General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar

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General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the
Calendar

• 14 February 1969

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1. Christ's saving work is celebrated in sacred
memory by the Church on fixed days throughout the
year. Each week on the day called the Lord's Day
the Church commemorates the Lord's resurrection.
Once a year at Easter the Church honors this
resurrection and passion with the utmost
solemnity. In fact through the yearly cycle the
Church unfolds the entire mystery of Christ and
keeps the anniversaries of the saints. During
the different seasons of the liturgical year, the
Church, in accord with traditional discipline,
carries out the formation of the faithful by
means of devotional practices, both interior and
exterior, instruction, and works of penance and
mercy.
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106. 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 eighth day with good
reason this, then, bears the name of the Lord's
day or Sunday.
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107. The liturgical year is to be revised so that
the traditional customs and discipline of the
sacred seasons shall be preserved or restored to
suit the conditions of modern times their
specific character is to be retained, so that
they duly nourish the piety of the faithful who
celebrate the mysteries of Christian redemption,
and above all the paschal mystery.
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108. The minds of the faithful must be directed
primarily toward the feasts of the Lord whereby
the mysteries of salvation are celebrated in the
course of the year. Therefore, the proper of the
time shall be given the preference which is its
due over the feasts of the saints, so that the
entire cycle of the mysteries of salvation may be
suitably recalled.
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How Many Calendars Are There?

• Academic
• Fiscal Year
• Tax Periods
• Sports Schedules
• Birthdays
• Anniversaries
• Etc..

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Liturgical Year

• 102 Within the cycle of a year, moreover, she
  unfolds the whole mystery of Christ, from the
  incarnation and birth until the ascension, the
  day of Pentecost, and the expectation of blessed
  hope and of the coming of the Lord.

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Developments

• St. Pius X and John XXIII laid the groundwork for
  the restoration of Sunday as the primary feast.
• The first holy day of all
• Unitive Festivals
• Early Christians celebrated their martyrs

• Preparatory Seasons
• Lent
• Advent
• Historicization of the Paschal Mystery
• Holy Week
• Christmas Epiphany and other manifestation days
• Allegorize
• Saints

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Reformation

• 16th century reformers did not have a firm
  opinion of the liturgical year
• Before Vatican II
• Hierarchy of days
• Pope Pius X (1903-14)

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Reformation

• Pope Pius XII (1947)
• The liturgical yearis not a cold and lifeless
  re-presentation of the events of the past, or a
  simple and bare record of a former age. It is
  rather Christ Himself who is ever living in His
  ChurchThese mysteries are ever present and
  active not in a vague and uncertain way.

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Vatican II 1963

• Calendar Reform
• Sunday as primary
• PM unveiled on Sunday and the Seasons
• Proper of Saints could not remain dominant over
  Proper of the Seasons
• Five years in formulating the 1969 Roman Calendar

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Sunday- The Lords Day

• GNLYC
• 3 Midnight to midnight
• 4 PM celebrated on first day of the week
• 5 Sundays gives way to Solemnities and Feasts of
  the Lord
• However, Sundays in Advent and Lent take
  precedence over Solemnities and Feasts of the
  Lord
• Solemnities occurring in Advent and Lent are
  moved to the Saturday preceding.

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Sunday- The Lords Day

• 6 Sunday excludes any other celebration
  permanently assigned to that day -- with this
  exceptions
• Sunday in the Octave of Christmas - Holy Family
• Sunday after 6 January - Baptism
• Sunday after Pentecost - Holy Trinity
• Last Sunday of the year - Christ King

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Sunday- The Lords Day

• 7
• Epiphany
• Ascension
• Corpus Christi
• If not observed as Holy Days of Obligation are
  moved to Sunday
• Epiphany to 2 Jan - 8 Jan
• Ascension to 7th Sunday in Easter
• Corpus Christi to Sunday after Holy Trinity

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Proper of the Season 1

• Triduum
• Holy Thursday
• Good Friday
• Easter Vigil
• Easter
• Lent
• Christmas
• Advent
• Ordinary Time
• Ordinal

• Advent
• Season of preparation for remembrance
• Season of awaiting the 2nd Coming

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Proper of the Season 2

• Christmas
• Evening Prayer I
• Sunday after Epiphany
• Primary Feast of Christmas
• Octave of Christmas
• Epiphany

• Lent, in preparation for Easter
• Lent is marked by two themes
• Baptismal
• Penitential

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Proper of the Season 3

• Triduum
• Holy Thursday
• Good Friday
• Easter Vigil
• Sunday liturgies
• Evening Prayer II on Sunday evening

• Mass of the Lords Supper
• Institution of the Eucharist
• Madatum
• Lords Passion
• Death on the Cross
• Vigil
• Story of Salvation
• Initiation
• Eucharist

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Proper of the Season 4Great Sunday (Easter)

• Fifty Days of Easter
• Feasting
• Alleluia
• Mystagogy of the Neophytes
• Ascension
• Pentecost

• Trinity Sunday
• Corpus Christi

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Ordinary Time(Counting - Ordinal)

• Thirty-three or thirty-four remaining
• Ember Days
• Rogation Days

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Proper of the Saints

• Fixed celebrations of the Lord, Mary, of the
  Saints, of church dedications.
• 1969 calendar ranks
• Solemnities
• Feasts
• Obligatory
• Memorials
• Optional memorials