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Helping
bridge the gap
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
The feast of Christ the King (Nov. 25 this year) marks the last week of
Ordinary Time in the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church. Pope
Pius XI instituted this observance in 1925 to counteract the growing
secularism and atheism of his time. The celebration of Jesus Christ as
King affirms the sovereignty and rule of Christ over persons, families,
human society, the state, the whole universe. As it says in the
Scriptures, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end of all
things” (Rev. 1:8). This is the reality the Catholic world celebrates on
the feast of Christ the King.
In this part of the world, of course, we follow the Gregorian calendar,
a calendar that takes its name from Pope Gregory XIII, who died in 1585.
He ordered a realignment of the Julian calendar that dated back to 46
B.C. and was 10 days out of step by the late 15th century. In response
to growing agricultural and navigational turmoil, the Church set out to
correct the error. After several false starts, a team of scholars set
about the task of correcting the inaccurate system of reckoning. The
problem having been solved, Pope Gregory XIII decreed that Oct. 5, 1582,
would be Oct. 15, 1582. Ten days disappeared from the calendar. So much
for our squabbles about Daylight Savings Time. At any rate, the
Gregorian calendar is considered accurate to within one day in 20,000
years.
As Catholics, of course, we follow the calculation of months and days
found in the Gregorian calendar. Like most other people in these parts,
our lives revolve around key events such as Super Bowl weekend. It is
followed by Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Halloween,
Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas, of course, has become “the
holidays,” a loosely defined block of time that seems to expand with
each passing year. There are other important dates, of course:
Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day, birthdays, etc. Cards
are readily available for almost every occasion and just about every
week has a special designation.
At the same time, there is a different kind of calendar for those of us
who are Catholic: the liturgical calendar that focuses more on seasons
than on individual days: Advent (four weeks), the Christmas season (Dec.
25 through Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord), Lent, the 50-day
Easter season, and Ordinary Time.
“Ordinary Time” requires some explanation. The colloquial use of
“ordinary” denotes “typical” or “humdrum.” As a Catholic term, however,
it is derived from the Latin word ordinal, and means “numbered.”
Ordinary Time, then, is a series of numbered weeks that do not fall into
the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent or Easter. Ordinary Time begins
the day after the Baptism of the Lord (Jan. 13 this year) with a pause
at Ash Wednesday, when the Church enters into Lent. Ordinary Time is
picked up again after Pentecost and lasts until the first Sunday of
Advent.
It’s a relatively new liturgical season, since before the Second Vatican
Council there was no such thing as Ordinary Time. Reforming our
liturgical year, the Fathers of the Vatican Council created Ordinary
Time as a way to give cohesion to the time not spent preparing for or
celebrating the central mysteries of the faith, that is, Easter and
Christmas.
The weekdays of the liturgical year routinely honor the saints,
especially the Blessed Mother. There are 15 days dedicated to her in the
Church calendar. The apostles, plus a variety of saints from ancient as
well as modern times, such as Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), Teresa
Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) and Maximilian Kolbe, are singled
out for special attention. Then, too, there are also special occasion
celebrations.
The purpose of the liturgical year is to celebrate the mysteries of the
Lord’s birth, life, death and resurrection in such a way that the entire
year becomes a year of grace. The cycle of the liturgical year
with its various feasts constitutes the basic rhythm of the Church’s
life of prayer.
Apart from priests and religious, few Catholics are able to experience
the fullness of the liturgical year. Some try, but it is a huge
challenge, one that requires more than participation in Mass on Sundays
and holy days. For those who are able to participate in daily Mass, and
who connect that experience with daily life, the beauty of the Church
calendar shines forth, allowing a prayerful union with the Triune God
and the work of salvation so easily lost in the hectic demands of our
secularized culture. Structured prayer is another ingredient.
In an effort to help bridge the gap between what ideally could be and
what is, the Committee on the Liturgy of the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops recently issued a revised version of a book of
Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers.
This new book contains prayers and blessings for personal and family
use. Some of the blessings and prayers reach back over the ages, while
others are newly written to address the needs of Catholics in the third
millennium. They come from the treasury of the Church, past and present,
“like the head of the household who brings from his storeroom both the
new and the old” (Mt. 13:52).
The family being the “do-mestic Church,” it is in the family that we
first learn the language of prayer and the virtues of Christian living.
This being the case, Catholic households are urged to avail themselves
of this book “as an aid to fulfill the Lord’s command to pray always
(see Lk. 18:1) and to offer their lives to the Lord as a sacrifice of
praise,” as the introduction to the book instructs.
The hope is that in time the words of the Scriptures and the prayers and
blessings contained in the book of Catholic Household Blessings and
Prayers will become written on hearts, hearts attuned to the
liturgical year with its various seasons and celebrations.
The introduction to Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers
notes that God has willed “every moment, every breath, and every thought
be turned into a prayer.”
It offers “essential prayers” such as the traditional Act of Contrition,
the Apostles Creed, and the Angel of God. There are daily prayers such
as the prayers at mealtime, and at bedtime. There are prayers for Advent
and Lent, as well as prayers for various feasts of the Church. There are
prayers and blessings for family members, prayers for use during times
of sickness and infirmity, prayers for health and grieving. Litanies are
included in the book, as well as Scripture citations for various times
of need.
Mindful that when we live a life of prayer and blessing, we will be
drawn to participate more fully in the Church’s year of grace, the
liturgical year, you may want to consider securing a copy of Catholic
Household Blessings and Prayers.
It is not inexpensive: 528 pages at $34.95. It should be available from
Catholic bookstores and religious goods houses or you may call USCCB
Publishing at 800-235-8722. Be sure to clarify if there are shipping
expenses and how much. It could be a nice Christmas present to yourself
and others. |
