Our journey of preparation for the 2025 Jubilee reaches a new milestone with the thirteenth volume in the Quaderni del Concilio series, entitled “The liturgical seasons”.
We often hear about the liturgical year and the liturgical seasons. But are we sure we know what they are? Maurizio Barba helps us clarify.
What is the liturgical year?
It is the year of the Church and the celebration of Jesus’ life spread over the course of an entire year.
The liturgical year consists of 52 weeks, like the calendar year. However, it does not begin on January 1, nor does it end on December 31.
It has a distinctive structure because it is “liturgical,” that is, based on the liturgy, which is the prayer of the Church. Throughout the year, in fact, Jesus Christ, his message, and his life are presented through liturgical celebrations.
The meaning of the liturgical year
In the various celebrations of the liturgical year, the Church celebrates the one and same paschal mystery of Christ «from the Incarnation and Nativity to the Ascension, the day of Pentecost, and the expectation of the blessed hope and the return of the Lord» (SC 102).
The liturgical year finds its origin and culmination in the paschal mystery of Christ, that is, in the event of his passion, death, and resurrection. The Second Vatican Council states that in the celebrations of the liturgical year we come into contact with the mysteries of Jesus’ life and with the grace of salvation.
In this regard, Maurizio Barba writes: «The liturgical year is not a cinematic sequence of past events, but the sharing of Jesus’ story through communion with the Risen One as time unfolds. Each year, as a new liturgical cycle returns, the community of believers is called to live the passing of time in the light of the mystery of Christ».
The liturgical seasons
We can say that the liturgical year is the journey Christians take to know and welcome Jesus into their lives. It is structured into different periods:
Lent: the time when the entire Church gathers in prayer, guided by the word of God, to reach Christ in his mystery of Passion, death, and Resurrection, through a steadfast commitment to conversion.
Easter Triduum: it presents the threefold content of the Paschal mystery as a single unity: the Passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus.
Easter Season: the period in which the Church urges us to trust and entrust ourselves to the Risen Christ, so that, as individuals and as a Christian community, we may experience his living and active presence, which whispers his Easter greeting to each person’s heart: «Peace be with you!».
Advent: a time of preparation for the solemnity of the Lord’s birth, but also a time through which the spirit is guided to await Christ’s second coming at the end of time.
Christmas: through the rites and prayers of the liturgy, the Christian community recalls and makes present the full and definitive “manifestation” of God in his Son, Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
Over the course of a year, the liturgy, as a privileged place of encounter with God, makes us participants in the entire mystery of Christ, sacramentally retracing, not merely recalling, every stage of his earthly life, thus making us already, in some way, participants in his divine life.
Each year, as a new liturgical cycle begins, we are called to live the story of salvation, tirelessly committing ourselves to the path of conversion and following Christ.
