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D’Almeida: Liturgical year begins first Sunday of Advent
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Christmas, Lent, Easter — and they coincide with the seasons of the year. The seasons are always the same, but they are also always different.”
The liturgical cycle divides the year into a series of seasons, each with their own mood, theological emphases, and modes of prayer, which are signified by different ways of decorating churches, colors of vestments for clergy, scriptur- al readings, themes for preaching and even different traditions and practices often observed personally or in the home.
The liturgical year, which begins on the first Sunday of Advent and carries through the following November, is the year that sets out to attune the life of the Christian to the life of Jesus, the Christ, according to Sister Joan Chittister, author of “The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life.”
What may at first seem to be simply an arbitrary arrangement of ancient holy days, or liturgical seasons, the liturgical year is an excursion into life from the Christian perspective, from the viewpoint of those who set out not only to follow Jesus, but to live and think as Jesus did, Chittister said.
In churches that follow the liturgical year, which include Episcopal, Lutheran, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox church- es, the scripture passages for each Sunday (and even each day of the year in some traditions) are specified in a lectionary.
Adaptations of the revised Roman Rite lectionary were adopted by Protestants, leading to the publication in 1994 of the Revised Common Lectionary for Sundays and major feasts, which is now used by many Protestant denom- inations, including also Methodists, Reformed, United, etc.
This has led to a greater awareness of the traditional Christian year among Protestants, especially among mainline denominations, according to the web- site.
The liturgical seasons in western Christianity are Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time (Time after Epiphany), Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time (Time after Pentecost). Some Protestant tra- ditions do not include Ordinary Time — every day falls into a denominated season.
“The calendar, like life, is spiral,” D’Almeida said, “and that spiral is fun- nel shaped. When you’re young, those years take a long time to go by, but as you get older, they go by faster and faster.”
That learning process within the litur-
gical calendar includes a reading cycle of three years, which means if a parish- ioner follows along with the daily read- ings that come from the liturgy, within three years they will have read nearly the entire Bible.
As we enter February, we are in Ordinary Time in the Catholic liturgical calendar, heading into the Lenten peri- od which begins following Mardi Gras season and Fat Tuesday, D’Almeida said.
“During Lent, we fast, and traditional- ly, Catholics gave up eating meat during that period. That is where Fat Tuesday came from — you would eat up all your meat, butter, sweets before Lent began on Ash Wednesday.”
There are also lunar aspects and ancient Hebrew calendar aspects to the modern liturgical calendar, as well as coordination with the Jewish holidays.
Advent, the season prior to Christmas, is a time to prepare for Christmas, and should be a somber season, D’Almeida said, a fact that has been lost in the commercialization of the holiday sea- son.
“Now we see Christmas lights and merchandise way earlier,” he said. “But Christmas is a birthday celebration, and you don’t celebrate a birthday months in advance. You might prepare for the celebration, but you celebrate the actual birth on the birthday.”
The liturgical calendar lifts up the various high holidays and brings the believer’s attention back to what is important, but for Catholics and other churches that follow the calendar, Jesus’ resurrection isn’t just a once-a-year celebration.
“Every Sunday is an Easter, and we can celebrate that rebirth,” D’Almeida said. “When we celebrate the Eucharist, we are mystically transported back to that first celebration.”
The liturgical calendar holds a myriad of spiritual treasures for those who seek a deeper understanding of their faith and their lives.
“Just as in our lives, the years are the same but different, so it is for the liturgical calendar, which is a circle,” D’Almeida said. “And as the years go by, we learn and remember things as we grow older.”
Chittister says the liturgical year “pro- poses to help us to year after year immerse ourselves into the sense and substance of the Christian life until, eventually, we become what we say we are followers of Jesus all the way to the heart of God. It is an adventure in human growth; it is an exercise in spir- itual ripening.”
Father Edward D’Ameida is the pastor of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church.
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Liturgical Year: The litgurical year begins on the first Sunday of Advent and follows through November It is the year that sets out to attune the life of the Christian to the life of Jesus.
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