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Advent
The liturgical year begins with
Evening Prayer I (traditionally called First Vespers) of the First
Sunday of Advent. The season of Advent continues through the four Sundays
of Advent and ends at Christmas Eve.
Advent is a time of preparation
for Christmas. It’s a time of fasting
and prayer, not of partying; it’s a time to lose weight,
not to gain weight. Even though Christ was actually born over 2000 years ago, during
Advent it is important to prepare our hearts to “receive” Jesus into the
world as a light to the nations, at a time when our calendar is reaching its darkest
period. Moreover, Advent has its deepest meaning as a time of looking forward to
Christ’s Second Coming in the last days.
Christmas
At Christmas 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. Christmas, therefore, 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.
The season of Christmas ends,
and Ordinary Time begins, on the Monday after the Solemnity of the Baptism
of the Lord, which signifies the purification of the world, through Christ
Himself.
Ordinary
Time
Ordinary Time derives its name
from the word ordinal, meaning number. This season, therefore,
is a season of weeks counted by numbers, from the First Week in Ordinary
Time through the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time. (Depending on the placement
of Lent and Advent in any calendar year, Ordinary Time may end before the
Thirty-Fourth Week.)
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, therefore comes 40 days (excluding Sundays)
before Easter.
Lent, in commemoration of
Christ’s fasting and prayer, is for all His faithful a time of
fasting and prayer.
Because of the austerity of Lent,
Alleluia is not said in prayer or sung in liturgy during this
season.
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)
and culminates with the Triduum. The Triduum (a Latin word
for a three-day period) begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on
the evening of the Thursday of Holy Week and includes Good Friday, and Holy
Saturday.
Easter is such a special
time—the celebration of our Lord’s resurrection, without which
there would be no Christianity—that it continues not just for the joyful
week following Easter (the Octave of Easter—each day celebrated
as a solemnity 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.
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