LITURGICAL CYCLE

Advent
 4 Sundays before Christmas
 Advent is a season of prayerful preparation remembering the coming of Jesus in the flesh and preparing for his
coming in glory. Violet vestments are used for the seasonal masses.

Christmas Season –
 from December 25 to January 13
 Christmas commemorates the manifestations of his messiahship. White vestments are used for the seasonal
masses.

Ordinary Season
 Green vestments are used for ordinary season.

Lent
 begins on Ash Wednesday.
 Lent is a 40-day period of preparation for Easter. It is a period of penance and spiritual renewal in anticipation
of the greatest feast of the year, which is Easter. Violet vestments are used for the seasonal mass. Lent ends
with Holy week…Holy Thursday and Holy Friday.

Easter Season
 Easter Season begins at Holy Saturday evening with the great Easter vigil and lasts for fifty days, ending with the
feast of Pentecost. This season commemorates the risen Lord and the founding of the Church. White vestments
are used for the seasonal masses, except for Pentecost, when red is used to commemorate the tongues of fire
by which the Holy Spirit manifested Himself.

LITURGICAL CHART

Day or  
Date(s)  Theme(s) Meaning Of Colors
Season Color
From four Sundays Purple (or sometimes blue) for
before the Waiting expectation; hope; longing; solemnity and royalty; pink for  
Advent
Christmas Day to joy joy on third Sunday Purple
Christmas Eve  
Twelve days from
Birth of Jesus; Word Incarnate; White and gold for
Christmas December 25 to White
Celebration; Joy; Light; Salvation Celebration, light purity
January 5
The “epiphany” (manifestation) of
 
Jesus as the Son of God; the visit of White and gold for joy and
Epiphany   White
the Magi; joy. Sometimes the celebration
January 6
baptism of Jesus is celebrated here.
January 7 to the day “Ordinary time” describes the
Ordinary Green for life and growth
before Ash Christian year when there is no Green
time  
Wednesday unusual focus

 
Black or gray for sinfulness
The Wednesday Penitence; mere humanness; sin; our
Ash Wed. and death; purple for Purple
seven weeks before need for savior; mortality
penitence and solemnity
Easter

 
 
Liturgical Year Chart
     
Day or Season Meaning Of Colors
Date(s) Theme(s) Color
The 40 weekdays
Penitence; solemness; spiritual
before Easter; not Purple for penitence and
Lent focus; self-denial; preparation Purple
counting Sundays, solemnity
for Easter.
includes Holy Week
The week before Easter
(including Palm Preparation for Easter;
Red for passion and the
Holy Week Sunday, Maundy remembering the last week of Red
blood of Christ
Thursday, and Good Jesus’ life; the death of Jesus
Friday
Red for Holy Week;
The Sunday of the Holy Jesus’ triumphal entry into
Palm Sunday sometimes gold or white Red
Week Jerusalem; Jesus as king
or purple (for royalty)
Remembering the “new
commandment” to love one
The Thursday before Red for passion and
Maundy Thursday another (mandatum novum) in Red
Easter Christ’s sacrifice
Latin, from which we get
“Maundy”)
The Friday before the
Remembering the death of Black for death, sorrow
Easter
   Jesus; sorrow; confession;   Purple
 
anticipation  
 
Remembering Christ’s
Easter Sunday Ascension Sunday resurrection and its White for Easter White
implications.
The outpouring of the Holy Red (for power)
The seventh Sunday
Pentecost Spirit; the birth of the church;   Red
after Easter
God’s power  
Green (for life and
Growth in Christ; can include
growth)
special celebration such as  
From Pentecost to the  
Ordinary Time Trinity Sunday, Christ the King  
day before Advent  
Sunday, Reformation Sunday, Green
 
All Saints Day etc.
 
White or gold
Recognizing the presence and
The Sunday after  
Trinity Sunday power and majesty of the White
Pentecost  
Triune God
 
White or gold
The last Sunday before Honoring Christ as the King of
Christ the King   White
Advent the present and the future
 
 
Why does the liturgy repeat itself every year?
Just as we celebrate a birthday or a wedding anniversary each year, so too the →LITURGY celebrates over the course of
the year the most important events in Christian salvation history. With one important difference, however: All time is
God’s time. “Memories” of Jesus’ life and teaching are simultaneously encounters with the living God.

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once said, “Either we are contemporaries of Jesus, or we can have nothing at
all to do with it.” Following the Church year in faith makes us indeed contemporaries of Jesus. Not because we can
imagine ourselves so precisely as part of his time and his life, but rather because he comes into my time and my life, if I
make room for him in this way, with his healing and forgiving presence, with the explosive force of his Resurrection.

The lectionary, the Mass readings from the Holy Bible, follows a Sunday cycle and a weekday cycle. The Liturgical
calendar follows a three year cycle, each year being represented by the letters A, B, and C.

During the year A cycle, the Gospel of Matthew is the primary Gospel that is used for the readings. In year B, Mark is the
primary Gospel. In year C Luke is the primary Gospel. The Gospel of John is proclaimed on particular Sundays in each of
the years.

On Weekdays in Ordinary time, there is a two year cycle numbered I and II. Year I is read in Odd number years such as
2011, 2013, 2015. Year II is read in even years such as 2010, 2012, 2014.

It should be noted that if a person attends the Holy Mass everyday for 3 years, having been present for all the readings
of the three cycles, most of the Holy Bible will have been read to him during that time frame.

What is the liturgical year (the Church year)?

The liturgical year, or the Church year, superimposes the mysteries of the life of Christ—from his Incarnation to his
second coming in glory—on the normal course of the year. The liturgical year begins with Advent, the time of waiting for
the Lord, and has its first high point in the Christmas season and its second, even greater climax in the celebration of the
redemptive suffering, death, and Resurrection of Christ at Easter. The Easter season ends with the feast of Pentecost,
the descent of the Holy Spirit on the → CHURCH. The liturgical year is repeatedly interrupted by feasts of Mary and the
saints, in which the Church praises God’s grace, which has led mankind to salvation.

How important is Sunday?

Sunday is the center of Christian time, for on Sunday we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection, and every Sunday is a
miniature Easter.

If Sunday is disregarded or abolished, only workdays are left in the week. Man, who was created for joy, degenerates
into a workhorse and a mindless consumer. We must learn on earth how to celebrate properly, or else we will not know
what to do in heaven. Heaven is an endless Sunday.