – fourth of Lent) and some
special feasts of the Virgin Mary.”

Other colors that can be used are gold, “which replaces the others, [with] the exception of
violet,” although it is most commonly used instead of white; and the color blue “which was used
as a liturgical color on the Epiphany of the 12th and 13th centuries” and that in 1864, “the Holy
See granted the churches of Spain the privilege of using it on the Feast of the Immaculate
Conception.”

The use of these colors is a magnificent visual aid that invites us to enter the mystery that is
being celebrated. We can also use these colors at home to help our children “live” our faith as a
family. Later we will explain how this can be done through a Liturgical Year Calendar at home
and the altar or prayer table at home.

Other Important Holidays

1.- The Holy Family – Sunday within the octave of Christmas (or, failing that, December 30)
2.- Holy Mary Mother of God – January 1 – Octave of the Nativity – Solemnity
3.- San José – March 19
4.- The Sacred Heart of Jesus - Friday after the Second Sunday after Pentecost
5.- Immaculate Heart of Mary – Saturday following the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
6.- Divine Mercy
7.- The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary – December 8 – Solemnity