The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - How the Liturgical Year Works

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

Why does the Catholic Church have a liturgical year? Jeff explores the significance of the liturgical calendar and explains how it helps us conform our lives to Christ's life. From the start of Advent to the Feast of Christ the King, Jeff breaks down the seasons, colors, feasts, and solemnities that shape the liturgical year. He also shares practical ways to integrate the liturgical cycle with our personal schedules to live more fully united to Christ. Snippet from the Show "The liturgical year of the Church conforms our life to the life of Christ so that we can better realize and experience the saving work of Jesus, our Lord." Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together and living as activated disciples. This is show 406, sharing calendars, the liturgical year. Welcome to the show. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving last week. If you're listening to this, out of order. We just got done with Thanksgiving in America. And we're beginning now. We're beginning the first week of the liturgical calendar. I thought it would be a good chance to review with you just a little bit of how this liturgical year goes, how the calendar goes, and then talk a little bit about sharing

calendars. In other words, matching our calendar up with God's calendar, which is the liturgical calendar. Say, if you want the show notes for today, all you got to do is text. my name, Jeff Kavens, and text it to the number 3-3-7-7. We'll get you those. And today, looking over my notes here, oh, yeah, we got some notes for you. You aren't going to get these driving. I can tell you that right now, or running, or doing your stationary bike.

Now, you're going to have to get them from you. So if you want to go ahead and share that, just type my name, Jeff Kavins, one word, send it to 3-3-777. We'll get it to you. You know, when I was growing up in the Catholic Church, I had zero, zero idea that we were following a calendar. Oh, I knew when spring came. I knew about Easter. Sure, I knew about Christmas. You know, I could see the signs of the times, and I know we were in the Christmas season and so forth.

But I really didn't have any idea that there was a calendar that we were actually following. But now that's not because of the church. That's just the way I was formed. I was a little bit slower than most, but I noticed that there are a lot of people today that aren't aware of the calendar or where we're at in the calendar, so I thought it'd take some time to go through that with you. You know, when a person becomes a Christian, they are incorporated at that point into the life of the Trinity, and that's such a blessing that we get to participate in the grace of God

and the life of the Trinity on a day-to-day basis, but deeply lodged within the heart of every single believer, you and I, there is a hope. And that hope is the beatific vision, which is to enjoy God forever and ever face to face in heaven. But it begins here on earth, day to day, day to day here on earth, leads to face to face in heaven on into eternity. So with the beatific vision as our goal, all of life on earth must be a careful and purposefully lived life aimed at perfect conformity to Jesus Christ. that's the goal of life. So life in Christ is not primarily a singular relationship with God, but it really is a community experience where we are immersed in a way of life.

And the Catholic Church is more than a community. It's a family in which we learn and we live and we celebrate together and we heal together as well. And the church in our wisdom, and this is one of the things I think is so brilliant. brilliant in the church is that the church in her wisdom has orchestrated this way of life every day, every week, every month, and every year in such a way that the faithful will become more perfectly formed to Jesus Christ. So you could say that in short, the liturgical year of the church conforms our life to the life of Christ so that we can better realize and experience the

saving work of Jesus our Lord. So the life of Jesus is broken down into seasons and days and feasts, all kinds of wonderful things that we need to pay attention to if we really want to conform our lives to Jesus. So utilizing the calendar is really a way to help us to conform our lives to Jesus. That's beautiful. And so throughout all the Hebrew scriptures, you go back into the Old Testament, you'll see that the people of God, they followed a calendar. They followed feast days, special days, special holidays. Why? Well, to remember the works of God and conform their lives to His will. So each and every day of your life and my life, the believer's life, should be lived with an understanding that God keeps a calendar. And that's something that I've

lost touch with from time to time. I'll be honest with you. But I need to remind myself every day, every week, every month, God has a calendar. And if we keep his calendar, we stand a better chance of not wasting time and energy in the course of living, energy that we're not going to get back, time that we're not going to get back, but focus our lives in such a way that it's going to pay dividends. And we're going to be with God forever and ever. So from the beginning of salvation history all the way to the end, we see that God is a god of order and nothing speaks order like a calendar my wife reminds me all the time did you put it on the calendar i think so well in the old testament the feasts of israel were center stage

and many christians don't realize that the seven feasts which god commanded in leviticus 23 they're still observed by our jewish neighbors the feasts are given to israel and they have a a multifaceted significance. And first, there was the seasonal aspect of each of the feasts, like a holiday. And it was involving agricultural activities in the land. And then the feasts were to be a memorial of God's dealings with the people of Israel. So they got a twofer on the calendar in the Old Testament. It was centered around the agricultural activities.

And second, it pointed to God's dealings with Israel. they entered into those feasts. So a study of the feasts of Israel will not only bring a greater understanding of the Jewish roots of our faith, it will teach the Christian much about God's plan of redemption throughout the ages. So what about this liturgical calendar? Shall we look at it here together? We have the liturgical calendar and the liturgist in a parish is the one who keeps the calendar. Think of it like a Google calendar that is going to be shared with every.

everybody within the kingdom of God. The liturgical calendar begins with Advent and concludes on the Feast of Christ the King, which was only a couple weeks ago. Oh, wasn't that great? That was the end of the liturgical year. Advent begins the new year. And from the beginning of the year to the end, the focus is not only upon the life of Christ, but also upon his kingdom.

That's an important point to remember. And before we highlight the aspects of the kingdom throughout the liturial, year, I think it's important for us to get a better sense of this flow. The liturgical calendar and the kingdom of God coming together and forming us in Christ. So the liturgical year begins with Advent, as I mentioned a second ago, and concludes with Christ the king. And here's the logic of it. There's a certain logic to the liturgical calendar that emphasizes main stage the life of Christ. That's what the calendar is about. It's laying out the life of Christ on the calendar. So the calendar becomes a guide in discovering all of the important events of Jesus and the great acts of Jesus

and those who were around him, like his mother, his stepfather, and of course the apostles. But the liturgical year is broken down daily. Each day is a microcosm of life as we have the opportunity to sanctify time. And each day is made holy through the liturgical celebrations. And it becomes literally every day becomes a stage, if you will, on which we can demonstrate and trust in God, demonstrate his faithfulness, trust in God, and practice good stewardship. So the liturgical day runs from midnight to midnight. But the observance of Sunday and solemnities begins with the evening of the preceding day.

That would be when the sun goes down. And then so on top of days, we have Sundays. The church celebrates the pastical mystery on the first day of the week, known as the Lord's Day or Sunday. This follows a tradition handed down from the apostles and having its origin from the day of Christ's resurrection. Thus, Sunday must be ranked as the first holy day of all. Now, the writer of Epistle, the Epistle to the Hebrews, he said something to us by way of exhortation that I think is important because so much happens when we come together and celebrate the Eucharist.

This calendar is so important. The writer of Hebrews said, let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering, for he who promised is faithful, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10. I'm going to stick that one in the show notes. So, and then the catechism talks about this too in paragraph 2180 on Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the mass. The precept of participating in the mass is satisfied by assistance at a mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite, either the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day.

Now throughout the liturgical year, we are so blessed because we get the cycle of readings. You know, when I used to be a Protestant pastor of a non-denominational church, I got to tell you, I love the people. I love them so much. I really did. But I did not have a way of giving a balanced diet of the Word of God throughout the entire year. Typically what happened was I gave them what I was into at the time. What I was interested in, topically, a certain Bible book or certain theme. But I wasn't bound by any objective calendar like we are in the Catholic Church.

But the Sunday Lectionary, that's the guide to liturgical readings, is a three-year cycle of three years. It's three-year cycle of the readings. And the first reading usually comes from the Old Testament and parallels the theme of the gospel reading of the day. That's on Sunday. Sunday. Now, the second reading is usually from the epistles or the book of revelation. And the gospel readings are arranged in such a way that they match the life of Christ to the season being celebrated. So there are three cycles used to gain the most comprehensive look at the life of Jesus. So cycle A, we focus on Matthew. Cycle B is Mark and cycle C is Luke. And then the Gospel of John is used in all three cycles, especially during cycle A during Lent. It's all brilliant.

The lectionary is so extensive that over, listen to this, over a three-year cycle, over a three-year cycle, nearly the entire New Testament and most of the significant portions of the Old Testament are covered. Match that. That's incredible. So for an example of that might be, during Advent, our focuses upon the coming of the king. And the church will point us toward readings such as Isaiah's messianic text. In Lent, the scriptural readings are devoted to the subject of sin, repentance, and reconciliation. That would make sense, wouldn't it, during Lent. And at Christmas and Easter, passages related to those major events, they're utilized as well. In addition to the Bible, the bravery, that's the prayers of the church, follows the church calendar.

It's amazing, isn't it? Okay, I'm going to go into this a little bit more in depth here as we move on and look at the liturgical year. So stick with me, and we're going to take a break, and we're going to be back. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. You feel like there's some room for renewal, and you're praying with most holy rosary. That's my situation. I'm Father Mark Mary Ames with the Franciscan friars at the renewal, and I've put together the Rosary in a Year podcast where we will be working through the

rosary again and just the basics of it at the service of a deeper renewal, profound relationship with Jesus and Mary. A great place to start would be by going to ascensionpress.com forward slash rosary in a year to download the prayer plan. Thank you for returning. Okay, we're looking at the logic of the liturgical year. Of course, the whole year starting in Advent and ending on. Christ, the king, is the life of Jesus laid down on the calendar? And so as you are faithful to that calendar and you are aware of the calendar, which I sometimes lose my awareness, you're going to be more perfectly conform to Jesus. But if you kind of go haphazardly and just, you know, laissez-faire,

you're probably going to miss out on a lot. You really will. Well, throughout this calendar, there's solemnities and feasts and memorials for certain people, certain things. And as the church celebrates the mystery of Christ in a yearly cycle, the church also venerates with a particular love, Mary, the mother of God, and sets before the devotion of the faithful the memory of the martyrs and the saints. And we all have our favorite saints. And no doubt we're going to hit one of your favorite saints sometime throughout the liturgical year. You know, the saints have universal significance. And that's why they're in the mass, because they have significance. They have significance to every single one of us, some more than others.

So that's an important thing to remember that the saints are people who have been in the race before us, and they have succeeded, and they have much to show us, and they have much to teach us. And so we draw from them during the liturgy. Pretty neat. Then we have some days that are so important. We just so important, or we call them what? days of obligation sounds like an apocalyptic movie doesn't it the days of obligation well the church is determined

that certain days are so important to the life of the church and the faithful that they are deemed days of obligation now on these special days christians are obligated to attend mass and enter into the mystery of christ and so here's some of the days of obligation all right you got january first that's the feast of mary the mother of god that's that's one number two Easter. Number three, the ascension. We have the assumption of Mary on August 15th. We have the Feast of All Saints on November 1st and the Immaculate Conception on December 8th. Those are some of the days of obligation. And I love them. They're telling you, hey, these are really pretty important. Get on up there to church. Conform your life to the life of Christ. And so we have these seasons.

Let me just give you the rundown of the seasons. And by the way, every season has a color. Now, growing up, I thought the colors were just the prerogative of the priest. He liked certain colors, and it was nice to change it up from time to time. Oh, I was wrong. I was wrong. Everything in the Mass has a reason. Starts off with Advent.

That's the beginning of the liturgical season. What are we doing? Remember what we said earlier, the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom. Advent is we prepare for the coming of the king. That's what we're entering into now. Advent. The color is violet. Advent is a time of two-fold preparation. It's a season to prepare for Christmas, yes, which marks the first coming of Christ.

And then as a season when the heart and mind prepare for the second coming of Christ at the end of time. So the church begins Advent with the evening prayer of the Sunday falling on. or closest to November 30th. Remember Advent. All right. Christmas. What's Christmas? That's the next one. After Advent comes Christmas,

we celebrate the birth of the king. As an advent, we prepared for the coming of the king. Now we celebrate the birth of the king. The color is white. Next to the yearly celebration of the pascal mystery of Easter, the church holds most sacred the memorial of Christ's birth. The Christmas season runs from evening prayer of Christmas until the Sunday after Epiphany or after January 6th.

So Christmas has its own octave. You got Sunday within the octave is the feast of the Holy Family. December 26 is the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr. December 27th is the feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist. The 28th of December is the feast of the Holy Innocence. That's when Herod had those boys in Bethlehem. murdered. December 29th, 30th, and 31st are the days within the octave. In January 1st is the solemnity of Mary Mother of God. Epiphany is the last Sunday of the Christmas

octave. And then you might notice that we do have, if you read your bulletin, it'll say the 9th Sunday in ordinary time. First of all, it's not ordinary. We learn the teachings of the king and his work during ordinary time. The color is green. So we get a lot of that. 33 or 34 weeks remain in the yearly cycle. They do not have a specific celebration or an aspect of the mystery of Christ like Advent or Lent. Rather, they focus on the mystery of Christ and his kingship in all kinds of aspects. Ordinary time begins on Monday after the Sunday following January 6th and continues until Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.

and it begins again on Monday after Pentecost and ends before evening prayer at the first Sunday of Advent. Wowsy. Love it. So here's this, Lent. We finally come to Lent. We prepare for what? The most important action of the king.

The death burial and resurrection of Jesus. Color, Violet. We're back to violet. Lent is a preparation for the celebration of Easter and it runs from Ash Wednesday until the mass of the Lord's supper. And you might remember some things we do here. The word

hallelujah is not used from the beginning of Lent until the Easter Vigil. On Ash Wednesday ashes are distributed, reminding you and me that it was from dust that we came and dust were going to return. And the sixth Sunday of Lent marks the beginning

of Holy Week and it's called Palm Sunday. Isn't that beautiful? Then we move into the Trituum. We enter into the final week of the king's life right before Easter. Color white and red. The culmination of the liturgical year is the Easter trituum of the passion and resurrection of Christ. Easter is to the liturgical year what Sunday is to the week. It's the zenith of celebrations. So what do we have? Well, we've got Palm Sunday. That starts it off. Jesus enters Jerusalem.

By the way, he enters at the same time the sacrificial flock is brought in from Bethlehem, color red. Holy Thursday, the bishop blesses the oils and consecrates the chrism. The oil will be used on those who will be receiving the sacrament of confirmation during the Easter vigil. Good Friday marks the betrayal and arrest of the Lord in the Garden of Gatsimony. And what do we do then? Well, we venerate the cross of Christ. then we've got the Easter Vigil. The Easter Vigil, oh, wow.

It's called the mother of all vigils. It really is. That's what the church calls it. The mother of all vigils. It's celebrated on the Saturday night preceding Easter Sunday, and the church keeps watch eagerly awaiting the resurrection of the Lord. And then we've got the Easter season. We enter into the resurrection life of the king, the colors white.

Easter Sunday, the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord. celebrations he has risen he has risen indeed the resurrection of the king so the 50 days from easter sunday to pentecost they're celebrated as one great big sunday did you get that 50 days from easter sunday to pentecost one big sunday the liturgical readings during this period are called the mystigoji the period of the mystogogy you know what they are they are aimed at the neophyte they're aimed at educating the new believers in the mystery of Christ. You might even take it in. Just pay attention during this time these 50 days because you might want to do some remedial

listening. These are the basic teachings. These days correspond to the 40 days after the resurrection when Jesus taught his disciples very, very important truths of the kingdom. The first eight days of the Easter season make up the octave of Easter. And on the 40th day after Easter, the ascension is celebrated. It's all math here. It's just math.

It's logic. It's the life of Christ. The weekdays after the ascension until the Saturday before Pentecost are a preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And then you got Pentecost celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 2. Color red. We all wear red to mass.

But a lot of us remember that once we get to Mass. and see everyone else in red. Okay, my friend, listen to this. Now the parish liturgist, next time you see the parish liturgist, and if you don't know who they are, try to find out, thank them, will you? They've got to keep this calendar.

And they're heaping that calendar so that you can blend your calendar with the calendar of the church. And so that means don't schedule soccer practice on Easter. Try to avoid over-scheduling. Don't mess up his calendar. Pay attention to it and then set your calendar in an appropriate way. It's a sign of respect, right?

So here's what I want to leave you with. It's the fruit of the liturgical year. The fruit of the liturgical year is a life conformed to Christ. You want to become more like Jesus than pick up his calendar and conform your life to him on a day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year basis. I'll put this in the show notes for you so you don't miss out. And happy new year. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Jesus,

we thank you for the new year in the beginning of the new year. As we set our own calendars, we want to blend your calendar with our calendar and give you priority. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us this opportunity to to conform our lives to you. We pray that this year we will become closer to you and that there will be fruit that is eternal as a result of it.

Help us to remind our families and to take leadership in our families to teach our children and our grandchildren what day it is. Thank you for all this, Lord. Thank you so much. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

I love you. Thank you.