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And
on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done. ….
Genesis 2:3
From
earliest times, people have recognized that not merely places,
things, or persons were sacred. Time itself can be holy. The
annual cycle of seasons, the waxing and waning of the moon, the
movement of sun and stars all inspired awe. As a natural response,
people developed an annual cycle of feasts and fasts, ferias
and festivals, holy seasons, and ordinary time. Every
major religious tradition has a calendar, a series of commemorations
to mark anniversaries of events, to call to remembrance the acts
of God and of people in the past. The Christian Church is no
different. We have a calendar to help us call to mind the important
events of our salvation history: to recreate the events in the
life of Jesus; to commemorate the saints whose writings, actions,
and lives inspire us; to call us to renewal of life, and to celebrate
the mighty saving acts of God. This
is a brief guide to the Calendar as used by the Episcopal Church.
It is not our own invention, but the accumulated tradition of
centuries. Those from other traditions, especially Roman Catholic,
Lutheran, and even Eastern Orthodox, will see similarities to
their own faith tradition. Our Calendar is also a work in progress.
Every generation reflects on sacred time, and adds or rearranges
feasts, fasts, and commemorations as they deem appropriate. For
example, General Convention, in the summer of 2003, added
commemorations for Janani Luwum, the Archbishop of Uganda
who was martyred
under
Idi Amin, and Florence Nightingale.
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Advent
The liturgical year begins in late November/early December, with the
season of Advent. The name comes from the Latin, “adventus,” “coming,” for
these are the four weeks before Christmas when we prepare for
the birth of Jesus. It is both a backward-looking time and a
forward-looking time. We look back to the first Christmas in
Bethlehem. We look forward to our own encounter with Christ,
who promised he would come again. The traditional color is Purple,
for repentance, as this is a time of reflection, marked by some,
but not all, people with additional prayers, abstaining from
luxury items or fasting. Some parishes follow the Sarum Rite
(an old English customary) and use Blue instead of Purple. Christmas
Although we don’t really know the actual date, or even the time
of year, we celebrate December 25 as the birth of Jesus the Christ in
Bethlehem; it is thought this happened some time around 4-8 B.C. It is
the most popular holiday of the year, in both secular and religious America.
The traditional color is White or Gold, the sign of celebration. Christmas
is so important, it does not all happen on one day: the feast lasts twelve
days. During those twelve days, there are special commemorations for
St. Stephen, the first Deacon and first Martyr; St. John the Apostle
and Evangelist (patron of this parish); the Holy Innocents, recalling
Herod’s serial attempt to eliminate the child claimed to be born
the King of Jews; and for the Name of Jesus. Epiphany
On January 6 we celebrate the arrival of the Magi, those mysterious astrologers
from the East, to worship the Christ Child. This is considered
one of the major feasts of the church, for it is a sign that
the Gentiles, i.e. all people, are welcome and may enjoy God’s
salvation. As an example of this inclusiveness, this is one of
the traditional days for public baptism in the Church. This day
is the twelfth day of Christmas.
The
Sundays after Epiphany form an “ordinary time,” when
the Church goes back to Green, the everyday color. During Epiphanytide,
the season of Epiphany, we, at St. John's, select a Sunday to
celebrate our patronal festival of St. John the Evangelist, to
avoid competing
with
the secular and sacred observances of the Christmas holidays.
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Lent
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, in February or early March. The name “ash” refers
to the tradition of marking the foreheads of worshipers with the sign
of the cross with ashes. The ashes are the burnt palms from the prior
year’s Palm Sunday. This is a sign of penitence, and indeed the
entire season of Lent is marked by calls to prayer, to holy reading,
to fasting and abstinence, to reconciling broken relationships, and contrition.
Liturgically, we avoid using celebratory anthems and phrases, such as
the Glory to God in the Highest at the Eucharist (or Holy Communion)
and the word “alleluia.” Lent lasts 40 days. Forty has long
been a significant number: the children of Israel wandered in the desert
for 40 years before arriving in the Promised Land. Jesus fasted in the
wilderness for 40 days after his baptism before he began his active ministry.
Therefore, we strive to live in the wilderness, to fast and pray with
Jesus, for 40 days. (The reason Lent begins on Ash Wednesday? If you
count backwards from Easter 40 days, skipping Sundays, you will end up
on Ash Wednesday. However, all Sundays are Feasts of the Resurrection,
even in Lent.) The traditional color is Purple, although some parishes
have special “Lenten arrays,” that is vestments with emblems
of the crucifixion embroidered on them, and may be constructed from unbleached
linen or other fabric dyed the color of ashes. Holy
Week
The last week of Lent is Holy Week, when the observance of Lent
takes on a great intensity. During this week, we particularly
remember the
events of Jesus’ last days leading up to his death. It begins with
Palm Sunday, when we recreate the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem with
waving palms and singing. The liturgy takes on a somber tone with the
first reading of the Passion, that is, the portion of the Gospel that
tells of the arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus. There are special
gospel readings for the following weekdays, until we reach Maundy Thursday.
On this day we recreate the Last Supper, when Jesus ate a sacramental
meal with his disciples and taught them what has become for us the Eucharist. “Maundy” comes
from the Latin “mandatum,” “commandment,” for
at this meal Jesus told his disciples, “I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.” The next day is Good Friday, when we
remember the crucifixion of Jesus. This is a day of great solemnity;
special commemorative liturgies take place, as we walk with Jesus on
the way to the cross and reflect on his suffering and death. By tradition
no celebration of the Eucharist may occur. However, Communion from the
Reserved Sacrament, extra bread and wine that was consecrated at the
Maundy Thursday liturgy, is customary. In some churches, there is a commemoration
of the burial of Jesus on Holy Saturday. No celebration of the Eucharist
is permitted before the sun goes down.
Easter
Easter Sunday, sometimes called the Queen of Feasts, is the holiest day
of the Christian year, when the resurrection of Jesus is celebrated.
We begin with the Great Vigil on the night before. The Vigil
is a service of lights, of readings, of baptism, and Eucharist,
all with great joy. The penitential colors are put away, and
festal White or Gold reappear. So important is Easter that it
does not last only on Easter Sunday: the feast lasts 50 days,
until Pentecost. (Easter is not a set date because we follow
a tradition to keep it on a Sunday near the Jewish feast of Passover.
Because the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, the holidays
shift in relation to our solar-based calendar). Forty days after
Easter, which is always a Thursday, we celebrate Ascension Day,
when Jesus concluded his Easter appearances to his disciples
and rose into heaven. As St. Augustine of Hippo wrote (ca. 420),
that does not mean that heaven is up in the sky: only that Jesus
needed to indicate that he was returning to the Father and leaving
mortal realms, and “up” was the most suitable direction
to go. But before he left, Jesus told his disciples to stay in
Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit. Pentecost
Pentecost (from the Greek for “50”) is the Jewish festival
of Shavuoth, 50 days after Passover, when Moses received the Law on Sinai.
On this festival the 11 disciples (Judas had died and not yet been replaced)
were gathered together in one place, and the Holy Spirit came upon them
as fire with a noise of wind, as God delivered the Tablets to Moses in
fire and storm. This day is regarded as the “birthday of the Church,” for
after this the disciples went out that very day, and began to make disciples,
eventually sending evangelists to every corner of the world. It is the
conclusion of the Easter Season. We wear Red on this day, to commemorate
the coming of the Holy Spirit as flames of fire. This is another traditional
day for baptisms. Trinity
Occurring in late May or June, on this day we celebrate God’s self-revelation
as One in Three and Three in One. This also begins the another season
of “ordinary time,” or “the Sundays after Trinity,” or “the
propers,” for this is the plain, work-a-day time. We return to
every day Green, and settle down for living lives in and with the Trinity.
The ordinary time lasts through the fall into December, when we begin
again with Advent.
Throughout
the year there are other days of commemoration: we remember the
first Book of Common Prayer, the first American Bishop, and many
saints, some ancient and obscure, some modern and even photographed.
Space does not permit detail, even a fraction. But one day needs
to be mentioned: On November 1, we keep the feast of All Saints.
Many Christians deserve to be remembered as saints, and to have
a festival day. But they may be unknown to us. They may have
lived lives of quiet retirement, unnoticed by the larger community.
They might not have looked particularly holy at the time, or
pursued a prophetic ministry unwelcome to their society, or lacked
a “press campaign” to get into the calendar. To honor
those whose names are lost to us, we keep a day to celebrate
all the Saints, and particularly the ordinary, obscure, everyday
people. This is also the fourth traditional day of public baptisms
in the church.
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