The Church’s calendar depends considerably upon the calendar in ordinary use at the present time, which is called the Gregorian Calendar, from Pope Gregory XIII, who brought it to its present form. The arrangement of the year devised by this great Pontiff is so admirable that it may be well to give a brief explanation of it and of lead our readers a little way into the paths of astronomical science.
The sun is the center of our planetary system, and the earth travels around it in what we call a year, turning at the same time on its own axis, each complete turn constituting what we call a day. But the journey of the earth around the sun does not happen to be completed in an exact number of days. If it leaves a certain point in its track or orbit on January first, for instance, it is not at that precise point at the same hour on the following January first. Hence arises the necessity of having “leap-years,” so that our calendar may be brought into close agreement with the real year of the earth traveling around the sun. Otherwise, the difference between the real year and the year of 365 days would gradually cause the seasons to shift — until Christmas Day, for example, would occur in midsummer in our part of the world.
Leap-years were invented by Julius Caesar, who estimated the length of the solar year as 363 days and six hours; and to provide for these extra six hours he inserted an additional day into each fourth year. But his estimate of the year’s length was not precise; the year is really less than the above figures by eleven minutes and fourteen seconds. The result was that there was an error of a full day in about 134 years.
Pope Gregory’s Reform.[2] In 1582 Gregory XIII brought the calendar to its present form by the simple plan of dropping ten days, from October 5 to 14 inclusively, for the error had increased to that extent since Caesar’s time. The Pontiff provided for the future by ordering that the leap-year should not be observed in 1700, 1800 and 1900, but should be retained in the year 2000 and in every century thereafter that is divisible by 400. This ingenious method gives such a close approach to exactness that only after thirty-five centuries will there be an error of one day — and that is too remote to be of much concern to you or me. ,
But this was a Roman decree — and therefore it was bitterly opposed by the Protestant countries of Europe. Nearly all of them, however, adopted it in the year 1700. England, with true British obstinacy, held on to the old style until 1752, when she was eleven days “behind schedule.” Russia still adheres to the Julian calendar, and is now thirteen days behind the rest of the world.
Such is a brief history of the Gregorian calendar. As the years roll on — those secular years which the wisdom of one of the Church’s rulers has brought into close accord with the unvarying
movements of God’s universe — day by day the Church keeps her own calendar. She celebrates the great events in the history of the world’s redemption. She honors the Mother of God and the faithful ones who have served their Master well. She has her seasons of penance and her festivals of joy. And so shall her years be kept while this earth endures — until the day shall come when “ the heavens shall be folded together like a scroll ” and time shall be no more.
The Liturgical Yearunfolds one great message “Christ Coming to Us.” It speaks of God’s coming to us, in Christ, and of our coming to God, in Christ. St. Irenaeus summed it up 1800 years ago: “God became man so that we might become gods.” At Mass, when the water is poured into the wine at the preparation of the gifts, the same is acknowledged: “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”
The liturgical year, beginning with the first Sunday of Advent and ending with the last Sunday after Pentecost, does not everywhere hive equal emphasis to all the truths and mysteries of Christ’s redemption. One by one they are brought forth, commemorated, lived in a manner peculiar to the liturgy of the Church. The mystery that is being celebrated is a fact having the character of an event which is actually taking place, in which the Church really participates. The Church lives over again the mysteries of Christ in the course of the liturgical year, and we as members of the Church communicate in these mysteries; the past becomes the immediate present.
Christmas Season, preceded by Advent, and followed by Time of the Year. During the first two weeks of Advent we look forward to Christ’s final coming in glory; for the rest of Advent we recapitulate in ourselves the same longing to see the Messiah and his peace and justice that still sustains the Jewish people. Christmas Season recalls Christ’s coming to us in mortal flesh as the light of the world, dawning in darkness, and making manifest in the flesh the Word of God through whom all things (including ourselves) were secretly being fashioned from the beginning of creation. Christmas season runs from Christmas day until the Baptism of Jesus, the model of our re-creation.
Easter Season, preceded by Lent, and followed by Time of the Year. Lent is the great penitential season of the withering and death of sin within us; we therefore look toward baptism or toward its renewal in us as our goal. Through union with the “Paschal Mystery” by which we “die” with Christ to sin, and “rise” with him to new life in grace, this process is accomplished. Easter Season highlights the life of the Risen Christ coming into us, in grace, with the promise of final glory. Easter is the Sunday of the year, as Sunday is of the week.
The Time of the Year”after Epiphany” (or “after the Baptism of the Lord”) and “after Pentecost” is a time of unfolding and growth, until Christ our King appear in glory, and we with him, his spotless bride. Though called “Ordinary Time” it evokes the living of an “extraordinary” reality: Christ among Us, Our Hope of Glory.
The liturgical Colors show the relationship of the seasons. The brilliant, radiant white of Christmas and Easter (suggesting illumination from revelation and grace) is flanked by the violet of Advent and Lent (suggesting preparation and penance), and the green of Time of the Year (suggesting growth and maturation).
Popular Devotions have a special strength and staying power in the lives of Christians (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 48). They attain their greatest power and Catholic identity in relation to the official worship of the Church: “Popular devotions of the Christian people are warmly commended. . .These devotions should be so drawn up that they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, and in some fashion are derived from it and lead the people to it” (Constitution on the Liturgy, No. 13).
[1] Sullivan, John F., The Externals of the Catholic Church: A Handbook of Catholic Usage, New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1951, p. 186-187.
[2] The so-called “Gregorian” calendar was the work of the Jesuit, Christopher Clavius, the “most influential teacher of the Renaissance.”