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Introduction
Humans organise time by means of calendars and clocks, which try to record as accurately as possible the earth’s position in relation to the sun and moon.
The Liturgical Year uses a calendar that attempts to keep us aware of our position in relation to God in creation, to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and to the gifts and presence of the Holy Spirit.
Ordinary calendars mark time and space as an unfolding line that goes ever forward. There is no turning back. The Church’s Liturgical Calendar marks time and space as a wheel that brings us each year to the central events in the Christian story. The calendar uses a three-year cycle and divides the year into Seasons and Ordinary Time.
The Three-year Cycle
Because the story of Jesus is told in three gospels that follow the same shape (Matthew, Mark, Luke), each year in the cycle looks at the year through the eyes of these synoptic gospels. The Fourth Gospel is used throughout the three-year cycle to highlight special moments (see the article on The Lectionary).
Seasons
During the Liturgical Year, there are four special seasons: Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. Advent and Lent are preparatory seasons for Christmas and Easter.
Advent (‘arrival’ or ‘coming’) looks forward and back. As we prepare for Christmas, we also prepare for the coming in glory. For this reason, the four Sundays of Advent are often given to considering ‘the last things’: death, judgement, heaven and hell.
Christmas includes Epiphany. Indeed, Epiphany was originally the celebration of Christ’s birth. It was only later that the midwinter festival was Christianised to become Christmas. Epiphany means ‘appearing’. In this season we celebrate Christ’s appearing for all nations to bring new life and light out of darkness and death.
The English word Lent comes from the Old English ‘lencten’ (to lengthen) and describes the lengthening of the springtime days. As we prepare for Easter, we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow the Lord to Jerusalem (cf. Mark 8 34).
Easter marks the resurrection of Christ. It is the principal feast of the Christian Year and is no more a single day than Christmas is. Easter lasts until (and includes) Pentecost Sunday. The seven weeks are marked liturgically by the constant repetition of the word Alleluia! and the Easter cry: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Without Easter, there is no Christian faith and there is no Church.
Ordinary Time
Outside the Seasons, the Liturgical Year follows Ordinary Time. ‘Ordinary’ is not intended to mean ‘humdrum'. Strictly, Ordinary Time means Time of the ordo – a Latin word that describes regularity and order, and, in particular, the order of Sunday worship (see the articles on the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Table). In order to overcome the idea of ‘ordinary’ meaning ‘humdrum', we can better speak of Sundays in the Year of Matthew or Mark or Luke. In this way, we re-connect with the story of Jesus, week by week.
Another way of dealing with this idea of ordered-ness might be to divide Ordinary Time into additional “minor seasons”:
Pentecost (the gift and presence of the Spirit);
Transfiguration (transformation to Christ’s image);
Michaelmas (the struggle against all that resists and perverts what is good).
Further Thinking
What difference does a calendar make? Is life easier to organise with a diary or without one?
How does a calendar based on a wheel (rather than on a straight line) help us to keep in touch with God?
How can we observe and celebrate the seasons so that we become better witnesses in the world?
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