III. When is the Liturgy Celebrated?
Liturgical
seasons
1163
"Holy Mother Church believes that she should celebrate the saving work of
her divine Spouse in a sacred commemoration on certain days throughout the
course of the year. Once each week, on the day which she has called the Lord's
Day, she keeps the memory of the Lord's resurrection. She also celebrates it
once every year, together with his blessed Passion, at Easter, that most solemn
of all feasts. In the course of the year, moreover, she unfolds the whole
mystery of Christ .... Thus recalling the mysteries of the redemption, she
opens up to the faithful the riches of her Lord's powers and merits, so that
these are in some way made present in every age; the faithful lay hold of them
and are filled with saving grace."33
1164
From the time of the Mosaic law, the People of God have observed fixed feasts,
beginning with Passover, to commemorate the astonishing actions of the Savior
God, to give him thanks for them, to perpetuate their remembrance, and to teach
new generations to conform their conduct to them. In the age of the Church,
between the Passover of Christ already accomplished once for all, and its
consummation in the kingdom of God, the liturgy celebrated on fixed days bears
the imprint of the newness of the mystery of Christ.
1165
When the Church celebrates the mystery of Christ, there is a word that marks
her prayer: "Today!" - a word echoing the prayer her Lord taught her
and the call of the Holy Spirit.34 This "today" of the living
God which man is called to enter is "the hour" of Jesus' Passover,
which reaches across and underlies all history:
Life extends over all beings
and fills them with unlimited light; the Orient of orients pervades the
universe, and he who was "before the daystar" and before the heavenly
bodies, immortal and vast, the great Christ, shines over all beings more
brightly than the sun. Therefore a day of long, eternal light is ushered in for
us who believe in him, a day which is never blotted out: the mystical
Passover.35
The Lord's
day
1166
"By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from
the very day of Christ's Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal
mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord's Day or
Sunday."36 The day of Christ's Resurrection is both the first day
of the week, the memorial of the first day of creation, and the "eighth
day," on which Christ after his "rest" on the great sabbath
inaugurates the "day that the Lord has made," the "day that
knows no evening."37 The Lord's Supper is its center, for there
the whole community of the faithful encounters the risen Lord who invites them
to his banquet:38
The Lord's day, the day of
Resurrection, the day of Christians, is our day. It is called the Lord's day
because on it the Lord rose victorious to the Father. If pagans call it the
"day of the sun," we willingly agree, for today the light of the
world is raised, today is revealed the sun of justice with healing in his
rays.39
1167
Sunday is the pre-eminent day for the liturgical assembly, when the faithful gather
"to listen to the word of God and take part in the Eucharist, thus calling
to mind the Passion, Resurrection, and glory of the Lord Jesus, and giving
thanks to God who 'has begotten them again, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead' unto a living hope":40
When we ponder, O Christ, the
marvels accomplished on this day, the Sunday of your holy resurrection, we say:
"Blessed is Sunday, for on it began creation . . . the world's salvation
... the renewal of the human race .... On Sunday heaven and earth rejoiced and
the whole universe was filled with light. Blessed is Sunday, for on it were
opened the gates of paradise so that Adam and all the exiles might enter it
without fear.41
The
liturgical year
1168
Beginning with the Easter Triduum as its source of light, the new age of the
Resurrection fills the whole liturgical year with its brilliance. Gradually, on
either side of this source, the year is transfigured by the liturgy. It really
is a "year of the Lord's favor."42 The economy of salvation
is at work within the framework of time, but since its fulfillment in the
Passover of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the culmination of
history is anticipated "as a foretaste," and the kingdom of God
enters into our time.
1169
Therefore Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the "Feast of
feasts," the "Solemnity of solemnities," just as the Eucharist
is the "Sacrament of sacraments" (the Great Sacrament). St. Athanasius
calls Easter "the Great Sunday"43 and the Eastern Churches
call Holy Week "the Great Week." the mystery of the Resurrection, in
which Christ crushed death, permeates with its powerful energy our old time,
until all is subjected to him.
1170
At the
Council of Nicaea in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter, the Christian
Passover, should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon (14
Nisan) after the vernal equinox. the reform of the Western calendar, called
"Gregorian" after Pope Gregory XIII (1582), caused a discrepancy of
several days with the Eastern calendar. Today, the Western and Eastern Churches
are seeking an agreement in order once again to celebrate the day of the Lord's
Resurrection on a common date.
1171
In the liturgical year the various aspects of the one Paschal mystery unfold.
This is also the case with the cycle of feasts surrounding the mystery of the
incarnation (Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany). They commemorate the beginning
of our salvation and communicate to us the first fruits of the Paschal mystery.
The
sanctoral in the liturgical year
1172
"In celebrating this annual cycle of the mysteries of Christ, Holy Church
honors the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, with a special love. She is inseparably
linked with the saving work of her Son. In her the Church admires and exalts
the most excellent fruit of redemption and joyfully contemplates, as in a
faultless image, that which she herself desires and hopes wholly to be."44
1173
When the Church keeps the memorials of martyrs and other saints during the
annual cycle, she proclaims the Paschal mystery in those "who have
suffered and have been glorified with Christ. She proposes them to the faithful
as examples who draw all men to the Father through Christ, and through their
merits she begs for God's favors."45
The Liturgy
of the Hours
1174
The mystery of Christ, his Incarnation and Passover, which we celebrate in the
Eucharist especially at the Sunday assembly, permeates and transfigures the
time of each day, through the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours,
"the divine office."46 This celebration, faithful to the
apostolic exhortations to "pray constantly," is "so devised that
the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praise of
God."47 In this "public prayer of the Church,"48
The faithful (clergy, religious, and lay people) exercise the royal priesthood
of the baptized. Celebrated in "the form approved" by the Church, the
Liturgy of the Hours "is truly the voice of the Bride herself addressed to
her Bridegroom. It is the very prayer which Christ himself together with his
Body addresses to the Father.49
1175
The
Liturgy of the Hours is intended to become the prayer of the whole People of
God. In it Christ himself "continues his priestly work through his
Church."50 His members participate according to their own place in
the Church and the circumstances of their lives: priests devoted to the
pastoral ministry, because they are called to remain diligent in prayer and the
service of the word; religious, by the charism of their consecrated lives; all
the faithful as much as possible: "Pastors of souls should see to it that
the principal hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on
Sundays and on the more solemn feasts. the laity, too, are encouraged to recite
the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even
individually."51
1176
The celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours demands not only harmonizing the
voice with the praying heart, but also a deeper "understanding of the
liturgy and of the Bible, especially of the Psalms."52
1177
The hymns and litanies of the Liturgy of the Hours integrate the prayer of the
psalms into the age of the Church, expressing the symbolism of the time of day,
the liturgical season, or the feast being celebrated. Moreover, the reading
from the Word of God at each Hour (with the subsequent responses or troparia)
and readings from the Fathers and spiritual masters at certain Hours, reveal
more deeply the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, assist in understanding
the psalms, and prepare for silent prayer. the lectio divina, where the Word of
God is so read and meditated that it becomes prayer, is thus rooted in the
liturgical celebration.
1178
The Liturgy of the Hours, which is like an extension of the Eucharistic
celebration, does not exclude but rather in a complementary way calls forth the
various devotions of the People of God, especially adoration and worship of the
Blessed Sacrament.
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