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Catechetics Office

THE LITURGICAL YEAR AND CATECHESIS

The liturgical year is an integral part of our Canadian Catechetical Resources, especially Years K - 6. Throughout the year suggestions are made to help the catechist in what we call liturgical catechesis. In Years 7 - 10, there is a section on the liturgical year, and the seasons of Advent-Christmas, Lent-Easter in an Appendix at the back of the Manual.


The liturgical year is the Church's way of celebrating and commemorating the great events of our salvation. Throughout the liturgical year, the Church "makes present the saving deeds of Jesus Christ � in such a way that each Christian can enter into the mystery that is being celebrated." (Believe in Me, revised Yr. 7 resource, p. 393)


The liturgical year is rooted in Christianity's principal feast - Easter. In the third century the birth of Jesus Christ came to be celebrated as an individual feast - Christmas. Over the centuries there emerged distinct liturgical seasons consisting of a period of preparation, the celebration of the feast day, and a time of continuing celebration. The time between these seasons is called Ordinary Time.


Each liturgical season has its colour. The catechist is encouraged to use, in the prayer centre, a cloth of the same colour as is being used for the liturgical season we are celebrating. The individual programs of our catechetical series give concrete suggestions in this regard.

  • The liturgical colour of Advent is purple, sometimes a more bluish hue than for Lent. The season of Advent begins four Sundays before the feast of Christmas.
  • The liturgical colour of the Christmas season is white. The Christmas season extends until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
  • The liturgical colour of Lent is purple.
  • The liturgical colour of the Easter season is white. The Easter Season extends for 50 days from the Easter Vigil until the feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit.
  • The liturgical colour of Pentecost is red.
  • The liturgical colour for Trinity Sunday, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ and other major feasts is also white.
  • The liturgical colour for Ordinary Time is green. Ordinary time is that time between the Christmas Season and Lent; and between the Easter Season and Advent.