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SPECIAL TOPIC FOR ADVENT
NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THE LITURGICAL YEAR

Reference: Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1163-1171

 Nature and Purpose of the Liturgical Year

What is the Liturgical Year? The entire earthly life Sequence of Seasons
of Jesus had redemptive value for of the Temporal Cycle
all ages

Purpose of the Different The various mysteries

Liturgical Seasons of Jesus’ life bring
special graces & await a response

Different liturgical colors for the Seasons: Essence of the Liturgical Year:
to help us live the spirit of each Season a Celebration of the Mystery of Christ within Time
 What is the
Liturgical Year?
Definition
the yearly cycle of liturgical celebrations
to honor the different mysteries of Christ’s life
as the fount of all salvific grace,
and the memory of the Blessed Virgin & the saints as the
mature fruits of Jesus’ redemptive work

◦ two cycles or calendars of the Liturgical Year:

◦ Calendar of the Season (or Temporal Cycle)

mysteries of Jesus’ life, with Sunday
as the primordial feast day, and the Paschal Triduum
as the high point of the entire liturgical year.

◦ Calendar of the Saints (or Sanctoral Cycle)

the Blessed Virgin and the saints
 The entire earthly life
of Jesus had redemptive
value for all ages
Jesus redeemed us throughout the entire span of His earthly life, from His
incarnation, to His birth and 30 years of hidden life,
all the way to its consummation with His Death and Resurrection

◦ With His Resurrection and Ascension, the Sacred Humanity

of Jesus now shares in God’s eternity: a “life-giving Spirit”
cf. 1 Cor 15:45
◦ the Paschal Mystery transcends space and time,
and is now contemporaneous with all men
who lived before and after Christ.

◦ It is made visibly present down the centuries

through the Church’s liturgy, principally the celebration
of the sacraments with Mass at the center.
◦ the various prayers at Mass (e.g., Entrance Antiphon, Opening Prayers, Prayer Over the
Gifts, the Preface, Concluding Prayer) draw their theme
from the particular Season of the liturgical calendar, and make us aware
of His constant presence in our life.
 Sequence of Seasons of the Temporal Cycle

Advent season Christmas season Lenten season Paschal Triduum Ordinary Time
• center of the entire liturgical year

• preparation for the coming
of Jesus –not only of His first coming, but
also His second
and final coming
at the end of time
• Begins the Sunday after Nov. 30th; ends
sunset of December 24th
• celebrates Christ’s Birth,
Epiphany, and ends
the Sunday after Epiphany
(celebration of the Lord’s Baptism)
• commemorates Jesus’ 40 days
of prayer and fasting in the desert before
beginning His public ministry, which
culminated
with His Passion and Death.
• Begins Ash Wednesday,
ends before Evening Mass
of the Lord’s Supper.
• starts with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper
and lasts till Easter Sunday,
and is centered on the Paschal Vigil held on
the eve of Easter.
• lasts 50 days from Easter
to Pentecost. A period
of thanksgiving, joy, and faith
in the Risen Christ
and in His victory over sin,
death, and the devil.
• Celebrated as one “great Sunday”
(S. Athanasius).
• observed in between the seasons
of Christmas and Lent,
and those of Easter and Advent
• Consists of 34 weeks.
• The Church celebrates not a particular
mystery of Jesus’ earthly life,
but rather the mystery of the Redemption in
its totality,
which should permeate
all aspects of ordinary life.

the Temporal Cycle is built around Christmas and Easter,

each preceded by a preparatory season (Advent and Lent)
which, in turn, is also preceded by a period of Ordinary Time.
 Christ the King 4 weeks

second most ancient

Liturgical Feast

7 or 8 weeks

Ash Wednesday

26 or 27 weeks

5 weeks

most ancient
Liturgical Feast

7 weeks

Pentecost
Purpose of the Different
Liturgical Seasons
By celebrating Holy Mass with prayers
drawn from the gradual unfolding
of the various mysteries
of Jesus’ earthly life, the Church:

praises God for the work of our Redemption

(the Mass is the greatest sacrifice of adoration,
thanksgiving, atonement and impetration)

affirms Her faith that the Risen Christ

is contemporaneous with every man,
never ceasing to offer him His salvific graces

teaches us that we are called,

not only to meditate on,
but to live the various mysteries of His earthly life,
made sensibly present to us in the liturgical celebrations, especially at Mass.

every time the Holy Mass is celebrated,

“the work of our Redemption is accomplished”
CCC 1364
 The various mysteries of Jesus’ life
bring special graces and await a response.
Advent
• Jesus draws near to us
everyday and desires
that we welcome His call.
• Rev 3:19-20: “Behold,
I stand at the door
and knock; if any one hears
my voice and opens the door,
I will come into him and eat
with him…”
• Attentive listening
& docility to the inspirations
of the Holy Spirit
Nativity Lent The Paschal Triduum Ordinary Time
• Jesus desires to make our • Jesus constantly calls us to a and Easter Season • Jesus is present
heart His dwelling place life of inner conversion • Jesus invites us to be united to His and seeks to encounter us in
Passion and Death in order to share in the ordinary events
His Resurrection
• Lk 17:21: “The kingdom of • Mk 1:14: “Repent & circumstances of our day.
God is within you.” & believe in the Gospel.” • Jn 12:24: “Unless a grain of wheat
falls into the earth and dies, it remains • The 30 years of hidden life of
alone; but if it dies, it bears much Jesus in Bethlehem, Egypt and
• Constant presence • fostering the spirit fruit. He who loves his life loses it,
and he who hates his life in this world Nazareth.
of God and interior of prayer, penance, will keep it for eternal life.”
recollection. Christian and service to neighbor.
• Mt 6:3: “Isn’t this the
poverty and humility. • daily acts of self-denial in legitimate
things for the love of God in order to
carpenter, the son of Mary, and
seek God’s glory alone in the use and the brother of James, Joseph,
Judas and Simon, and are not
enjoyment of created goods.
his sisters
here with us?”
“Either we learn to find
our Lord in ordinary, everyday life, or
else
we shall never find Him.

Our age needs to give back to matter

and to the most trivial occurrences
their noble and original meaning.

It needs to restore them

to the service of the Kingdom of God.”
St. Josemaria
 Different liturgical colors for the Seasons: to
help us live the spirit of each Season

White Red Green Purple Black

symbol of purity, symbolizes the fire symbolizes the freshness and symbolizes penance, symbolizes
holiness and joy of God’s love vigor of youth, atonement, mourning
as well as blood and hence, our hope for spiritual vigilance
eternal life and preparedness.

Used for the seasons Used in the feast
of Christmas and Easter, of Pentecost when the Holy
as well as for the feasts Spirit descended on the
of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin and Apostles in tongues of fire.
of the saints It is also used on Passion
who were not martyrs. (or Palm) Sunday,
on Good Friday,
and on feasts of martyrs.
Used for Sundays
and weekdays
of Ordinary Time.
Used for Lent and Advent Used for Masses
of the Dead
(alternatively, purple or white
may also be used)
 Essence of the Liturgical Year:
a Celebration of the Mystery
of Christ within Time
“When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself.”
Jn 12:32

◦ By His Passion and Death, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
as its fruit, Jesus has transformed all earthly realities,
including space and time, into a means to enter
into covenant communion with man.

◦ Hence, the value of blessing our homes, offices, vehicles;

using sacred images to remind us of God’s presence;
living the plan of life, etc.
History is not a mere
succession of centuries,
years or days,
but the time span
of a presence
that gives full meaning
and opens it
to sound hope

Benedict XVI
SPECIAL TOPIC FOR ADVENT
NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THE LITURGICAL YEAR

Reference: Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1163-1171