Religious Education

             THE LITURGICAL CALENDAR

After our recent summer break, it’s always nice to start afresh with renewed hope and enthusiasm.  Seeing familiar faces, welcoming old and new friends and implementing fresh ideas.  But before long we’re back into a routine and for me at least, it feels like I’m chasing my tail trying to fit everything in and catch up where I’m falling behind.  I’m particularly fond of saying “I hit the ground running”!  This is when I most heavily rely on a calendar, for much more than marking the passing of time.  I need to see the overall picture in the form of a yearly calendar and then I break things down into the 4 school terms and then into weeks and individual days.  This allows me to focus on the important things and to plan ahead as needed.  And I’m not alone in this.  

Within our Church family, we have a busy calendar of events – a celebration of a series of religious feasts and seasons.  This is how the ordinary time of a twelve month calendar is made sacred.  It is a notion inherited long ago from our Jewish ancestors of the Old Testament.  In the Book of Leviticus, Chapter 23, we find the Jewish calendar which speaks of a week of seven days, with six for work and the seventh day, the Sabbath, for rest and for “sacred assembly.”  This Sabbath Day belongs to the Lord.  Leviticus then continues to speak of the dates of Passover, Yom Kippur, and other special feast days.

As Catholics, we too have a liturgical calendar, which has evolved during the history of the Church.  The purpose of such a calendar was to trace the mystery of salvation and the course of salvation history.  Again, the idea is to sanctify time.

Just as the cyclical seasons of Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring punctuate our yearlong calendar so too does our Liturgical Calendar follow a series of seasons.  Even our youngest students begin to associate different seasons within the church with specific colours and practices. Through simple song lyrics they learn to identify significant events in the life of Jesus as celebrated in the Church. 

“Purple and green, red and white – are the colours of the year,

Purple and green, red and white, remind us of the Light.

Purple’s for Preparation, White is for Celebration, 

Green is for the Growing Time,  Red is for Pentecost and Martyrs”.

They even predict what colour chasuble (the outermost vestment), the priest will  wear during mass depending on the season or feast being celebrated. The different colours are drawn from creation to remind those participating in a liturgy of the different blessings of God.   

Prayer tables in each classroom display cloths in the liturgical colours to remind students of the current season just as the altar cloth and tabernacle covering in our church does.  

The calendar begins with Advent, which focuses on the preparation for the birth of the Messiah.  Christmas Season then follows, beginning with the birth of the our Lord, celebrates the Epiphany, and concludes with the Baptism of the Lord.  The Feast of Baptism of the Lord also commences the season of Ordinary Time, which traces the public ministry of Jesus.  Lent interrupts Ordinary Time, and lasts for 40 days (not including Sundays) and prepares us for Easter.  Easter Season begins with the Easter Vigil Mass, is followed by the 40 days leading to the Ascension and then concludes 10 days later with Pentecost.  After Pentecost, Ordinary Time resumes and concludes with the Solemnity of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Then a new year begins aagin with the first Sunday of Advent. 

Within a few weeks a change will happen as we leave Ordinary Time and head into Lent, the season in which we prepare ourselves to celebrate the greatest season of them all, Easter.  Of couse the shops would have us think that Easter is much closer at hand and that it ends with discounted chocolate eggs the day after Easter Sunday.  Our Liturgical Calendar helps us to see the real picture and teaches us how to love God and holy life by focusing on each day and each season and discovering something different, glorious and joyful. 

Kathryn Ady

Religious Education Leader