Divine Word College of Calapan

CENTER FOR SPIRITUALITY AND MISSION

Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, 5200, Philippines

Church Doctrine (Rel. Ed. 2)

A. The Liturgical Year (Preliminary Reflections About the Liturgical Year)

Objectives: 1. To know why the Church has a Liturgical Year and why it is important.

2. To Introduce all of the liturgical seasons with a calendar of the liturgical year

3. To celebrate and understand more fully the entire annual cycle of seasons and days
observed by Christian Church.

Introduction

There is something very mysterious about time. On one hand, man is part of time: we experience
our going from life to death, our growing from young to old, we can and we do adapt to various times and
circumstances - man is truly immersed in time, on the other hand, man experiences also that he cannot
escape time: he can do so many things like making the earth subject to him and even conquering the moon
but he has no power over time; whether rich or poor, whether influential or not, we cannot stop the time nor
escape it. No wonder then that many philosophers throughout the centuries reflected on the time dimension
in which man and the universe are caught Already the great Greek philosopher Heraclides in the fourth
century B.C. observed that everything moves, everything flows" (pantarhei). After him many more offered
insights into the human being as bound and limited by time like St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas.
Heidegger, etc.

Also, in all the religions the time dimension of man plays an important role:

Where does man come from?

Where does he go?

What will happen to him after this time here on earth is over?

These are questions that arise and are answered on the background of the faith commitment. The
great religions strongly affirm that God alone is outside time and above time. In the Bible there are beautiful
texts concerning these reflections. One of them is found in Psalm 90: "Before the mountains were or the
earth or the world brought forth, you are God, without beginning or end... to your eyes a thousand years are
like yesterday, come and gone, no more than a watch in the night... our life is over like a sigh. Our span is
seventy years or eighty for those who are strong. And most of these are emptiness and pain. They pass
swiftly and we are gone."

Compelled by the experience of fleeting time men created some fixed points to locate events which
were important for him. In the so-called primitive cultures" these were often natural events like time of
sowing, time of harvest, time of hunting, time of flood. In other cultures, stars, sun and moon became a
great help in fixing certain feasts and rituals at sunrise, at sunset, the day after full moon, the day of the
new moon, etc.

The Greeks counted the time according to the Olympic games, the Romans from the foundation of
the city of Rome in the year 753 B.C., the Jews from creation of the world. And so, each culture had its own
way of fixing, locating or remembering important events and to save them from being swallowed up by the
running time.

In more recent times men invented artificial time meters in the form of all kinds of watches. The
sundial showed the time of the day by the shadow of a pointer on a plate, the hour glass measured the time
by the running of sand or water from the upper compartment to the lower one, in more modern times the
hours and minutes are counted by mechanically rotating wheels which move the two hands on the twelve
hours indicator and in most recent times we have watches that indicate time in an electric or electronic way.

Very early days or months were dedicated to the divinity, especially to the astral gods. Such
practices manifest that time was considered to be something mysterious which is not in the power of man,
and because of this it is put into the hands of the gods and entrusted to them Since the sense for the
sacredness of time and its mysteriousness has vanished to a great extent, it is useful to present a brief
overall view of the most important names which we are still using today

a. The days of the week: (dedicated to Gods)

1. Sun-day- was dedicated to the Sun (dies Solis) And since the truc and never setting sun for the
Christians was the Lord Jesus Christ this day received from the fourth century on the name "dies Dominica"
the day dedicated to the Risen Lord Jesus Christ. Today this still can be seen in the words: Domingo
(Spanish). Domenica (Italian). Dimanche (French).

2. Monday - Monday was dedicated to the Moon (dies Lunae), this is still visible in Lunes
(Spanish), Lunedi (Italian), Lundi (French)

3. Tuesday (dies Martis) was dedicated to the divinity of the war, Mars. This is still visible in Martes
(Spanish), Martedi (Italian), Mardi (French) The Germanic tribes substituted Mars with their own divinity of
war Tiu, from which the English word Tuesday has its origin and also the German word Dienstag

4. Wednesday (dies Mercurii) was dedicated to Mercury, the god of commerce eloquence and
travel who also served as messenger to other gods. This is still seen in Miercoles (Spanish), Mercoledi
(Italian) and Mercredi (French). The Germanic tribes substituted for Mercury their own divinity of Wotan and
because of this it is in English Wotan's day or Wednesday. The German name' Mittwoch" (middle of the
week) became widespread only in the tenth century,

5. Thursday (dies lovis) was dedicated to Jupiter which is still seen in Jueves (Spanish), Giovedi
(Italian) and Jeudi (French) The Germanic tribes substituted for Jupiter their own divinity of Donar or Thor
and thus the English name Thursday and the German name Donnerstag

6. Friday was the dies Veneris, the day dedicated to Venus which is still manifest in the names
Viernes (Spanish), Venerdi (Italian) and Vendredi.(French). The Germanic tribes substituted for Venus the
goddess of fertility, Freja or Freja, the wife of the god Wotan, and from this comes the English name Friday
and the German name Freitag

7. Saturday was the day dedicated to Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and father of Jupiter.
This is still visible in the English name Satur-day. Very early the Hebrew name Sabbath was also used to
designate this day and thus Sabado (Spanish), Sabato (Italian), Samedi (French).

Since the Christians did not believe in these divinities but recognized only the one God who manifested
himself in Jesus Christ, they did away with these pagan names and counted the days of the week in a
progressive way:

Sunday remained the day of the never setting sun Jesus Christ, or it was also called the Lord's day or the
first day of the week.

Monday was the feria secunda, the second day of the week,

Tuesday was the feria tertia, the third day of the week,

Wednesday was the feria quarta, the fourth day of the week,

Thursday was the feria quinta, the fifth day of the week,

Friday was the feria sexta, the sixth day of the week, Saturday kept the latinized Hebrew name
Sabbatum

In the official Latin Church documents this way of counting the days of the week is kept until now.

b. The Months:

January, mensis Januarius, is dedicated to the Roman god Janus, the divinity of doors, gates and all
beginnings. He is represented with two opposite faces: one looking forward and the other looking backward
which is sometimes considered as 2 symbol for the New Years' day because on this occasion we are
looking back to the past year and we look forward to the year ahead of us.

February, mensis Februarius, received its name from February (or Februar). the feast and sacrifice of
purification at the end of the year Since March was the beginning of the year in Roman antiquity, in
February sacrifices were offered to atone for the wrongs of the past year and to enter the new year with a
pure heart.

March, mensis Martius, was dedicated to the Roman god of war. Mars. The new moon of this month was
considered to be the beginning of the New Year in old Roman times (cf. below the names of the months
September, October, November, December).

April, mensis Aprilis, has its name probably from the many flowers and blossoms which are characteristic
for this month (aperire = to open, to blossom, to flourish).
May, mensis Majus, was the month dedicated to the god of fertility and growth Majus In Greek mythology it
was Maia, the goddess of Spring and the mother of the messenger-god Hermes. Because of this, the
month of May became the month of Mary, the mother of our Messenger-GodJesus Christ

June, mensis Junius, was the month dedicated to Juno She was the wife of Jupiter, the chief Roman god,
and because of this she was consid ered to be the queen of heaven and the goddess of light, birth, women
and marriage

July was called originally mensis Quintilis, ie the fifth month after the beginning of the year in March
Afterwards it received the name of "mensis julius" in honor of Julius Caesar who was born on the twelfth
day of this month in the year 100 B.C.

A similar thing happened to the month of August which was originally called mensis sextilis, ie the sixth
month after the beginning of the year in March. Afterwards it was renamed "mensis Augustus" because the
emperor Gaius Octavianus Augustus, a relative of Julius Caesar and adopted heir, died on the nineteenth
of this month in the year 14 A.D

September, mensis Septembris (septem = seven), the seventh month after the beginning of the year in
March

October, mensis Octobris (octo = eight), the eighth month after the beginning of the year in March

November, mensis Novembris, (novem = nine), the ninth month after the beginning of the year in March

December, mensis Decembris (decem = ten), the tenth month after the beginning of the year in March

This brief and superficial over-all view shows how much the human being of former centuries had
awe and sacred respect for time. He experienced himself as being a part of time, immersed in it and
shaped by it; but at the same time also subject to it. It was not in his hands and in his power, and therefore
he dedicated days and months to the divinities to invoke their blessing and protection. No wonder that also
the first Christians who were part of such a culture followed in the footsteps of this tradition and celebrated
and created their own sacred year.

Activity 1:

1. What is the importance of time in human events?

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2. What are the factors that will help us greatly in fixing certain feasts and rituals?
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3. How did the early people/culture recognize the value of time?
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Course References:

 Wostyn, Lode. DISCIPLESHIP IN COMMUNITY: A WORKBOOK FOR THEOLOGY 3. Quezon

City: Claretian Publications, 2003.
 Raas, Bernhard, SVD. LITURGY, MINISTRIES AND THE BIBLE. Manila: Logos Publications,Inc.,
2010.
 CBCP-ECCE. CATECHISM FOR FILIPINO CATHOLICS. Manila: Word and Life Publications,1997.
 Chupungco, Fr. Anscar, OSB. The Filipino Catholics and their Life of Worship And Prayer.
 DOCETE, Nos. 107 & 108, Issue Nos. 112, 113 & 114. Intramuros, Manila: ECCE National
Catechetical Office, Jan to Sept. 2003.
 Balon, Jess P. Liturgical Year, DOCETE, Nos. 107 & 108. MANILA: ECCE-National
Catechetical Office, 2015.

 Salud, Audrey Vincentine. Christ and the Church (Module 2), Letran Calamba Religious Education
Program. Katha Publishing Company, Inc., 2013.
 Knox, Ian. Theology for Teachers, Claretian Publications, 2011.