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Church Seasons and Feasts

What is the Liturgical Calendar?

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The liturgical calendar is omnipresent in Catholic life. Many parish bulletins list the liturgical days of the week and corresponding Scripture readings. In December, tables in the narthex may be…

The liturgical calendar is omnipresent in Catholic life. Many parish bulletins list the liturgical days of the week and corresponding Scripture readings. In December, tables in the narthex may be piled high with free calendars that identify the principal feasts of the Church year (along with civic holidays). And, of course, each holy day of obligation we are reminded that Catholic worship is not simply a matter of showing up on Sundays; there is a larger pattern of feasts and fasts of which Sunday worship is only part.

But to say that the liturgical calendar is omnipresent is not to say that we always notice it. We often look past objects, such as street lights or telephone poles, precisely because they are pervasive. It is easy to treat the liturgical calendar merely as part of Catholicism’s décor, the ornamental mantle clock with Roman numerals that looks nice but which no one really uses to tell time.

Many holy men and women through the ages, however, have set their internal clock to the liturgical calendar and have found their lives reshaped in the process — for the purpose of the liturgical calendar is to orient our days around the person of Jesus. This process begins with Sunday worship, which is the cornerstone of the whole liturgical calendar. We celebrate Mass each Sunday — rather than on the Jewish Saturday — in recognition that when Jesus resurrected on Easter Sunday He began the renewal of the whole world and the universe was fundamentally changed (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1193). As the liturgical poet John Keble, a great friend of Blessed John Henry Newman, exclaimed in his poem “Easter Day,” Easter sheds “light on all the year,” making Sundays “more glorious break, / An Easter Day in every week.” Sunday worship reveals to us the nature of the world in which we live.

But, while the Resurrection is the central Christian event, every moment of the life of Jesus is a revelation of the nature and character of God. For this reason, we need not merely Sunday worship but the entire Christian year. The Church year is structured around the life of Jesus. It pursues Him from the first signs of His coming in Advent to His birth at Christmas, to His trials in Lent and death on Good Friday, to the wonders of His Easter Resurrection and Ascension, and finally catches an apocalyptic vision of Him enthroned as King in glory. As the Catechism explains, “The Church, ‘in the course of the year … unfolds the whole mystery of Christ’” (No. 1194). The Church leaves nothing out and skips no days; she asks us to meditate on Jesus at all times and in all circumstances.

Typology

The Church’s desire to see Jesus in all things, and all things in light of Jesus, also influences the scriptural readings chosen for use throughout the liturgical year. Since Jesus is God’s ultimate self-revelation to humanity, the entire human attempt to know God — the complete story of religion and all of salvation history — also culminates in Him (see Catechism, No. 102). Inspired by this insight, the Apostolic Fathers in the early days of the Church developed the reading method known as typology (Catechism, No. 128).

Typology treats events and images recorded in the Old Testament (the type) as prefiguring the life of Christ and the Church (the antitype). The fullness of God’s revelation as expressed in Christ exposes patterns and symbols in His earlier dealings with humanity that we might otherwise miss. To give just two famous examples: Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac, who nonetheless does not die, is a type of Christ’s divine sacrifice and resurrection; Noah’s ark, the vessel in which humanity is saved from physical destruction, is a type of the Church, the vessel in which humanity is saved from spiritual destruction.

The Church assigns appropriate scriptural readings — generally an Old Testament passage, a responsorial psalm, a portion of an epistle and a Gospel story — for each day of the year. The Old Testament reading and the responsorial psalm are often chosen because of their typological relationship to the Gospel reading. While the basic pattern of our liturgical observances remains constant each year, our cycle of readings for these observances varies. We follow a two-year cycle for daily Mass and a three-year (A, B, C) cycle for Sundays, primarily so that we might encounter Scripture as fully as possible. The Church uses the liturgical calendar to teach us to see “Christ in all the Scriptures.”

Since I have already referenced it, the feast of Christ the King, the final Sunday of the liturgical year, may serve as a convenient example of this dynamic. The first reading for Christ the King in Year A is 2 Samuel 5:1-3; here the Israelites collectively accept David as their king. In the corresponding Gospel reading, Luke 23:35-43, the good thief on the cross accepts Jesus, the Son of David, as his king, and becomes in death the first person to pass into the heavenly kingdom. David’s divinely ordained but temporal kingship is a type of Christ’s permanent spiritual kingship.

The liturgical calendar’s frequent memorials of saints teach us another method of viewing all experience in light of Christ. The saints are a diverse bunch; they include men and women of nearly every race, region, occupation, economic status and psychological temperament. In the roster of the saints, we find a template of the many different ways in which salvation may be worked out, the varied human images that may comprise a reflection of the one Christ (see Catechism, No. 1173), the disparate forms His kingdom may take on earth.

Those saints with whom we most readily identify can be taken as patrons and encouragers in the life of faith; those with whom we find identification difficult challenge us to see God or the potential for His presence in those people whom we would too easily overlook or even disdain. By commemorating these saints in the liturgical calendar, the Church presents us with the entire picture of human sanctity and asks us to evaluate our life’s challenges and the people around us accordingly.

The liturgical calendar, then, possesses the potential to transform the way we see the world. If we were truly sensitive to its patterns, we would view our own lives, other people, the Bible, human history and the passage of time itself differently. And the decisions we would make while seeing the world in this very different light would change us into different people. As the Nobel Prize-winning poet T.S. Eliot observed in an unpublished lecture “The Bible as Scripture and Literature”: “The fall of these words [the liturgy and liturgical readings] upon the ear, as they follow their due and appointed order in the service and the cyclic recurrence of the services according to the seasons, enters into the whole rhythm of the Christian’s life with an unconscious compulsion.”

If we will allow it, the liturgical calendar will shape us at a level deeper and more fundamental than consciousness itself; we will find ourselves automatically applying Christ’s story to our own, and acting accordingly. The point is a classical Christian one, once more widely known. Keble puts it beautifully in another one of his poems: if we allow ourselves to be carried along with the liturgical calendar, “The sacred weeks, with unfelt pace” will bear “us on from grace to grace” (“Trinity Sunday”).

The Church understands human nature. Human beings naturally make sense of the world by telling themselves stories. We also structure the smaller stories of our personal lives in terms of the wider and more all-encompassing tales we know. By superimposing Scripture over the days of our lives, the liturgical calendar trains us to understand our experience in terms of Christ. We neglect this training to our own detriment. If we allow the liturgical calendar to fade into the background, lost as a mere ornament, we will still imagine our lives as a reflection of a larger story, but it will be a vastly impoverished story.

In her work “The Pantheon Papers,” the novelist and Christian humanist Dorothy Sayers vividly depicted this truth. Sayers constructed a satirical liturgical calendar for modern materialism. This new calendar exposes the secular values that too often structure our lives and our days. Here the season of Advent is replaced with the season of advertisement; Christmas is replaced with “the Birth of Science”; the feast of Easter with the feast of the Enlightenment; All Hallows with All Hollows.

In the absence of the liturgical calendar, we will structure our lives around whatever shouts at us most loudly and whatever is most materially tangible, and our lives will be corresponding hollowed. In the liturgical calendar the Church offers us an important tool for spiritual enrichment and renewal.

 

Chene Heady, Ph.D., is associate professor of English at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, and author of “Numbering My Days: How the Liturgical Calendar Rearranged My Life” (Ignatius Press).

Tips for tuning in to the Christian Year

• Prepare for Mass each Sunday by taking a look at the readings ahead of time. Perhaps pray with them using lectio divina.

• If unable to attend daily Mass, perhaps download an app or find the daily readings listed in your parish bulletin. Follow along with the Church’s daily narrative of salvation history and allow it to transform your worldview.

• Each week, chose a saint whose feast is celebrated about whom you’ll learn something useful in your own path to holiness.

• Decorate your home liturgically. Perhaps use a table cloth with the seasonal color, or print out pictures of different saints to display near their feasts in a special place in your home.

• Research the variety of cultural expressions of seasons and feasts, including unique foods, traditions, music, etc.

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Church Seasons and Feasts

Divine Mercy Sunday

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Since the year 2000, the universal Church has concluded the Octave of Easter by celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday. This great solemnity calls the faithful to rejoice in the merciful love…

Since the year 2000, the universal Church has concluded the Octave of Easter by celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday. This great solemnity calls the faithful to rejoice in the merciful love of God as it is most profoundly manifested in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ.

But what exactly is the Divine Mercy? Where did this devotion to the Divine Mercy begin? Is this a new feast day in the Church?

A History of Mercy

In his 1980 encyclical Dives in Misericordia (“Rich in Mercy”), Pope John Paul II writes, “Believing in [God’s] love means believing in mercy. For mercy is an indispensible dimension of love; it is as it were love’s second name and, at the same time, the specific manner in which love is revealed” (No. 7).

Salvation history is rich with evidence of this truth. From the beginning, the Covenant that the Lord established with the people of Israel reflected the nature of His love. As He gives the Ten Commandments to Moses, He promises to show “mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Ex 20:6, RSV).

Later, again to Moses, God gives this description of himself: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy and faithfulness, keeping merciful love for thousands” (Ex 34:6-7, RSV).

As the Old Testament narratives continue, we see the people of Israel habitually turning to God in their sin and misery as a child turns to his father, trusting in his merciful forgiveness.

King David sings of the Lord who is “merciful and gracious,” “slow to anger and abounding in mercy” and who does not deal with us according to our sins (see Psalms 103, 145). Even the prophets, who preach a message of destruction to Israel for its infidelity, speak also of the mercy that the Lord wishes to lavish upon it if only the people will return to Him (see Jer 3:12; Hos 14:3).

Although the reality of God’s great compassion is unmistakably established and confirmed in the history of the Old Testament, it is the coming of His Son that gives the world the actual incarnation of this love and mercy. Pope John Paul’s encyclical observes:

“Christ confers on the whole of the Old Testament tradition about God’s mercy a definitive meaning. Not only does he speak of it … but above all he himself makes it incarnate and personifies it. He himself, in a certain sense, is mercy” (No. 2).

Christ’s entire life can be seen as a testimony to the mercy of God.

At His conception, Our Lady sang her great hymn of thanksgiving: “His mercy is from age to age to those who fear Him” (Lk 1:50).

At the start of Christ’s public ministry, He proclaimed, “release to the captives” (Lk 4:18, RSV), and later, “blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Mt 5:7).

In the words of His last agony, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them” (Lk 23:34). Indeed, the presence of Jesus Christ in the world reveals to us the face of God, who is the “Father of mercies” (2 Cor 1:3, RSV).

Jesus, I Trust in You

Simply speaking, then, the “Divine Mercy” is another name for the revelation of this magnificent love of God, which culminates in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Christians have long known and praised this abundant mercy. In this sense, devotion to the Divine Mercy is not new.

Less than a century ago, however, Christians were challenged by God himself to a renewed awareness and trust in His mercy, which has begun to fan the old flame of devotion into a more ardent veneration. Our Lord spoke to a young Polish nun, giving her a timeless reminder for all of humanity:

“Mankind will not have peace,” He said, “until it turns with trust to My mercy. … Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God.”

Sister Mary Faustina Kowalska, born in 1905, was a cloistered nun of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Poland. On Feb. 22, 1931, Jesus first appeared to Sister Faustina.

He was clothed in a white robe, with two rays of light emanating from His heart — one red and one white, representing the blood and water that came forth from His pierced side at His crucifixion. He requested that this image be painted with the signature, “Jesus, I trust in You,” and promised that even the most hardened sinners who would revere this image would be saved. Our Lord told Faustina of His great desire that the first Sunday after Easter be dedicated as the “Feast of Mercy,” and that this image of His mercy be known and venerated by the whole world.

Our Lord appeared to Sister Faustina — whom He called His “apostle of mercy” — many other times over the course of several years, each time speaking of His great mercy for all souls. At the direction of her confessor, Faustina documented all of her dialogues with Christ in what she called her “Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul” (which received ecclesiastical approval from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1979).

Within these pages we read the repeated and urgent plea of Our Lord’s love and the purpose of His conversations with Faustina: “My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls. … If only they could understand that I am the best of Fathers to them and that it is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fount overflowing with mercy” (Diary, p. 165).

The Feast of Mercy

Sister Faustina’s encounters with Jesus are considered private revelation — that is, a revelation outside of the deposit of faith, and one which the faithful are not obligated to believe. However, these mes-sages have been officially approved by the Church as containing nothing contrary to faith or morals.

In addition, Pope John Paul II recognized in Sister Faustina’s writings a message that was truly from Christ, and relevant to all mankind in every day and age. On April 30, 2000, the first Sunday following Easter, Pope John Paul both canonized Sister Faustina Kowalska and declared in his homily of that day his own desire that the “Second Sunday of Easter … from now on throughout the world will be called ‘Divine Mercy Sunday.’”

In conjunction with the Pope’s wishes, on May 5, 2000, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a decree officially establishing the Second Sunday of Easter as “Divine Mercy Sunday.”

It is important to understand that this is not a new feast day in the Church. As explained in the congregation’s document, Divine Mercy Sunday gives an additional name — a new “appellation” — to the day that is already a solemnity of the liturgical year — that is, the Second Sunday of Easter. With regards to that day’s liturgy, nothing is to be changed in either the texts of the Divine Office or the Missal. In fact, the previously established liturgical readings for the day fit in perfectly with the theme of mercy. In the Gospel, the Lord imparts to the apostles His authority to bind and release the sins of men, thereby instituting the Sacrament of Penance.

The feast of Divine Mercy, then, is a continuation of the celebration of Easter; it is, as Pope John Paul once said, Christ’s “Easter gift” to the world.

“From the Heart of Christ Crucified”

The feast of Divine Mercy is not only a beautiful reminder of the love of God, but also a challenge to a deeper understanding of who He is, and who we are in relation to Him. St. Faustina recognized this truth and responded in her weakness to the power of Christ’s mercy.

At the Mass for Faustina’s canonization, Pope John Paul prayed for her intercession. We should join him in this prayer:

“Divine Mercy reaches human beings from the Heart of Christ crucified. … Today, fixing our gaze with you on the face of the Risen Christ, let us make our own your prayer of trusting abandonment and say with firm hope: ‘Jesus, I trust in You!’”

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy

Our Lord gave St. Faustina a set of prayers to invoke His mercy, called the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. On standard rosary beads, pray the following prayers:

First, on the crucifix, one Our Father, Hail Mary and the Apostles’ Creed.

On each Our Father bead, pray: “Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins, and those of the whole world.”

On each Hail Mary bead, pray: “For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us, and on the whole world.”

Repeat for five decades. To conclude, pray three times: “Holy God, holy mighty One, holy immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”
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Church Seasons and Feasts

Understanding the Church Calendar

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Except for such widely known celebrations as Easter, Christmas and Pentecost, most lay Catholics lump all Church celebrations under the term feast or feast days. While the terminology is not…

Except for such widely known celebrations as Easter, Christmas and Pentecost, most lay Catholics lump all Church celebrations under the term feast or feast days.

While the terminology is not necessarily incorrect, feasts are only one of the three categories of such celebrations in the Church year; the other two are solemnities and memorials. But what’s the difference? The Church has always provided the faithful people of God with externally expressed devotions, festivals and celebrations through which they may pay homage to the Creator. These holy activities are not merely random events, but follow a seasonal, regulated schedule established by the Church’s liturgical calendar. The day-to-day events of the annual Church year are primarily catalogued as a solemnity, a feast or a memorial.

In the fourth century, Emperor Constantine ended the Roman persecution of all religious factions and claimed Christianity to be the state religion of the Roman Empire. As the Church and Christian faith expanded, the number of religious celebrations subsequently increased. Unfortunately, for centuries there was no centralized control over the observance of the many celebrations. Every diocese had its own calendar, therefore rituals differed, celebrations honoring the mysteries of sacred Scriptures competed with honoring a saint, feast days overlapped, and almost every Sunday liturgy was pre-empted by a special occasion. This all led to confusion and abuses that continued until the reforms of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and the eventual development of a universal calendar.

A churchwide calendar prompted the need to effectively organize the numerous holidays in a manner applicable to every diocese. A most challenging aspect of this effort was the standardization of the rituals used during the different ceremonies and, further, the sorting out and assigning of common dates or time frames to each event. A well-organized liturgical calendar did not happen overnight, but has evolved over the past 450 years. While the methods of categorizing the various festivals have varied, the Church has been consistent in her effort to arrange the events according to importance. The birth of Jesus is considered more important than the birth of John the Baptist; the birth of the Baptist more important than the dedication of St. John Lateran church; the life of the Blessed Mother outranks that of St. Francis of Assisi; and so on. The hierarchal process used as recently as the 20th century rank, or order, Church celebrations by calling them doubles of the first class, doubles of the second class, greater doubles, lesser doubles, simples and commemorations. In 1962, they were called first class, second class, third class and commemorations. The Second Vatican Council simplified the classifications to solemnities, feasts and memorials.

Solemnities

A solemnity holds the highest rank among Church celebrations and there are 24 days so marked on the annual liturgical calendar. It is a day that recalls and glorifies an important event in the life of Jesus and the most significant mysteries of the Catholic Christian faith: Christmas, Epiphany, Easter (the Easter Octaves including Divine Mercy Sunday), Pentecost, Holy Trinity, Ascension, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart, Christ the King. So, too, honored as a solemnity are the days associated with the Blessed Mother: the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the Annunciation and Mary, Mother of God. Some saints are acknowledged with a solemnity: St. Joseph, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, Sts. Peter and Paul and All Saints Day.

In addition to every Sunday, the Catholic Church prescribes holy days of obligation, which include certain solemnities. In the United States there are six holy days of obligation: Mary, Mother of God, the Ascension, the Assumption, All Saints, the Immaculate Conception and Christmas. While all holy days of obligation are solemnities, not all solemnities are holy days of obligation. For example, the celebration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a solemnity but not a holy day of obligation. The same is true of the solemnity of St. Joseph and the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Some solemnities are always celebrated on the same calendar date and are known as “fixed” on the liturgical calendar — for example, Dec. 25 is always the date of Christmas, Nov. 1 is the date of All Saints and the Immaculate Conception is always on Dec. 8. Other solemnities are “moveable” — that is, their dates change or move based on the date of Easter. Pentecost is 50 days after Easter, Holy Trinity is the first Sunday after Pentecost, Corpus Christi is the second Sunday after Pentecost, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the first Friday after Corpus Christi and so on.

So, just what distinguishes a solemnity? The celebration begins with evening prayers on the day before and some, if a holy day of obligation, have a vigil Mass. If the solemnity falls on a weekday, the daily Mass looks much like a Sunday liturgy, including three readings, the Gloria and the Creed. All the prayers of the Mass reflect on the event or person being celebrated. These added liturgical elements help to embellish the special attention given the event or person.

Feasts

Celebrations identified on the Church calendar as a feast typically honor a special saint, such as one of the apostles. Other saints assigned a specific feast day include Sts. Simon and Jude, St. Stephen, the Holy Angels. Important events in Christian history are likewise identified as feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the Conversion of St. Paul, the Transfiguration, the Visitation, the Presentation of the Lord, the Holy Family, the Birth of Mary, the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, the Holy Innocents, the Triumph of the Holy Cross, and the Chair of Peter. A feast that falls on a weekday is not preceded with a vigil Mass, the Creed is not obligatory and most feasts are fixed dates on the calendar.

Memorials

The third category of celebrations and those most representative of what we call “feast days” are properly known as memorials. Memorials are identified as either obligatory, those that must be celebrated universally on an assigned day, or optional, meaning it is up to the celebrant as to whether that particular saint is celebrated. All memorials are fixed on the annual calendar. Memorials most often honor and focus us on the pious life of a saint. If Scripture mentions the particular saint, then the Mass readings on that day are taken from the applicable Scripture, such as, on the obligatory memorial of St. Martha the readings are from John (chapter 11) or Luke (chapter 10). If the saint is not mentioned in Scripture, then the readings are the ordinary, or normal, readings assigned for that day.

Optional memorials often identify a saint special or familiar to a particular location or religious order, but are often those not necessarily well known throughout the worldwide Church. For example, Sept. 19 is the optional memorial to St. Januarius, the patron saint of Naples, Italy. While the people of Naples and the surrounding area may well remember and acknowledge Januarius, a parish in another part of the world may not. The local parish priest normally decides about recognizing optional memorials.

As every country honors her founding fathers, her national heroes, independence day, and other national events, so does the Church celebrate the great sacred mysteries — the life of Jesus, the Blessed Mother, the saints and the martyrs who died for the faith. The Church classifies each celebration according to its importance and ranks them on the annual liturgical calendar as a solemnity, a feast or a memorial.

D.D. Emmons writes from Mount Joy, Pa. 

Ferial Days

If we look carefully at the Church liturgical calendar, there are some days that have no celebration assigned; no solemnity, no feast, no memorial. Such days are known as a “ferial” days, from a Latin word meaning free. In ancient Rome the term referred to a holiday, especially for slaves.

On the liturgical calendar, a ferial day is always on a weekday, Monday through Friday, and occurs during Ordinary Time. On that day the priest has the option of celebrating the previous Sunday Mass, a votive Mass or a Mass acknowledging any saint he desires. The celebrant may select the readings or use those appointed in the Lectionary for that day.

Sunday

The documents of the Second Vatican Council reflect on the importance of Sunday: “The Lord’s Day is the original feast day.… Other celebrations, unless they be truly of greatest importance shall not take precedence over the Sunday which is the foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, No. 106).

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Christmas

A walk through the Christmas Season

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The Church’s liturgical season of Christmas is one of its shortest, but also one of its most unique. Within it is the eight-day celebration of the Lord’s Nativity — known…

The Church’s liturgical season of Christmas is one of its shortest, but also one of its most unique. Within it is the eight-day celebration of the Lord’s Nativity — known as the Christmas octave — as well as other feasts pertaining to the manifestation that Jesus is Lord of the nations. And there are feasts of several saints, many of whose stories contain special significance to the season.

The configuration of the calendar relative to the season of Christmas is a bit complex. It always begins on the solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord — Dec. 25 — and ends on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, a movable feast roughly three weeks after Christmas.

In the U.S., Dec. 25 is always a holy day of obligation.

Christmas Day

The liturgical celebration of the Lord’s Nativity has many variables and components. There are four particular timeframes during which Mass might be celebrated in observance of this great feast: a vigil, a Mass at night, a Mass at dawn and a Mass during the day. Each of these Masses have their own unique prayers and readings. The newness of life made possible because of the Incarnation pervades the prayers and feasts of the Christmas season.

The four different Gospel readings assigned for use at the different Masses of Christmas all speak of the variety of the people affected by the Savior’s coming. The beginning of St. Matthew’s Gospel (see Mt 1:1-25), which lists Jesus’ family lineage, is proclaimed at the Vigil Mass. This includes major figures of Judaism like Abraham and David, whose covenants with God foreshadow the new and everlasting covenant that will be sealed in the blood of Christ. But Christ’s lineage also emphasizes that he came to save the poor and lowly, shown by connecting him to ancestors of low degree, socially or morally — like the four women mentioned, including David’s mistress Bathsheba. Jesus came to save them all.

The Gospel read at the Mass at night (see Lk 2:1-14) also underscores the importance of Christ’s coming for the marginalized and outcast, embodied by the news of his birth being shared firstly with the shepherds and not the rulers endowed with earthly power, who might be perceived as entitled to receiving such news on behalf of their subjects.

It is important to note that on Christmas, the faithful all are to genuflect or kneel during the Creed at the words relative to this central mystery of Christian faith, “and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.” This helps us keep our hearts and minds focused on what the feast is all about. As the popular Christmas carol “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” phrases it, Jesus was “born that man no more may die; born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. …”

Dec. 26: Feast of St. Stephen

Within the octave are various feast days that have rich histories and traditions. It is interesting to note that the first feast day after Christmas — the very next day, Dec. 26 — is the feast of a martyr. Recalling the purpose for which Christ came and the assignment of his divine mission, Christians are reminded, at this early stage of the celebrations of the Christmas season, of the Lord’s exhortation that anyone who wishes to follow after him must take up his cross. St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian faith, is held up as a living witness of what it means to proclaim that Christ is savior without counting the cost.

Dec. 27: Feast of St. John

Dec. 27 is the feast of the apostle and evangelist St. John. Regarded as the disciple closest to Jesus, St. John — believed to be the author of a Gospel, the Book of Revelation and three New Testament letters — is the one who teaches us that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). Because St. John’s Gospel alone includes the miracle at the Cana wedding feast, when Jesus miraculously changes water into wine, this feast has long been associated with the blessing of wine.

Dec. 28: Feast of the Holy Innocents

The Holy Innocents celebrated on Dec. 28 were martyrs killed as the result of Herod’s murderous rage, resulting in his desire to eliminate any threats to his power by killing anyone who fit the profile of the newborn king he learned about from the Magi (see Mt 2:13-18). Taking no chances for the babe’s survival, he ordered the murder of all boys in or around Bethlehem under the age of 2. Christ, of course, survives thanks to the heavenly intervention manifested by the angelic admonition to St. Joseph to flee with Mary and Jesus in the middle of the night to Egypt. The Gospel proclaimed on this day, referenced above, evokes two major issues about which the Church is concerned today: immigration and abortion.

Feast of the Holy Family

Many of the few details we know of Jesus’ early life relates to his familial relationships. As a young man, we know he grew in the ways of faith as the obedient son of Mary and Joseph. The Church holds up annually the Holy Family of Nazareth as a model for all families, as a model for all human relationships. As Blessed Pope Paul VI said during a visit to the Holy Family’s town in 1964, “Nazareth is the school in which we begin to understand the life of Jesus. It is the school of the Gospel.” The feast of the Holy Family is celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas, except for the years when Christmas falls on a Sunday. Then it is celebrated on Dec. 30.

Jan. 1: Solemnity of Mary

Stained-glass image of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. Shutterstock

The octave of Christmas ends with the celebration of the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God on Jan. 1. It is a holy day of obligation, except the obligation for Catholics in the United States is lifted when the feast falls on a Saturday or Monday. Jan. 1 also marks the Church’s commemoration of the World Day of Peace, first observed 50 years ago in 1968. It seems appropriate and fitting to be celebrated on a Marian feast day, for peace is only possible through total self-sacrifice and surrender — through total love and obedience to the will of God, of which Mary is an icon for the Church.

It bears noting that Jan. 1 previously had been known as the feast of the circumcision of the Lord, because Jewish ritual prescribes that Jewish males would have been circumcised on the eighth day after birth, in accordance with the covenant God made with Abraham. As a member of a pious, practicing Jewish family, Jesus would have received this ritual induction into the Abrahamic covenant (see Lk 2:21).

Solemnity of the Epiphany

Traditionally celebrated on Jan. 6, the Twelfth Day of Christmas, is the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. The feast is transferred to the Sunday between Jan. 2-8 in the United States, however. In commemoration of Christ’s manifestation to the Magi — who represent how Christ came to save all mankind, not just the Jews — this feast celebrates how Christ’s identity is revealed, as is summed up in the gifts the Three Kings presented him. The gold and frankincense they gave Christ represent his status as king of the universe, the deity worthy of our true worship. And the myrrh tells of the bitter reality that the babe in the manger was born to die.

The Baptism of the Lord

The Christmas season ends with the feast of the Lord’s baptism, which falls on the Sunday after the Epiphany. (That is, unless the Epiphany falls on Jan. 7 or 8, when it then is celebrated on the following day, a Monday.) This feast commemorates the day on which Christ formally accepts his mission as the redeemer when he receives St. John the Baptist’s baptism of conversion and repentance. He sets out from the waters of the Jordan, identified as God’s own son by the Father’s voice that resounded from the opened sky, and inaugurates his saving work as the long-awaited Messiah who will free us of our sins.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael.

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Advent

What’s the Meaning of the Seasons’ Traditions?

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C.S. Lewis, the great Christian writer who gave us Narnia, wrote a superb parody about Christmas, describing a baffled time traveler visiting Britain and finding people forced to buy squares…

C.S. Lewis, the great Christian writer who gave us Narnia, wrote a superb parody about Christmas, describing a baffled time traveler visiting Britain and finding people forced to buy squares of decorated cardboard and mail them to one another.

It is true that many semi-obligatory things, apparently belonging to Christmas in Western countries, bear very little relation to the awesome reality of the birth of Jesus Christ and the redemption of mankind. And it’s getting even sillier: in the Britain of the 1950s that Lewis knew, churchgoing was at least still a mainstream activity — it is not so now.

The commercial pressure attached to Christmas now starts in August — and, of course, manufacturers and marketers have been busy long before that. Recent additions to the “must have” of what is now regarded as a proper traditional Christmas include plastic reindeer antlers worn on the head, piped recordings of Santa Claus songs in supermarkets and battery-operated bow ties that light up.

Preparing for Christ’s Birth

For Christians, though, the glorious reality of Christmas starts with its real place in the calendar. An important date is March 25, the Annunciation — the old name is Lady Day, and it’s 40 weeks before Christmas. A baby is 40 weeks in the womb. That’s a significant number: It’s why it’s so important in the Scriptures. Think of Noah in the ark for 40 days, the Israelites traveling 40 years to the Promised Land, and Christ spending 40 days in prayer in the wilderness.

Christmas is linked to the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The Annunciation is in the spring, linked to the vernal equinox, equal day and night.

The date of Christmas, Dec. 25, was set by Emperor Constantine in 336; Jesus’ birthday isn’t recorded in Scripture. Some say Dec. 25 was chosen as the date to celebrate Jesus’ birthday because of the ancient Roman midwinter pagan festivals coinciding with the winter solstice that occurred around this date — Christian citizens of the Roman Empire no longer worshiped the Sun God, but the Son of God.

We should relish our Christmas customs, even starting with Advent, the four weeks of preparation for the great feast. The tradition of an Advent wreath comes from the snowy parts of Europe, when, in winter, the wheels would be taken off the wagons and runners put on instead. A cartwheel makes a strong base for a great Advent wreath, with four candles, one for each week. Some traditions affirm red candles, but most use three purple and one pink, the latter signifying Gaudete Sunday, its name coming from the Latin word for joy. This is the Third Sunday of Advent, when the season of solemn preparation gives way to a note of joyful expectation. Prayers around the Advent wreath, with one candle alight during the first week, two in the second and so on, are something special on winter evenings. The great Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” dates back to the O antiphons of the eighth century.

The First Sunday of Advent is called “stir up Sunday” when Christmas puddings are made in Britain. With plenty of alcohol in it, the puddings will most certainly keep until Christmas. Everyone in the household should take a turn at stirring the mixture and making a wish. The pudding originated in Britain as plum porridge and seems to date from the 18th century. Mincemeat — chopped-up dried fruit, spices, lemon and orange peel, and shredded suet — is an older dish, originally containing minced meat, dried and preserved. Mince pies are traditionally oval in shape, representing the manger, with Christ the sweetness inside.

In the United States and Northern Europe, Christmas is synonymous with wintry things, but, for most of the world, it’s not like that. For instance, in India — where Catholic tradition goes back to St. Thomas, one of Christ’s own apostles — midnight Mass is celebrated on a warm summer night and is traditionally followed by visits to family and friends with feasting.

Feasts within Advent

St. Nicholas — from whence Santa Claus came — the saintly bishop of the early church who helped the poor, has his feast on Dec. 6, and so has become linked with Christmas. In much of Europe he arrives dressed as a bishop, mitred and robed, but in America and Britain his robes have become a red and fur-trimmed outfit. Stockings are associated with Christmas because of him. Known for his charity, he dropped money down the chimney discreetly for three poor girls — and it went into their stockings, hung by the fire to dry.

Dec. 12 is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Coatlallope), the Patroness of the Americas. Mary appeared to the saintly Aztec Juan Diego, imprinting her picture on his tilma, or cloak. You can still see it in the great basilica in Mexico City, the most popular shrine in the Western Hemisphere, visited by millions every year. Mary is pregnant with the Savior and wears the traditional ribbon of an Aztec expectant mother. Coatlallope in Aztec dialect means “one who treads on snakes” — Mary crushed the serpent’s head as was prophesied of her in Genesis.

The date for the feast isn’t accidental — it’s God’s timing, linking with Christmas. Many celebrate the feast with a piñata, essentially a pineapple shape made out of papier-mâché, filled with toys and sweets, hung up over the heads of partygoers, who bash at it until it breaks, showering the gifts down on everyone.

Scandinavians especially celebrate St. Lucy — her name means “light” — on Dec. 13, the date for midwinter in the old Julian calendar. Girls dress in white robes, with red sashes to symbolize her martyrdom, and crowns bearing candles on their heads. They bring sugary pastries, fresh coffee and treats to hospitals and community groups.

Trees, Carols and More

Christmas trees began with the eighth-century St. Boniface, who converted the pagan Germans. They saw their great evergreens as sacred because the trees did not shed their needles or appear to die in winter like other trees. St. Boniface — his Latin name means “one doing good” — taught them to worship, not the evergreen tree, but Christ who died on a tree, and who thereby offers us eternal life. Eventually, he was martyred, but meanwhile an evergreen decorated with candles became the Christmas tree. Many centuries later Prince Albert, who was of German descent and married Britain’s Queen Victoria, brought the custom to England, and from there it went to other lands.

Many cultures celebrate the Christmas season until Feb. 2, which is Candlemas, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. Before the revisions of the liturgical calendar following the Second Vatican Council, that’s when the season ended. Many homes retain some Christmas decorations — certainly the manger — all through that time. Crib scenes, in churches and homes, are said to have begun with St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 (see sidebar). While the manger is empty all through Advent, many places are known to have faithful bring the Christ Child to be blessed at Mass on the Fourth Sunday of Advent — Bambino Sunday — before traditionally placing him in the manger on Christmas morning.

Many cultures traditionally mark Christmas Eve by abstaining from meat. Italian-Americans are known for celebrating the “Feast of Seven Fishes” on that day. Roast beef or pork used to be standard in English-speaking countries on Christmas Day, but now turkey or ham is commonplace.

Christmas games, quizzes and jokes all date back to medieval times as ways of making merry in the long dark evenings of winter. Even today, with television dominating our lives, Christmas is still a time for singalongs, special programs and games.

Many carols are medieval in origin, but the 17th century gave us “While Shepherds Watched” and the 19th gave us “Away in a Manger” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Incidentally, a legend that the carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was a code used by Catholics in the days of persecution is untrue: that story only started in the 1970s.

Epiphany — remembering the arrival of the Three Kings — is a big celebration in Spain. Still fixed on Jan. 6, freshly polished shoes of Spanish children are left ready on the previous evening, wherein the kings will deposit presents. Meanwhile, the Three Kings arrive at household manger scenes around the world, often having traveled from room to room around the house. The French have given us the galette des rois — a delicious pastry with a small king embedded inside. Whoever gets him is king or queen for the evening, wears a golden paper crown and chooses the first game to be played. These are known today in the United States as king cakes in many regions claiming French ancestry, such as Louisiana, where they are eaten all the way through Mardi Gras.

Christmas is a time for storytelling, family reminiscences, tales of Christmases past. Some are bittersweet, such as the World War I Christmas 1914 truce in the trenches — where soldiers on both sides put down their arms in observance of the Lord’s birth. It really happened and is a symbol of the whole heartbreaking tragedy of that war.

And Christmas is indeed bittersweet: after Christmas Day comes the feasts of the first martyr, St. Stephen (Dec. 26), and the Holy Innocents (Dec. 28).

Christ’s birth is joyful, but our redemption was won through his suffering — and through that, all suffering is redeemed and is redemptive. Christmas for some is a time of loneliness, poignant memories or mild regrets.

But Christ knows about all of that, for He came to bear our sins and bring us new life. As a British folk carol says: “For the holly bears a berry, as red as any blood / And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ, to do poor sinners good.”

Joanna Bogle is a British Catholic journalist, writer and broadcaster. In 2013, she became a Dame of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great. She has authored several books, including “Book of Feasts & Seasons” and blogs at joannabogle.blogspot.com.

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Church Seasons and Feasts

St. John Lateran Basilica

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St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome is considered the mother church of all the Catholic churches in the Western world; inscribed on the church facade for all to see are…

St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome is considered the mother church of all the Catholic churches in the Western world; inscribed on the church facade for all to see are the Latin words “omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput,” meaning, “The mother and head of all the churches of the city and of the world.”

But why is this particular church so important to our Catholic faith that it is designated as the “mother church,” and so prominent that it garners a feast day on the Church liturgical calendar?

In first-century Rome, a palace existed adjacent to the site where the basilica would eventually be built. The palace belonged to Plautius Lateranus, and through the centuries it became known as the Lateran Palace. The Roman Emperor Nero (r. 54-68) confiscated this property from Lateranus, and in the early fourth century it came into the possession of Emperor Constantine the Great when he became emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Constantine, convinced that all his military and political successes were gifts from the Christian God, was favorably disposed to Christianity and eventually ended the persecution of religious groups while extending special attention and support to the followers of Jesus. In 312, he gave the Lateran Palace to Pope Melchiades (also known as Militades), and it became the residence of the popes for the next 1,000 years.

St. John Lateran

After emerging as ruler of all the Roman Empire, Constantine began building places of worship for Christians throughout his vast empire, and the earliest Christian basilica in the West was the Lateran Basilica, which he located next to the pope’s palace. Around 324, at the urging, or perhaps insistence, of Constantine, it was dedicated to Our Most Holy Savior by Pope St. Sylvester.

The basilica was twice rededicated, first in the 10th century to St. John the Baptist, and again in the 12th century to St John the Evangelist. The official title of this church is the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and of Sts. John the Baptist and the Evangelist at the Lateran. It is best known as St. John Lateran.

The building of the Lateran Basilica not only gave the Christians of Rome an exclusive place for worship, but architecturally equaled or exceeded any of the monuments previously raised to the pagan gods. This was a momentous period not only in Rome but in both the history of the world and the history of Christianity. The early historian Eusebius of Caesarea (263-340) wrote, “After this was seen the sight which had been desired and prayed for by us all; feasts of dedication in the cities and consecrations of the newly built houses of prayer took place, bishops assembled, foreigners came together from abroad, mutual love was exhibited between people and people, the members of Christ’s body were united in complete harmony” (“The History of the Church,” Book X, Chapter III).

The use of the Lateran Palace as a papal residence ended in 1309 when the popes moved to Avignon, France, and stayed there for nearly 70 years. The Holy See returned to Rome in 1377, but the Lateran facilities were in such a deteriorated state that the pope’s living quarters were relocated, eventually to Vatican Hill, where the pope still resides. The Lateran Basilica and Palace were mostly rebuilt in 1586, and despite the permanent relocation of the pope’s living quarters, the basilica has remained the primary church of the Roman pontiff.

A feast day

The feast day honoring the dedication of St. John Lateran was introduced in the 12th century and was initially celebrated only in the city of Rome. In 1726, Pope Benedict XIII ordered a worldwide commemoration of the basilica as a sign of universal Catholic unity. The feast is celebrated on Nov. 9 and is known today as “The Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica.”

The intent behind the annual feast day is to encourage Catholics to keep strong ties to our past and to the universal Catholic Church. The building of St. John Lateran was a mark of religious freedom. Christians could worship without fear and in a church of their own. Through the grace of God the followers of Jesus had persevered over sufferings and persecutions; Christianity had been granted both legal recognition and public security. What joy those early Christians must have experienced in this newfound freedom, what excitement in joining together in their own house of worship which some historians claim held 10,000 people. This feast day reminds us of our Catholic heritage, the significant role the dedication of the Lateran Basilica played in that heritage and the courage of those first followers of Christ and the importance of uniting ourselves to the Holy See. As the pope is our universal pastor, the Lateran is our universal church.

Lateran Treaty

From the eighth through the middle of the 19th century, the papacy had been gifted with many territories, including much of central Italy. That area, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic Sea, became known as the Papal States and geographically split Italy in two. In 1870, King Victor Emmanuel II, as part of his effort to unite all of Italy and establish a new government, annexed the Papal States and occupied the city of Rome in a movement called the Risorgimento. The new government essentially took the Papal States and Rome away from the pope. Pope Pius IX (r. 1846-1878) reacted by excommunicating everyone involved with the invasion.

The king attempted to treat the papacy diplomatically and offered Pius that the pope could keep Vatican City, the palaces and churches, the liberty to conduct religious activities, receive financial compensation for the Papal States and even have authority to conduct diplomatic relations. Pope Pius stated firmly that the state government had illegally seized Rome and the Papal States. Further, and most importantly, he claimed that he would not be put in a position of being subject to the Italian government as required by King Victor Emmanuel. He declared himself “a prisoner of the Vatican” and retreated into the Vatican palace from which he and the popes who followed refused to leave for the next 59 years. This situation, or standoff, became known as the Roman Question.

In early 1929, after many of the original principals associated with the Roman Question had died and the political situation had changed, the Vatican and the Italian government ended this problem. Pope Pius XI recognized the Kingdom of Italy with the city of Rome as the capital and officially ceded the Papal States to the government. In return, the government agreed to recognize the Vatican as a sovereign state with its own police force, post office, newspaper and radio station. The Vatican could exchange diplomatic emissaries as it deemed necessary. The papacy would possess Vatican City and all the palaces and churches including those extraterritorial possessions like St. John Lateran and the pope’s summer home, Castel Gandolfo. Other concessions included a financial payment to the Vatican for the annexation of the Papal States, and the government agreed that the Catholic Church would be identified as the state church of Italy. There was no mention of the pope being subject to the Italian government. Treaties reflecting these agreements were signed in the Lateran Palace on Feb. 11, 1929. The Holy See was now a national state, independent of Italy, with its own head of state (the pope), government and church. The Lateran Agreement was superseded by a new concordat between the Holy See and the Italian government in June 1985.

Dennis Emmons writes from Mount Joy, Pa. 

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