Spiritual Reflection & Discussion Guide

Our daily lives are marked by rhythmic changes, such as the progressions of the seasons, the flow of the months, and the cycle of celebrations and remembrances that have special significance in our lives and the lives of our families. In the same way, our life as Catholic Christians has its own unique rhythm, the liturgical year, a flow that reflects the circular rhythm of our spiritual life as we move from season to season, celebrating the year’s beginnings, endings and anniversaries along the way. The seasons of the liturgical year begin with Advent, a time of preparation for the Christmas season that celebrates the birth of Jesus and continues until the Baptism of Our Lord. The Christmas season is followed by a period of Ordinary Time, which continues until Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent, a time of penitence leading to The Easter Triduum. The Easter season continues for fifty more days. Pentecost Sunday (fifty days after Easter) marks the start of the second period of Ordinary Time, which continues until the Advent season begins again. The figure at the right shows the cycle of the seasons (beginning at Advent and moving clockwise). As a visual accompaniment, each season has its own liturgical color (see the wheel above), seen most noticeably in the colors of the vestments the priest wears at Mass: The colors of vestments also change for commemorations and feasts. For instance, on feasts of martyrs (like St. Stephen, the first martyr, remembered on December 26), the priest wears red vestments, as a reminder of the blood that they shed for Christ.