The Significance of the Liturgical Year
In the last week I have taught both our OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation for Adults, formerly known as RCIA) participants and our family formation participants about our liturgical year in the Catholic Church.
You can find an article, “The Liturgical Year,” that I wrote a few years ago on my website to explain the technical aspects of how the dates of our liturgical year at set as well as some of the meaning behind the seasons and important dates. You can find a handout to help illustrate this on my website at https://renewaloffaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Handout-Liturgical-Year.pdf.
Today I would like to focus on why the liturgical year is important to us. It is not just a bunch of dates on a calendar. Each season and specific date means something very important to us. If we only look at them as dates on a calendar, we are missing the depth in our faith that our liturgical year offers us.
We use a clock to mark the passage of a day. Each day always has twenty-four hours in it. The rhythm of our lives is set by this. Every year has 365 days in it (366 for leap year). In nature we experience a year in four seasons.
I am writing this article in the fall. In fall the leaves change color. The area I live has some vivid color changes. The beauty of the color change is something wonderful to behold. In it, we experience divine beauty. Following the color change the leaves fall from the trees. The trees become barren. The flowers and vegetables in the gardens are also “dying” off. Soon, the gardens will also be barren. The barrenness reminds of death but there is hope. We know, after the winter sleep, spring will come and new leaves will come out and the gardens will bring forth new flowers.
In the same way we experience our liturgical seasons. At the heart of our liturgical seasons stand Christmas and Easter. Both are marked by a single day but to properly understand what we celebrate in them, Christmas and Easter each bring us two seasons, one before and one after.
Christmas is important us because it is the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God incarnate in the flesh. This had never happened before and it has not happened again since.
We are given the season of Advent to prepare ourselves for what we celebrate in the coming of the Lord. In the beginning of Advent, the readings at Mass point us to the Second Coming of Jesus. We are to ask ourselves if we are ready for the Second Coming. Are you ready?
If you are not ready, what do you need God’s help to change in your life so that you are ready?
During the later part of Advent, the readings at Mass point us to the time just before the birth of Jesus. It wasn’t something that God just decided to do one day. God had a plan. John the Baptist had a central place in that plan. John was born six months before Jesus and began his ministry before Jesus’ own public ministry to prepare the way of the Lord. What do you need to do to prepare for the coming of Jesus?
After Christmas day, we have a season of Christmas. We celebrate Holy Family Sunday as a sign of the importance that God places on the family as God chose to have his Son have a human family with a father and a mother. On January 1st, as part of our Christmas season, we celebrate the Solemnity, Mary, Mother of God to honor Mary in her role as mother of Jesus. In the gospel for this feast, we see Mary and Joseph fulfilling the Jewish rites on the eighth day from Jesus’ birth.
Then we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord. The Magi show us that Jesus became incarnate in the flesh, not just for the Jews, but for all people. Then we conclude our Christmas season with the Baptism of the Lord as Jesus begins something new for us. For this He was born.
To properly understand Easter, we need to look at Easter as much more than just a day. What would the Resurrection mean if Jesus had not first been crucified? In fact, if we are to properly understand and appreciate the full meaning of Easter, we need to look at the whole Easter Triduum. “Triduum” means three days. The Easter Triduum begins at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, includes the Good Friday service where we read the Passion of Jesus and venerate the Cross where Jesus sacrifices his life for us. If the Crucifixion was the final end, it would seem like a defeat. It is not a defeat for God has power even over death. Instead of being a defeat, the Crucifixion becomes a sacrifice as Jesus willingly gives his life on the Cross so that our sins might be forgiven.
Knowing of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, during our season of Lent, we offer a sacrifice by giving up something important to us in gratitude for the sacrifice Jesus makes for us. If we give up something trivial, we show we fall short in understanding the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. We abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent for the same reasons, as a sacrifice.
From Easter Sunday, we celebrate the season of Easter. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus did not leave his disciples immediately after his Resurrection. He remained with them for forty days (Acts 1:3) until his Ascension. The forty days is not arbitrary. It reflects the forty days Jesus spent in the desert when He was tempted by the devil (see Matthew 4:1-11) as well as the forty years the Israelites spent in the desert following the Exodus.
Why did He ascend with his disciples watching (Acts 1:9-11)? So that they would know, so that we would know, that He returned to his place at the right hand of the Father where intercedes for us.
Our Easter season does not end with the Ascension. Before his Ascension, Jesus told his disciples to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5). This came on Pentecost, fifty days after Easter. From the gift of the Holy Spirit, the disciples went out as the Church. What do you do with the gift of the Holy Spirit that you were given at Baptism and sealing with in Confirmation?
To bring the liturgical seasons fully alive, we need to think in depth about what they mean for us. For example, a proper celebration of Pentecost includes attending Mass but it is meant to be much more than just us being physically present at Mass. Pentecost should not just be an acknowledgement of the Holy Spirit. We need to embrace the Holy Spirit and do God’s Will in all things. Without this, we deprive ourselves of the full meaning of the liturgical seasons.
I would be greatly remiss if I did not mention Ordinary Time. I fear we often think of the “ordinary” in Ordinary Time meaning that nothing special is going on. God does not go on vacation during Ordinary Time. Neither should we. God is always doing extraordinary things for us. Rather than saying that Ordinary Time is nothing special, the “ordinary” in Ordinary Time refers to the counting of the weeks of Ordinary Time.
As I conclude this article, I offer the same prayer that I offered in my own heart as I taught the recent OCIA and family formation sessions, that this article helps each person who reads it a deeper appreciation of what our liturgical seasons offer about our faith. Each event that we celebrate should be a profound celebration of our faith.
Peace,
Fr. Jeff