THE LITURGICAL YEAR
What is meant by the Liturgical Year?
Excerpts taken from "Our Quest for Happiness" Book One, from Preserving Christian Publications Inc.
The Liturgical Year is the annual celebration of the principal events in the history of our redemption, beginning with the promise of a Redeemer and continuing to His second coming at the end of the world. It is divided into sacred seasons and feasts, each marked by special texts provided for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Divine Office.
It is to be thought of as "magnificent hymn of praise which the family of Christians directs to the heavenly Father through Jesus, their perpetual Mediator."
This yearly cycle, called also the ecclesiastical or Church year, presents or better, re-enacts the story of our redemption in dramatic form. The Church, with the faithful as participants, re-enacts the life of Christ and at the same time unfolds a summary of our entire Faith.
This sacred drams of the Liturgical year presents the history of God’s eternal love for he human race. It reminds us of the events of the Old and new Testaments, of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the founding of the Church. It then traces the life and sufferings of the Church to the end of the world, to Christ’s second coming, and into eternity.
Therefore, the Liturgical Year is a dramatic method and means of reliving the life of Christ, through, with, and in Christ and His Church. It is a drama in which we are not mere spectators but actors working with our Divine Lord, as He honor His Father and works for the salvation of mankind. It is a method of living out in our daily lives the holy Faith we profess.
LITURGICAL YEAR INDEX
